Ireland...the greenest land on earth

Over a month ago Nick and I hopped over the pond to the greenest land on earth...Ireland!  What prompted this trip, you ask?  Well we both love to travel and have no children besides a lab who loves anyone so he's easy to take care of, plus the flight was inexpensive!! By inexpensive, I mean by internationally traveling standards...about $500/ticket is not bad!

We thought well let's go to Ireland and let's do it over St. Patrick's Day...that would be really awesome.  So. We did.  For 5 days and 4 nights.

I love to travel...I love to see the way other people live, love to eat their food learn new traditions and much to my mom's dismay, I'm not a history buff but I love to learn about the story of things.  Ireland has so much culture and history which made it amazing.  It's SO OLD....first christian churches with monks, castles that date back to the 1400s...really old and really cool.

off to Ireland!

Passport stamped in Ireland!

We started off in Dublin...great city.  Since we live in a city sometimes I feel like a city is a city is a city...but I still get a thrill by exploring a new one and trying it's restaurants and nightlife. Dublin is such a clean and beautiful city...with no high rises it actually reminded me of Washington DC.  We visited the famous park, St. Stephen's Green and it was sooo clean and gorgeous!  We then explored, got lunch at a traditional Irish pub, had our first Guinness pints of the trip, saw the famous Grafton St and headed to the Guinness Storehouse (brewery).

St. Stephen's Green

helloooo dublin!

loving the sunny scenery

irish themed flowerbed

Nick's first pint at Bruxelles Pub in Dublin

my first pint!

Grafton St....famous for all it's shopping!

first Irish lunch...Bruxelles Pub

St. Patrick's Cathedral

St. Patrick's Cathedral again...

St. James Gate - the Guinness Storehouse

The Guinness tour was very modern.  More of a museum or shrine to the brand than an actual brewery, in face you never see any brewing. They do explain the ingredients and brewing process, but have more focus on the brand, media and memorabilia.  The building is shaped like a pint glass and as you wind your way up each floor, you get closer and closer to the bar!  (the best part!) We stopped at the 6th floor bar for our first pint and then went up to the 7th and top floor to see the famous Gravity Bar.  It has the best views of Dublin since it's one of the tallest building in the city with floor to ceiling 360 degree windows. pretty sweet!

Free Pints with the brewery in the background

nice shot of the black stuff.

view of Dublin from the Gravity Bar

Gravity Bar

The rest our time in Dublin was spent celebrating St. Patrick's Day in the pubs and at the parade.  The holiday is definitely a big deal over there, but only in the past 10 years. We learned that a lot of Irish come to NYC for St. Pats...so I think the cities with the biggest celebrations are NY, Boston, Dublin, and Savannah.  Nick and I have done 3 out of the 4, we must love St. Patricks Day....makes me wonder if we just love to drink or might a drinking problem...haha. The city has a big parade and everyone has the day off so they are definitely out having some pints!  Couple things I learned about the Irish:  they are incredibly friendly, warm and open.  they have been drinking since childhood and are very good at it.  they spend a lot of time in the pub...seeing their neighbors, watching football or rugby, celebrating a holiday, birthday, or just being done with the work day...pubs are a way of life.  Every town has one...even towns in the countryside that only have houses, a church, and sheep...they will always also have a pub.  Nick and I commented many times on how US irish pubs do a very good job of being authentic.



Gogartys Pub, the most touristy bar in Dublin

the famous Temple Bar...the temple bar area is full of young people and tourists pub hopping

St. Patrick's Day eve.

waiting for the parade!

parade crowd.

one of the many parade floats....the parade had a children's storybook theme which Nick and I did not understand, but appreciated the amazing creativity and costumes.  those are REAL faces in the side of this one.

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my new irish friend!

our irish friends on st. pat's day!

After Dublin we rented a car and headed to the west coastline and the countryside...beautiful!  That will be my next blog, this week, promise!