Ireland

Ireland was amazing! Felt right at home with all the red heads!

• These "look right or look left" painted signs saved my life at least three times. Very weird riding on the opposite side of the road as back home.

• Everyone smokes cigarettes here. There's tons of people on the streets just standing together and smoking lol
• On my way to the hostel from the airport I took the bus and it took me three stops past my hostel to figure out I had to hit a button to ask the bus to stop.
• The tall skinny building above is the tallest in Dublin. One pigeon can sit on top and the Irish think the building is pointless (says the tour guide).
• The bridge above was built to look like a harp which is the national symbol for Ireland. It's the only country in the world with an instrument as it's national symbol.

• The red door on the house in the picture above has a candle in it. This is how they used to light the streets here.
• There were pigeons everywhere downtown.
• The houses in Dublin are split up into 'postal codes' and Dublin 4 is the most desirable to live in.

• Everyone has the coolest accents! Kind of hard to understand them sometimes though and they say 'what' a lot when I talk to anyone lol
• Turns out Irish is a language (aka Gaelic). Only 3% of Ireland speaks Irish as their native language though, most speak English now.

Christ Cathedral Church

Old Jameson Distillery 

• The distillery only uses barley within 100 miles of it.
• While traveling alone rocks... I met a girl here that helped me take some pictures. She said she completely understands the struggle of traveling alone. Anytime you want to take a selfie you have to set all your crap down, get out the ol selfie stick, drop some stuff and get in people's way, take the picture, pick up all your stuff, drop some more stuff, then get out of people's way 😂 She also hated whiskey so we were the only two on the tour making horrible faces while trying the whiskey 😂

• The whiskey takes on the woods character in barrels as it ages. It's clear at the beginning and golden brown at end.

Guinness Storehouse

• Saw tons of bachelor and bachelorrette parties in Dublin. I would be walking to my tour around 6am and people are still out partying, very impressive!

The Brazen Head Pub

The oldest pub in Ireland! Established in the 1100's.

The Temple Bar

I tried Bulmer's cider that's made in Ireland and it was delicious!

Apparently you order from kiosks at the McDonald's in Ireland lol.

• Horse racing is huge in Ireland. There are two types of races including the ones with jumps for the older horses, then sprinting for the younger ones. If a horse wins a few races they'll be taken out and sold for breeding because they're worth more that way than to continue racing.

Beautiful houses in County Clare along the coast

​Obama Plaza

• Barack Obama's 7th grand dad is from the little town we stopped in on the way to the cliffs. 
• Obama and his family came here to visit, so cool!

Cliffs of Moher

• The cliffs were one of my top three favorite excursions from my trips so far! Tied with snowmobiling in Alaska and the glacier lagoon in Iceland! It was beyond windy! Almost blew me over a couple times!

Limestone Fields

The limestone fields create a microclimate and flowers from all over the world can grow here.

• All the fences in County Clare are made of stone from the limestone fields... some are hundreds of years old built during the famine of 1845.
• The famine was known as the potato famine because this is what people lived on back then and the potatoes caught a disease. After the third year of the famine, people either split families up to work for the government in 'work houses' with men and boys in one, women and children in the other or they immigrated. Most went to the US in 'coffin ships' that were shaped like coffins and a lot of people died on the way because they were already so weak and starved and in unsanitary conditions. Whoever made it to America had to pass a physical test.  If you were sick or diseased you had go back so families had to decide to either split the family and leave the strong in the US or all go back to Ireland... very sad times. Before the famine there were 8.5 million people in Ireland and now there are 6.5 million. The country still hasn't fully recovered.

Galway

• Galway is a very old city and the city center is pedestrianized.
• The 14 families that founded Galway each have their flag flying in the center of the city.
• The claddagh ring comes from Galway which was originally given as a wedding ring, then as an engagement ring and now given as a friendship ring. It stands for love, loyalty and friendship. These rings are sold in almost every store here. If the point of the heart is facing inwards it means you've found the love of your life, outward means you're open to finding love. 
• 'Sloncha' (how it sounds, not how it's actually spelled lol) means 'good health' and people say it before a drink instead of cheers here.
• 'Hooker' here means a part of a sail, there's a beer here called 'Galway hooker beer' 😂
• Dogs just run around without a leash in the city! 

"Best vege burger in Dublin" after a long day and a double rainbow!

The Dark Hedges

Larrybane in Northern Ireland

• The speed limit signs in northern Ireland are in miles per hour instead of kilometers per hour and the currency is sterling instead of euros in southern Ireland.

• Carrick-a-rede bridge was closed because of high winds BUT I found a beautiful beach and a little cave!
• Part of the new Star Wars was filmed here too!

Vegetable curry for lunch

Giant's Causeway

Dunluce castle

• The lady at the castle that was in charge of the food was a 'hot head' so the food was never late. One day it was extremely late so she sent someone to check on the kitchen staff and they were gone... and the whole kitchen was gone! It had fallen into the Atlantic ocean! The castle was evacuated in 24 hours after that and has never been lived in since!

• This little guy on the bottom hitched a ride from County Clare back to Dublin with us lol He was the only bug I saw while I was in Ireland actually!

Belfast

• Side note: Soccer in Ireland is played like soccer in America but the ball is heavier. It's a huge sport in Ireland but the players don't get paid! They just play for the 'glory' because if they're good they'll be a legend! They play the game then go to work the next day!

Titanic's Dock & Pump-House

Last night in Dublin...

• I met a travel buddy on the tour today...another solo female traveler from the US! We grabbed a beer the last night we were both in Dublin and connected on Facebook. I was so nervous asking her to be my Facebook friend, I think making friends is harder than dating! lol
• The employees at the Dublin airport were so sweet! There was a flight to Charlotte that was about to take off and they were missing two passengers and literally had six people running around and calling, waking up people to try to find them. They held the flight about 10 minutes until they found them. They might do this at all airports but it's the first time I've seen it. I thought it was super sweet... the people on the plane might feel differently though lol
• Also saw the picture above in the hostel on my last night and loved it!