Ireland: Galway & Cliffs of Moher

So I think I've made you wait long enough for the post on Galway.
 Only about two and half hours  from Virginia, Galway is a fun vacation stop. Having such a large Irish family and spending my elementary school years singing lots of St. Patty's Day songs, Galway Bay was a must.  The center of town has streets full of various shops, the tourist traps (which is great for gifts ;) ) , lots of Celtic Jewelry shops and several Wool shops. Galway is along the bay ( hence the name Galway Bay ;) . Anywho it's quite a pretty area.

Fabulous coconut mango dessert!

 We stayed at the Galway Bay Hotel in Salthill, Galway, which was a bit hard to find but is really quite fancy and not a bad price. The restuarant there had very tasty food and a nice atmosphere.







Next to this hotel is a beautiful promenade that lines the shore. Great for a night time stroll.

Galway Bay

View from the Promanade

We had a very short stay in Galway and from there drove to the infamous Cliff of Moher. 

The cliffs were breath taking. Whenever you see rocky cliffs in movies and it looks too good to be true, well that's the Cliffs of Moher. The water was so blue, grass so green and just these giant cliffs.

I wish we had, had more time in Ireland. there is so much of it we didn't see. And I feel as though we didn't really get into the heart of Ireland. I've heard Northern Ireland is quite different and I've heard there are so many fabulous in the Southern part of the country. So hopefully one day we will make it back. But all in all I thought it was a lovely trip ;)

Ireland, Virginia

And I'm back! So we left off heading to Virginia, Ireland. We were fortunate enough to have a free two night stay at the  Park Hotel Virginia through our friend Matt, who did a summer culinary internship through Baltimore International College at the Park Hotel. The hotel it self was beautiful. A very peaceful place,

                                       

  We had a huge suite with a great view! 

Awesome view from room :)

Our comfy bed!

Separate sitting room! How cool is that?

The hotel has a pretty golf course and just beyond that a beautiful lake, with a resident swan. :)

Cool old dock house.

The hotel was wonderful and the food was delicious but that's pretty much all  there is in Virginia. It was a great relaxing stay and after two night we were ready for Galway :)

Ireland, Dublin Part 2!

While at the cathedral I stumbled upon an very, very old copy of Handel's Messiah from 1798. Having been a music geek all my life and having sung this in many a concert I was a bit excited :)

After my cousin's fabulous concert we had a bit of time to kill before meeting our friends Colleen and Erin, who just happen to all be in Dublin :).  As we walked through the streets of Dublin what do we stumble upon?.... The Leprechaun Museum! !!!!!!!! Okay so it sounds cool but overall I would give it a 5 out of 10 rating. The coolest part was the furniture room in which they had oversized furniture, to give you the feeling that you were a leprechaun.  

 Giant table!

We also very much enjoyed the picture place at the end of the tour haha.

From there, we met up with our Massachusetts friends ( Erin and Colleen) at The Auld Dubliner. It had such a great atmosphere. And fun live music. If the video had come out better I would share. But for now just imagine that guy with the Irish brogue strumming his guitar and his buddy playing the drums, singing Galway girl and you get the idea ;).
The crazy thing about Ireland at this time of year is how late it stays light. We had dinner reservation @ 9 and it was still very light out, so it only felt like it was 7. We had dinner at this fun place called Mongolian BBQ . We all loved it! Very much like Fire + Ice back in the States. You build your own plate of raw veggies and meat, then add whatever spices and sauce you want on it. Hand it to the chef and they grill it right in front of you. Soooo tasty!
While we were there, there happen to also be a a Rugby team from France, joining in on the feast. Most of them spoke very little English but decided that us American's must how to work this whole Mongolian BBQ thing. So a couple asked us what we put into our concoctions and we pointed to what we used. While others felt we needed their input and decided to start throwing random food into our bowls. In the end it all came out delicious.
Realizing we had about an hour and a half drive to our hotel and it was almost 11, Jon and I thought it best to head to the car. We said our goodbyes and heading toward the garage.
Funny thing was.....we couldn't remember where we parked the car! We are always so good about remembering landmarks and such but this time I think we were so hungry for breakfast that we totally forget to look when leaving. While wandering up and down the streets (30 minutes later) a large group of people come screaming and shouting out of a pub into the street and then this happened:

After listening for about 15 minutes, we sadly had to continue our search for the car. Finally after about 45 minutes we found our car!! We hopped in and heading to Virginia!

Ireland, Dublin Part 1

I've decided the best way to write about Ireland is to break it up. It being my "homeland" I feel the need to say many a thing about how awesome it is :)
*Before I start I wanted to share two thoughts if you are considering going to Ireland. One, you will need more than 4 days. I felt like we had just barely scratched the surfice. And two, Drive! Especially if you have a GPS. We decided not to take toll roads and saw so many beautiful little Irish towns.*

So we begin out Journey with Ryanair. Ryanair is great because it gives you the chance to fly to so0o many places for a small amount of money. Jon and I were about to get roundtrip tickets to Ireland for under 80 pounds total ( that's about $120) And at times they offer even cheaper flights.
What is the catch you ask?.. Well Ryanair charges quite a bit for a checked bag so just having a carryon is your best option. The catch with the carryon, Ryanair requires that your carryon be smaller then what most other airlines require See here . If it's too big they immediately make you check it.. and that it at least 50 pounds or $75. The other way they get you is with your boarding pass.  They will charge you to print it at the airport, so make sure to print it ahead of time!

So now that you know a little bit about Ryanair I will continue with  our story. We decided to take the early flight so that we would have some time in Dublin. Left the house around 5am, got the the airport just in time. Got in the boarding line only to find out I couldn't take my purse with me. Apparently their one bag limit included purses. So we then empty my huge purse into our two bags and were on our way!
We arrived in Dublin before nine which was great because that meant breakfast! We parked the car in a garage and went in search of food because we were starving! we found a cute place called Bewley's and it was pretty tasty.  One of the things I love about being over here is the street performers. They are almost always crazy talented artists who do it to share their love for art not to make money. And it just so happened that right outside of Bewleys was a very talented violinist :) .
So we enjoyed his music while we ate :).
After lunch is was time to find St. Patrick's Cathedral . Why you ask? Well my super talented cousin Erin and the fabulous Rhode Island College Chamber Choir were performing there! So as much as I wanted to go to Ireland, Erin was one of the main reasons we went when we did.

  

RIC did such a wonderful job. Here is a little snippet of my cousin performing in a quartet with the group :) she's the one all the way to the left.

Oh heck one more

What can I say? i have a very talented family and I like to brag about it :)  Great Job RIC.

Next up; Part 2- Leprechaun Museum ( I kid you not), delicious dinner and French Rugby men, lost car, and brass band flash mob !