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Ireland 2022
  • Nadine T

Ireland 2022

10 years of marital bliss…or something like that. Leia mais
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  • Inicio da viagem
    27 de agosto de 2022
    Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    Ireland

    27 de agosto de 2022, Canadá ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    Like all travel stories in 2022 this trip was supposed to happen in 2020. However, now we get to celebrate our 10 year anniversary on an awesome trip. Which keeps with my milestone events = trips.

    Why Ireland? Why not! It is the only direct European city that WestJet flies to that we have not been to. AND we had an awesome pass for the 2nd person being practically free, so best bang for our buck! We all know I like a good deal. So here we are… IRELAND!

    The red eye was just like I like them, uneventful and I was able to sleep. We had the bulk head seats which means you get a lot of leg room, which is always great for my 28 inch legs. Need to to stretch them so they do not get cramped 🙄    Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    The Internet Lies

    28 de agosto de 2022, Irlanda ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    Customs and luggage pick up was uneventful and we made it to the hotel by 1pm. After a quick cat nap we went to explore. Thought we could just show up and get into the Trinity Library…nope. It is kinda a big deal so sadly we did not get it. We did walk around, found the Dublin castle, and some other cute areas.

    The plan was to stay awake until dinner time. Find a roast beef dinner and then head back to the hotel for an early bed time. How does one find a pub with a Sunday roast beef dinner, well the internet of course! I found an article from July 2022 that listed 11 and one just happened to be 150m from us. It was meant to be!

    But it was not, the bar tender was confused by my question. I was lost devastated, jet lagged and hangry. It was not a good scene on the streets of Dublin. Luckily we did find a little bistro with delightful chowder. Service sucked and they forgot half of our appies BUT it was a solid chowder so all good. Fed Nadine is a much happier person.    Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    Galway Girl

    29 de agosto de 2022, Irlanda ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Galway always came up when I asked people what I should do in Ireland. It is a coastal city in the west side of the island. I love coastal cities with their promise of ferry boats, mussels and clam chowder so I was sold.

    We got our jet lagged asses out of bed and boarded a train. 1 nap later we arrived! Galway has a common area downtown with shops and pubs called the Latin Quarter. Which seems strange but according to Google (still trust it) Galway has always had a close relationship with both Spain and Portugal, so much so that at one point the ruling class in Dublin once said that "Galway is more Spanish than Irish" due to the large number of Spanish residence. It is for this reason that the Spanish Arch got its name. The Spanish ships and galleons often would dock alongside the Arch.

    We wandered the shops, purchased sweaters from the best sheep in Ireland and found mussels and Guinness. Day 2 was pretty tame.    Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    Eating after 8pm

    29 de agosto de 2022, Irlanda ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    I am convinced not really. Not all pubs serve food and those that do cut off food service at 8pm. Which is great for normal Nadine. But travel Nadine has mussels in the afternoon and then needs a late dinner.

    After a quick lay town we strolled back into the Latin corner at 7:30pm. Places were either lined up or closed (some places are closed Sunday-Wednesday…WTF). The pubs we managed to get a seat at came and informed us that the kitchen was closed. Like you are serving beer into the wee hours of the morning your kitchen should be open later. Sadly there was no one to complain to.

    It was looking like it would be a McDonalds supper until Ty suggested the hotel. Good call Tyler! OMG the chowder! Chowder #2 was soooo much better than the one in Dublin. The cream was divine and the potatoes…mmm they were cooked to perfection and were baby ones…so good. So good.    Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    Ferry Boat Day

    30 de agosto de 2022, Irlanda ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    There were 2 things I wanted to do while in Galway. See the Aran Islands and see the cliffs of Moher. (Ty is just happy to be along for the ride).

    The Aran Islands are 3 rocky isles guarding the mouth of Galway Bay, in western Ireland. They’re known for their ancient sites.

    The Cliffs of Moher are sea cliffs at the southwestern edge of Ireland. They run for about 14 kilometres (9 miles). At their southern end, they rise 120 metres (390 ft) above the Atlantic.

    Turns out there is a tour for that. I just needed to be okay with seeing the small island. We also had to be okay with being on a bus and touring for 10 hours. A 10 hour bus tour with 52 other people sucks but this tour was worth it.

    We dragged our jet lagged asses up early to meet our 52 new friends at 8:45am and zoomed along the coastline on Wild Atlantic Way road. Okay more stopping and starting and slowing down and speedy up on the windy narrow roads then zooming. But Patrick got us to the ferry with lots of time to spare.

    After a 15 minute ride we ended up at Inisheer (Inis Oírr). Since we only had 2 hours to tour the island we needed to choose one of three options, take a horse and buggy, take a tractor and wagon or bike. I thought of biking until Pat said it was hilly, so we turned to a horse and buggy.

    Rosie was a fine steed that pulled 8 of us so we could see the sights around her island. Which contained a shipwreck and a castle. After viewing the sites we shared fish and chips by the ocean in the hot sun.

    The weather here is fantastic. I brought jeans and a sweater to wear as I assumed it would be cold be the water. Nope. Thank you global warming and for giving Ireland a hot summer.    Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    Cliffs of Insanity

    30 de agosto de 2022, Irlanda ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    I am not a huge Princess Bride fan but Tyler is. The Cliffs of Insanity are a part of the movie and are the Cliffs of Moher. This was the second part of the tour. Another selling feature of the 10 hour tour was that it allowed you to see the cliffs from the ferry boat before taking you to view them from the top.

    We left Inisheer (Inis Oírr) and headed for the cliffs. Now we had sucky seats in the ferry boat as we got in line too late. (And by too late we were 10 minutes early than we were supposed to be in the line up🤦🏻‍♀️). But we still got to go up top and see the magnificent view. Just wow.

    Then we travelled to the top of the cliffs and also wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Patrick also told us that there are about 15 days out of the year when the view from the cliffs and today was one of them. This is unusual for me as I have the worst luck and usually get fog and rain when I try to see cool sites.    Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    The Food Scene

    31 de agosto de 2022, Irlanda ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    We have been loving food tours for a few years now. It is a great way to learn about a city/area of a city and try places we probably would have never found. I have always thought of Irish food as cottage pie, potatoes and stew, Galway Food Tours has changed all that.

    Sheena, our amazing tour guide and former chef explained it all to us. Ireland has amazing dairy, meat and produce. Everything is locally sourced and taste like it was just picked. Problem was that until 25 years ago no one really knew how to cook in a way that was not traditional Irish. Then Culinary Irish Folk start traveling to France, Italy and Switzerland learning the tricks of the cheese and meat trades and voila the food scene started. She is on a mission to showcase local Galway and Irish food!

    We started at a local coffee shop which is a relatively new concept in a land of tea drinkers we found out. Hipster coffee places are just picking up and from the sample we had, they are good. 2nd stop was a local business that makes pastries and chocolates. For a non chocolate lover they were good but the real highlight was the raspberry croissants made with damn good butter and the raspberry filling was made with raspberries that the owners grow in their back yard. So, so good.

    Stop #3 was at 11:15 and was a whiskey sampling of 3 different types with cheese and meat. We had what could be explained as lamb prosciutto which was amazeballs. Like so good I now have a package in my purse. And yes even Ty drank whiskey and before noon. Vacation Ty is spicy. lol.

    Stop #4 was maybe the best bang for our buck. We stopped at a famous pub known for the original owner starting what we know now as the SPCA, where we were served a platter of mussels, smoked salmon pate, an oyster, brown bread and a beer. Side bar on brown bread, I am usually not a fan. Brown bread in Canada is nasty. Multigrain is good but brown I can not stand. Irish brown is really yummy. Except that I go in thinking it is pumpernickel and want to make the cringe face but am pleasantly surprised at the end.

    We then stopped at a small local restaurant that is known for only cooking with ingredients that can be found in Ireland. We had a small shot of tomatoes so our bodies remembered what vegetables were. Then we were off for ice cream where they had local flavours such as Irish soda break, and Dingle gin and sea salt. I went for the basic strawberry.

    All and all a pretty good brunch.    Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    Snug

    31 de agosto de 2022, Irlanda ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Snug means something different to everyone. To me it means snug as a bug in a rug or I have visions of the Snuggie. Oh we all remember the Snuggie.

    Anyways in Ireland a snug is a walled off section in a bar with an entrance with a table and a seat. Usually they are in a row. Very Covid friendly BUT that is not what they are for. They were built for ladies to go to the pub and drink and smoke away from viewing judgy society (aka males). Some pubs still have these and they are a hot commodity since pubs can become packed and standing room only.Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    Whiskey in a jar

    31 de agosto de 2022, Irlanda ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    You can not come to Ireland without doing an Irish whiskey tour. Now the first one that comes to mind is Jameson. I do not care much for Jameson. I was interested in this place in Galway called Micil that a friend went to and said they the best Irish cream she has ever had. I love me some baileys so I was in.

    This Irish cream makes Baileys taste like crap. Seriously. It is sooooo good. What makes it unique? Well the Mical family recipe uses Poitín. Which is a traditional Irish distilled beverage also known as Irish moonshine and taste like whiskey. It was illegal until 20 years but this family has been doing it for 6 generations, so they were bad asses. It is pretty tasty and is fantastic in the Irish cream.

    They also make a Galway whiskey which is whiskey aged in sherry or red wine casts so it has a pink colour. It is aged in these casts as back in the day those were the only casts that could be reused for whiskey so Galway whiskey was always pink in colour. Sadly they were out of this one so I am going home without :( But have the cream form so it is all good.    Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    Back to Dublin

    1 de setembro de 2022, Irlanda ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    We boarded the train back to Dublin for the last 4 nights of the trip. Again a pretty uneventful trip back to the big city.

    The best part of the end of this trip is the hotel. Thankfully to points (thank you Deloitte) we got a pretty decent deal at the Shelbourne Hotel. I was hoping to use my upgrade options to get a suite like London 2019. Sadly there were no upgrade options available. Still the room is nice and I get a robe, slippers and turn down service. Which is where someone turns down my sheets and sets my slippers out on their own rug. It is ridiculous but awesome. The hotel is deep in history with poets, writers and artists inhabiting it’s bars in the late 1800 and early 1900. My wanting to stay at the hotel is also the reason we ended up being in Dublin a week before our anniversary. I could not get a room Sept 8-14. And I was confused as to what the hell was going. Well I found out…Garth Brooks is in town at this time. He probably has the hotel booked for his people combined with the people coming to see him. Fucking Garth. But we saw the sun for most of the trip…okay fine I will not hate Garth.

    We dropped off our things and headed to Stephen’s Green park for a picnic lunch which was all the goods we picked up in Galway. This park is like a mini Central Park. With green spaces and a pond. It was another sunny day so we enjoyed the sun. Then we went on the hunt for a tweed jacked and wool cardigan.

    That evening we enjoyed chowder #3 and some fish and chips at a pub recommended by our taxi. At this point we are sharing everything as we eat a lot it seems like. Haha. And we also wanted a pub off the beaten track from the Temple Bar area as it is crazy there.

    We enjoyed a night cap at the 1824 pub that was made to look like an old library.    Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    Another Day Another Food Tour

    2 de setembro de 2022, Irlanda ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Food tours are life. We started Friday off with the Secret Dublin Food Tour. This tour gave us more history of Dublin. We started off with potatoes cakes from a new restaurant that was like why don’t we fry mash potatoes it pancakes. They were pretty fantastic which they served with a shot of Guinness. Then we had a smoked salmon sandwich and traditional Irish cake. After we were informed we were off to lunch which was a Guinness and chowder or stew at some old pub. After lunch it was off for a whiskey and then ice cream. It was a good 3.5 hours of walking and eating.

    After the tour we were off again to find a wool cardigan and a tweed jacket, since we failed the previous day. On this day we were much more successful. I am pretty sure at this point we are declaring a whole sheep at customs.    Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    Sabres, Champagne and Riverdance

    2 de setembro de 2022, Irlanda ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Riverdance was a favourite of mine in the later 90s. Monika and I attempted to Irish dance in the kitchen to the Riverdance and Lord of the Dance soundtracks on the regular. When I found out that they had the 25th anniversary show while we would be in Dublin I purchased tickets right away.

    The hotel was a 5 min walk to the theatre and I was craving salad (shocking I know) so we ate at the hotel. It was crazy in there for 5:45pm. 30 minutes we found out why. At 6:24 the bar manager sabres a bottle of champagne to celebrate the year that the hotel opened (1824) and to celebrate the weekend. So everyone comes to watch that, plus to drink after work, there were some people from a wedding and there was a camera crew filming a documentary about the hotel. It was interesting chaos.

    Riverdance was awesome like it was many moons ago. Watching it in Dublin made it more interesting as there was a lot of hooting, whooping and cheering. So very entertaining.

    Keeping with our tradition (okay we did it once) of having a night cap at another hotel bar, the Horseshoe bar. The Horseshoe Bar has always been a destination, an institution and a living history of Irish society. From business and politics to the arts, it has been home to some of Ireland's most fascinating characters since 1957. So much history here. We had our cocktail and then left when a loud American came and started talking to anyone who would listen to him.    Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    Prison

    3 de setembro de 2022, Irlanda ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    We woke up Saturday to rain. Lots and lots of rain. Which we figured was not bad as we were all most there a week and had little rain. Today was site seeing day so we got on our rain gear and boarded a bus for the west end. We got to our destination and found a coffee shop. Unfortunately it did not have seating so we walked into what we thought was a park. It was an old hospital turned into a contemporary art Calgary. It had a great court yard with covered seating so we are our breakfast and drank our coffee until our first tour.

    Dublin has a pretty famous prison Kilmainham Gaol . It was the first prison that brought in prisoner reform into Ireland. Victorian prison reform was putting prisoners in their own cells and giving them exercise. Unfortunately this prison was a gong show and there were multiple prisoners in little cells. Then there was the prisoners from the 1916 and because of their views and actions against the Brits were shot in the chest in a court yard. All and all it was an interesting and depressing 2 hours.    Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    The Guinness Compound

    3 de setembro de 2022, Irlanda ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    Also in the West end of Dublin is the Guinness Brewery….well it is a bloody compound that stretches for blocks. It is the most visited attraction in all of Ireland. When I booked the tickets I wanted to give us time to look at a park and visit the shops in the area. Well there were no shops in the area and we did not feel like back tracking to a park in the rai so we visited the only pub we could find on the compound and had a nice long lunch with beers and and Irish coffees. Where we watched afternoon footie with the locals. It was a quaint family pub with slack service and amusement as we watch the father or uncle of Jamie (the server) yell at him constantly to give people ice or water or forks.

    Finally it was time for Guinness. The tour is self guided and was packed. The most enjoyable portion was the Stoutie Bar where we got to enjoy beers with our faces on them in a private area that only had people foolish enough to spend 6 euros extra per ticket. So there were a lot of people but in the grand scheme of people it was okay. We had found a seating area and enjoyed Guinness number 1 of the tour while watching the rain outside.

    Then it was off to the roof top bar (gravity bar) where you got to enjoy 360 views of Dublin. Unfortunately it was cloudy and raining so we did not see anything. It was also insane up there as everyone who does the tour gets a beer so there were wall to wall people. Luckily we ended up standing by a couple who had a table and were finishing up so we got to enjoy Guinness number 2 not crammed up against people.    Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    Last Supper

    4 de setembro de 2022, Irlanda ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    For our last night we went to Kennedy’s Pub. It was chosen because it was not in a high tourist and it had traditional Irish music. Ty was excited…haha. Actually he was okay with it because it had no fiddle. Turns out he likes banjo over fiddle, who knew? The 2 guys were great!

    We enjoyed 1 last fish and chips and pints of Guinness.    Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    St. Stephens Green

    5 de setembro de 2022, Irlanda ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Before the long journey home we decided to walk around the park and read all of the signs about the 1916 Rising while we had breakfast. We stopped at Nero’s for coffees to eat with our high tea leftovers. We did forget forks which was no problem for me but Ty wanted to wait till he had a fork and plate. He is so fancy like that.Leia mais

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  • Nadine TIreland 2022Viajante

    Winner Winner

    5 de setembro de 2022, Canadá ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    The end of the trip was a shit show with me getting select for a random Covid test. After a few phones calls and running around I finally got my kit. I should know my results in 3-4 days. I have no idea what the point of this all is. 🤦🏻‍♀️Leia mais

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    Final da viagem
    5 de setembro de 2022