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Our last day was spent in Trim which is only 20 mins from Navan where we were staying. Of course there is way too many places to conquer in a day. We asked our hostess and she suggested we do Hill of Tara and Trim Castle since our time was limited. Hill of Tara  The Hill of Tara is a huge expanse of greenery that looks toward the town. It gives incredible views. Since it had been raining I think that detoured a lot of people from going. There was hardly any people there to mess up the view. 
Trim Castle  We arrived an hour before closing. If you wanted to go inside the castle it had to be with a tour guide. The next tour would be at 6pm or you could pay just to walk around the grounds. We were starving and could not wait an hour to do perhaps a lengthy tour. So we decided to pay the $4 euros to tour the grounds. We had been in enough castle that we were not completely disappointed. It provided a great photo shot location :-)
Chinese food sounded great and I think there was only one in the town. You have got to try Wau Asian Cuisine Restaurant if you are in this town. The food was so flavorful and they had outstanding customer service.  That is it! It is over! There is never enough time when you are traveling. The days we were there certainly were not enough. We did miss some highlights. But, the charm and the beauty of Ireland surely makes me want to go back. Until next time... 
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We had to check out by noon and used that time to sleep in and get ready. Lidia still wanted breakfast. She asked the people in the bar at the hotel and they suggested Cafe Bliss. It is not a far walk and the food was pretty tasty. This is your typical Irish breakfast.
We then hopped in a cab because it was raining to go to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The line was pretty long. An employee came out asking if anyone purchased their tickets online. They would be able to go in immediately. We hurried up and booked the tickets right then, and skipped that long line. I highly recommended you do the same. Boy was that church beautiful.  
 We spent a good hour in the church. This is just a small glimpse into the church. You have to go check out the splendor on your own. We finally got our fill and it was time to hit up the Guinness Storehouse.  The Storehouse was one of my favorite things about our trip. There is so much to do and see. There are like ten floors of different activites. It takes you through the history and making of the beer. You can also have lunch at a cafe, or at the bars and then dinner at the restaurant. There are live bands and at night it seems to turn into a club. You can literally spend all day there. We wish we would have got there earlier.
At the very to is a 360 view bar. Everyone is blocking the windows trying to take in the view. You just gotta push your way through to get these views.
The time just went way too fast. We had booked a ghostbus tour for 7:45pm, so sadly we had to be going. We wanted to do something different and a ghostbus tour sounded fun. Do not was your money! The tour was with The Gravediggers and cost $25 euros.
The actor on the bus was actually hilarious. What we did not like was you did not get to go into any of the three places they took you. You just stood outside while they told a story. Nothing was scary or really related to ghosts. The grand majority of the time you were sitting on the bus going nowhere. Not worth it at all. Save your pennies.
 Have you ever been to the Cliffs of Moher? It was ridiculously windy. I have never felt wind so strong. It felt like a big bully pushing us around. Literally we were being pushed down the stairs. It was pretty fun though.
We stayed for about two hours. We wanted to get to Dublin before the parade was over. It was about a 2h 30 min drive. We were told by the host at our B&B that the parade starts at 12 pm. Well...we definitely were gonna miss the start. We could not tear ourselves away from those cliffs. We still had a shot of seeing the end of the parade. We arrive in Dublin with plenty of time to try and see the parade. There seems to always be a but...Parking was absolutely ridiculous! It took us an hour to find a parking spot on the street near our hotel. Side note: We decided to get a hotel to spend by birthday in Dublin. Our B&B was an hour away from Dublin because everything was booked up for St. Patrick’s Day. We stayed at The Portobello Hotel. We got the last room that happened to be a suite. Very Nice! I wish we actually could have stayed longer. It was at a great location. So on our last loop we saw people coming back from the parade. Tear… Fast forward to my birthday dinner. The girls wanted a real nice restaurant for my birthday. They picked Fire Restaurant and Lounge. Excellent choice ladies. This place had a great atmosphere, and the food was sooo flavorful. The cheesecake they gave for my birthday was to die for. I am salivating right now thinking about it. Take me back!
  There are bars/clubs right across the street. We just hopped in and out of all of them until 2am. Great times were had! My first birthday abroad was a hit! Loved it!
 Time to kiss the Blarney Stone. Legend has it that if you kiss the rock you will be given the gift of gab. Which is eloquence and flattery. I mean...I don’t want to brag….but, I embody that already lol The grounds of the castle are beautiful. I could not get enough of the greenery.  
 Now...standing in line to kiss this stone that all these people in front of you are doing the same thing…Yea! Pretty disgusting. The things you will do. It’s an experience. I didn’t die, and I can live to tell the tale. Also when I kissed the stone it was not wet. I cannot say that for the others. Lol I did not buy the picture because it was way to expansive and you cannot really see much.
 The castle was under construction so I could not get great photos. I thought you might want to see the castle anyway. I will continue with photos of the grounds because it was so beautiful.
 The grounds of the Blarney Castle was so extensive. We did not get through all of property. There is never enough time in the day. It is hard to see everything and only pick a few pictures to share. 
We did stop for lunch right across the street at The Lemon Tree. Practically everything was sold out. The waitress suggested a cajun chicken sandwich (cajun seems to be very popular in Ireland) that came with fries. I must say it was very tasty and only $7.95 euros. If you are trying to stay in budget this is a fantastic suggestion and you will not be disappointed.
Alight we are off. Heading to Clare to make the Cliffs of Moher in the morning. I was driving again... These narrow roads!!! Betsy was so kind to drive today while I recovered. We were not sure where exactly we were supposed to stop on this journey. We may or may not have done it completely right. We just typed Ring of Kerry into Google and went. The first stop we saw was the Torc Waterfall. It was raining and cold. This was definitely worth the stop. I wish it wasn’t raining so we didn’t have to blaze through it so fast. 
It is such a winding road that takes you through Killarney National Park. Ever so often something beautiful pops up. 
 When we stopped to look at this view (below) we ended up meeting this couple from Portland, Oregon. This is the second time we have met people from there. People from Portland sure are friendly. Anywho...they gave us the best advice. The told us to go to the Cliffs of Moher as soon as it opens. The tour buses generally start showing up at 11am. A little foreshadowing...be there when the gates open!   We loved this quiet scenic trip. For the most part we had all these locations to ourselves. If you have time to make it to this side of the country it is a must. It only took us a couple of hours to do. Now for the hour and a half road trip to Cork.
Have you ever driven in another country? Have you ever driven on the left side of the road on back country roads? These roads are the smallest roads I have ever seen! I am an impeccable driver. I drive a small two door car. So I usually race up and down streets. Oh no! Not here! I have never had so much anxiety as I have had driving the streets of Ireland. My stomach kept tying knots. The streets were so narrow and they decided to give me a boat of a car. WHY????!!!! To me there is no other way to see Ireland. You need to drive because all the major highlights are really far apart. My suggestion is to get the smallest car they have. I have banned myself from ever driving abroad again. My heart cannot take it. I had to finally pull over and let Lidia drive the rest of the way or I would have had a heart attack. After the longest car ride of my life we arrived at our next bed and breakfast location. Our host was very helpful. She suggestions things we should do in town and where to eat for the night. We wanted some stew so she suggested we go to The Danny Mann. Which lucky for us there was going to be live music as well. We were a short ten mintues walk to the restuarant, but we got to see some great stuff along the way. 
I am not sure how long they keep the green lights on after St. Patrick’s Day, but I would have to say this is the best time of year to see these buildings. It gives them so much more flare and mystery at night. Loved it! When I envision a Irish restaurant The Danny Mann surely fits the bill. The servers were very charming, tables are close (like we are all friends), and traditional Irish music. The food was very tasty, but my favorite part was when the singer started singing Disney songs. This guy's voice was amazing! He surely should be on broadway somewhere. You know the way to my heart with Disney songs. He would ask the audience to shout out their favorite songs, and this went on for about 30 mins. One of the best highlights of the trip. Don’t miss Celtic whisper on Wednesday nights.
We were having so much fun that we didn’t want to leave. We had decided to get up extra early so we can fit the Ring of Kerry, Blarney Castle in Cork, and finally drive to our next bed and breakfast.
With all the partying we did before we kind of got a late start for day two. It was pushing eleven when we finally got out the door. First things first. Food! We roamed around until we finally settled on The Fig Tree.
So glad we did because this lunch was so tasty. I highly recommend the cajun chicken wrap and a cappuccino. They made the cappuccino with chocolate and it was definitely the best one I had on the trip. There is so much charm to this town. You can wonder around for hours.
  Kilkenny Castle It seemed a bit odd to have a castle right in the middle of downtown. But, in Ireland there are castle just about everywhere. Kilkenny Castle was the most decked out castle. The castle is fully renovated. 
We also got lucky. There was a band playing right as we came into the castle.  Time is so fleeting. After listening to the band and touring the castle it was already 4pm. The original plan was to go to Cork after the castle. At this time there was no way we could make it then drive two and half hours to our next city. I did not want to be driving back country roads in the dark. So we proceeded to make our way to our next home for the night.
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AuthorTraveling makes my heart happy. My mission is to use words and pictures to inspire you to get out there and take in the beauty of our world. Archives
December 2019
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