An Irish Blessing

The final frontier. No, not space...Ireland. 

:)

Our first stop, Giant's Causeway!

Basalt deposits in crazy awesome hexagonal shapes... Another UNESCO world heritage site on the list!

From Wikipedia:

"According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant. The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill was challenged to a fight by the giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two giants could meet. In one version of the story... Fionn hides from Benandonner when he realises that his foe is much bigger than he. Fionn's wife, Oonagh, disguises Fionn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the 'baby', he reckons that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants. He flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn could not follow. Across the sea, there are identical basalt columns... on a Scottish isle, and it is possible that the story was influenced by this."

From the Causeway, we went back to Dublin, where we tried (and failed) to find a place to stay. Hello Dublin Airport at 2 am... Sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do!

Then it was on to Galway!

And the Cliffs of Moher!

Aka the Cliffs of Insanity!

Also the cave from Harry Potter 6!

Harmon eating a delicious snack, the Kinder Egg. Illegal in the US... 

After Galway it was a train and bus to get to Dingle, the small town on the Dingle Peninsula.

We spent our nights at the luxurious Hideout Hostel!

This was the perfect way to end our time in Ireland! This quaint little place was homey, clean, and comfortable. 

The little town of Dingle gave Harmon and I wonderful memories... One of which was the live pub music every night!

But our top Irish memory was biking around the Dingle Peninsula! 25 kilometers with the sea on the left and sheep, stone walls, and farmland to the right. 

Beehive huts... 2000 BC habitations. 

After a nice ride we rewarded ourselves with Carmelized Brown Bread and Butterscotch ice cream!!

They also had sea salt flavored ice cream! Surprisingly delicious!

Then began the artery clogged portion of the night!

Chili cheese fries

Deep fried mars bars

Deep fried Brie 

Away from our beloved Dingle and on to Blarney!

Irishmen

Blarney Castle

Poison Garden at Blarney Castle

Mandrakes

Wolfsbane

Of course a stop at Blarney Castle wouldn't be complete without kissing the Blarney Stone!

"Kiss like you've never kissed before!"

Harmon kissing for good fortune...

From Blarney it was back to Dublin, where we would spend our final Irish night.

We stayed once more at the Dublin Airport, in a place we were growing quite fond of...

We were awakened a wee but early, thanks to a fire alarm and subsequent evacuation... But before we knew it we were on the plane to the US of A!

This trip was truly incredible; an experience that cannot be described in these blog posts. But thank you for enjoying these portions of our journey with us!

And now for a good ol' Irish blessing:

May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back, May the sun shine warm upon your face, May the rains fall soft upon your fields, And, until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Finally European soil!!

After a short stop in Dallas, we finally arrived in Dublin!! With missing our connecting flight, we had to do some last minute plan changes in order to accommodate the much more limited time. We had originally planned to stay in Slane, Ireland (look for a post about Slane and Newgrange in August) but decided instead to move our one overnight stay to Rush Ireland. Rush is a cute, homey coastal town that just makes you feel welcome. After talking with a local bed and breakfast owner (who was extremely kind and actually very reasonably priced) we decided to pitch our...tent!!!!

That's right! Our brand new Eureka Amari 3 backpacking tent. This tent is awesome, with plenty of room for two people but still light enough to be a sensible backpacking choice, we could not pass it up. After pitching our tent we set off for the local grocery store to obtain a few supplies! First and foremost we needed some good foreign snacks... Brooke found these Digestives for only €.59.

We also grabbed some oranges and yogurt for breakfast. Being new to the town of Rush we needed some expert advice on where to eat. Seeing as we were already in the grocery store, and there was a desk that said customer service, we decided... Hey we are customers, and we need service. So we asked for a few best local eateries and soon had our very own grocery store concierge. From her offerings we chose Harbour Bar, a good old fashioned Irish Pub (according to our source this was the  best place for fish and chips. Inside the pub there were two doors, one labeled lounge and the other bar. Seeing as we avoid these places normally. We had to make a guess at which would provide food. We chose bar only to come  sneaking out 30 seconds later and into the lounge area. Harmon ordered Fish and Brooke, a delicious butternut squash soup that left us licking the bowl. The fish was excellent as well, the best we had ever had nice and moist with malt vinegar to add some extra kick.

After dinner we walked along the beach and retired to bed. With the jet lag it was a rough firsts night sleep, but we were up bright and early taking down camp to head off for Malahide Ireland.

Malahide is a nice small town that caters more to tourists than Rush. Many small, trendy restaurants line the street, and the best part is... THEY HAVE A REAL CASTLE!!!

 Just a short train ride from Rush we strolling along well manicured Castle Grounds and watching young lads play Cricket. After only the one day in Ireland it has lefty with a longing for more and there will be more Irish posts to follow come August. After a quick stop in Rush we headed to the airport via double decker bus to fly to Greece!

Nine minutes.

I know what I imagined this first post to look like...beautiful pictures of the unmistakably green Irish countryside in the small town of Slane on an idyllic farm, with Harmon and I happily riding bikes to the 5000 year old burial site of Newgrange. 

6/11/14, 8:40 pm: The AA flight from Salt Lake City to Dallas Fortworth had just pulled into its terminal, arriving over 40 minutes late.  

8:46 pm: The AA flight from Dallas Fortworth to London left the terminal 9 minutes early with 6 missing passengers. At this moment 2 passengers from SLC were anxiously checking their watches as they rode the shuttle to gate D36. 

8:55 pm: Passengers arrive at the gate D36 to find it empty. No personnel, no passengers, and worst of all, no plane.

And so here we are, sitting once again in Terminal D, waiting for our flight to London. We may be one day behind I getting to Dublin, but we are still as ready as we ever were. More so now! 

We got a free night stay at the Marriot...

We ate at the infamous Whataburger...

And we received $72 dollars in food vouchers to be used at the hotel restaurant or airport! Harmon is set on spending at least $48 at either the candy store or Ben and Jerry's. I am thinking that $24 of sour gummy worms sounds pretty good!! 

So watch out Dublin! You can't escape Brooke and Harmon Newhouse!!