I have been looking forward to Thanksgiving week since before I came to Spain. Why? You may ask. Well, because my best friend came to visit : ) We started planning this adventure last summer before I had even bought my plane ticket to Spain. At first I think we mentioned it as a joke but it took Parker about 5 minutes to actually decide to ask for a trip to Europe for Christmas. Bless her family for saying yes!
We set the plans in stone in September when Parker purchased her plane tickets. Because she was going to be here for a week, we decided we should go see another country while she was here as well. Unsurprisingly, we picked Ireland. Parker and I just had to go see our imaginary lover from our favorite book series which is set in Dublin. I’ll spare you the details, just know that we geeked out big time on this trip! Haha!
So, Parker flew straight to Dublin and I caught a flight out of Madrid. We met up on the 19th at around 1pm after I walked around terminal 1 for 20 minutes and then finally realized she was in terminal 2. That’s when the adventure began : )
We quickly realized that Irish people are some of the nicest people. They’ll talk to you just as easily and nicely as an Oklahoman! That may have been my favorite thing about Ireland. Don’t get me wrong, Spaniards are nice, but they’re not Oklahoma nice. Irish people come as close as it gets I think. On our bus ride into the city, we got to meet an adorably sweet old Irish man. He talked to us the entire 45 minute ride. In the first 2 minutes of speaking to us he announced that he was gay, 70 something, and liked to wear an earring to annoy all of his stuffy counterparts. I loved this man instantly and took it as a good indicator of how the trip would go. I’m happy to say I was right!
The first thing we did after checking into the hostel was check local movie times. At that point, it had been 3 months since I’d watched a movie in an actual movie theater. If you know me very well, you know that is an absolute blowout record of how long I’ve gone without going to the movies. I practically live at the Warren when I’m in the city and the Malco is the backdrop for about half of my favorite high school memories. Needless to say, I’ll never wait that long again. I felt like I’d been separated from a long lost family member or something. So, of course, Parker and I went to watch Breaking Dawn. Don’t judge me! I couldn’t wait until I was home in December while everyone was posting about it on Facebook during the mean time. And because we were already americanizing our first night in Ireland, we decided to have Burger King for dinner. Again, don’t judge. I had fast food only one other time in the three months I’d been gone. I’ll go ahead and admit that I also had Starbucks in Dublin, but I won’t apologize for that!
After our “big” first night out, Parker was tired from her flight so we went back to the hostel and planned our itinerary for the next day. We booked a trip to the south coast of Ireland to go see the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. We woke up at 6am to go catch a bus at 715 to Galway and then met up with our tour guide group. It was a beautiful day and all of the Irish kept going on and on about how it was uncharacteristically warm. I take the credit because the exact same thing happened when I went to England for Bo’s wedding. Apparently I can’t help but warm a place up! I haven’t posted the photos yet but I will soon. The countryside of Ireland is stunning and luckily we got to take a walking tour up the Burren. The “Burren” in Gaelic means “the rocky place” which were actually rocky hills that provided an amazing view of the countryside. The photos I took don’t begin to capture the greenness of the country.
After the Burren, we went to the Cliffs of Moher. They were breathtaking! I felt like I was at the end of world, and staring off into the Atlantic was incredibly humbling. Not being able to begin to fathom the distance from Ireland to the States definitely makes you feel small. Along the way to and from the Cliffs, we got to see so many cute fishing and farming villages. I would love to go back and explore them all one day. We also saw a few Irish castles and English forts. Everything, old and new, in Ireland has an incredible charm to it. If you ever go to Dublin, I fully recommend taking a day trip to one of the coasts. You’ve never experienced anything like it.
After the Cliffs, our tour bus stopped to eat at a place called Fitzpatrick’s. That’s when we realized that there were 2 American guys on our bus. Well, they realized we were American when they overheard Parker and I ranting about football (as usual). They were studying abroad in London together and we got to hangout with them for a while that day. One of them was from Dallas originally. I apologized for his bad luck ; ) Even in Ireland, I felt his pain! Haha
On our third day in Ireland, we spent the day walking around Dublin. Surprisingly, Dublin is actually rather small. We could have easily walked from one end to the other in under an hour. We started the day off by going to see Trinity College. I’m sorry to all of my Sooners, and while I still love our campus, it pales in comparison to Trinity. OU’s campus will remain my favorite but I’m afraid Trinity may have stolen my heart. Seeing a campus like that did nothing to help my graduation jitters. I began to think up excuses to go study abroad there. I found a few, but none that would hold up too well against my parents.
After Trinity, we walked to the Guinness Factory. That building is by far, one of the coolest things ever designed. It’s shaped like a Guinness glass on the inside! While we were there, we learned how they make Guinness, took some amazing photos, and had a half a pint in the panoramic view on the top floor of the building. Shamefully, I’ve never been one for beer so I took a few sips but I just couldn’t hack it!
After, we walked to the Jameson Distillery and bought some gifts for some lucky ducks back in the states. The Jameson Distillery was pretty impressive as well but we decided against a tour because we wanted to make sure we had time to explore Temple Bar district. We had a superb dinner at an Italian restaurant and looked in some fun boutiques. Sadly, we didn’t get to have a night out in Temple Bar because we had a bus to catch back to the airport.
We spent our last night in Ireland at the airport in Dublin because we had an early flight to Madrid. Nonetheless, I had a good time just laughing and being absurd with my best friend. Without a doubt, all of the tired travelers sleeping next to us on the couches at Starbucks hated us, but I know we were entertained. Parker and I usually are. Overall, Ireland was fantastic and I cannot wait to go back. I’ve definitely added it the list of places I plan to know, not just experience.
Kaitlin
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