J and K's Excellent Adventure: Ireland, Day 2

Saturday morning, we had a lovely traditional Irish breakfast---sausage, bacon (ham), eggs, and a tomato. Well, I had a tomato. ...or as the proprietor of our hotel said, "toe-mah-toe". We found that his Irish accent was rather difficult to understand. But between the two of us, we could usually figure out the gist of what he was saying.

After breakfast we headed out for our Day 2 adventure. Our ultimate destination was the Cliffs of Moher, and it was suggested to us that we stop and see the Bunratty Castle along the way. We did, and it was really pretty. It cost a ridiculous amount of money to go see it though, so we opted to just walk along the outside instead. Then we continued west to the cliffs. There was a really beautiful/charming town on the drive there, but we can't remember the name of the town---Lahinch? Who am I kidding? There were beautiful towns EVERYWHERE. Also, we saw some awesome Golf Courses. Something that I love about Ireland (and the UK as well) is that they just incorporate the natural landscape as part of their developments. So this particular Golf Course was built on tons of hills, and it was awesome. Finally we got to the Cliffs of Moher, and they are just majestic. It was a beautiful and clear day, so it was nice to be able to see all around.

After the going to the cliffs, we headed up north to Galway, Ireland. We drove through "The Burren", which was beautiful. ....lots of natural rocks. We got to Galway that afternoon, and walked along the main shopping area. Then we went to the Galway Cathedral. After that, we walked around the University for awhile. It was a lovely campus. Then we headed back east to Dublin.

Sadly, returning our rental car took longer than expected, and so we missed our Dublin by night bus tour.....by two minutes. So since we missed our tour, we found our hostel, and then went and explored Dublin by night. There was a girl in our hostel (Esther), who was super nice and let us borrow her map, so we had somewhat of an idea of where we were going.

First we wandered around Trinity College, which is awesome. Then I really wanted to see the Dublin Castle, so we set off to find that. Eventually we did, but it was a let down. A. We couldn't really see it, since the gates were closed., and B. It was not as grand as other Castles we'd seen. ...or so we thought. It didn't look spectacular in the dark, it just looked like a regular building. However, if you do an internet search for the Dublin Castle, it actually looks cool. We just didn't get to see it in the daylight. Oh well. We found a really cool old Church though, so that was nice.

Also, Dublin is one happening city. It comes alive at night, and is really cool. I really like Dublin a lot. We wanted to find an Irish Pub to sing some karaoke in, but we weren't successful in our efforts. That's okay though. We just eventually went back to our hostel around 11 PM, got ready for bed, and chatted with Esther for a bit. She is from British Columbia, Canada, and is going to be a nanny in Dublin for a year. Awesome.

Here are some pictures from Day 2:

The Bunratty Castle.

A beautiful view as we were driving.

A view of the hilly Golf Course.

The Cliffs of Moher!

Most of our drive was under intense tree covering--it was beautiful. This picture doesn't do it justice.

Another gorgeous view as we were driving.

A Castle we saw along our drive---we don't know the name of it.

Day 2 selfie. 

Us at Galway University. 

Kate modeling in a cool piece of art at the University.

Me.

A view of Galway.