I have lived in France for four and a half years now. There can be a million things said about France but, the best part of this country is their approach to the long weekend. If there is a bank holiday on a Thursday or Tuesday, they automatically make a “bridge” by giving you the Friday or the Monday off. I do really love this country! Which other country does this?
In the month of September 2019 we were lucky enough to get one such weekend. Coincidentally a friend of mine, Theresa, was travelling through Ireland about the same time. We immediately decided to turn this coincidence into a road trip.
The thing about travelling with Theresa is we really don’t have a final destination in our mind. We choose some points that we want to see, and then start in that direction. We do not book anything unless we have an idea of where we would like to stop for the night. Theresa lives in Valencia, Spain and the best way was to meet her directly in Ireland. I met Theresa in Iceland two years ago, and our friendship has evolved and gotten stronger by the day. We both found in each other the travel partner that we were looking for as we both have similar travelling styles. You can read about it my previous blog: The perfect Stranger
Ireland is an unbelievably stunning country with a remarkable history and we decided to travel through the southern Ireland and turn Irish for this long weekend.
I arrived at the Dublin airport and we wanted to check out city before heading into the country side. This city has an energetic vibe around it. People seem to be nice, happy and extremely helpful. I met up with Theresa around the city and here started the true journey of being a tourist! Lol. As we had only four days to our name and huge list of things to accomplish, we needed to keep this short.
What did our list look like you wonder?
1) Eat fish and chips
2) Get Drunk
3) The end!
Such a prodigious list of “things to do” you see?
The only thing I was adamant about getting done in Dublin was the Trinity College Library. The library has been around for 300 years and has a colossal collection of 200,000 books. Books that have been preserved for thousands of years, and the halls that have seen such immense personalities should be enough for anyone to be overwhelmed!
There are many famous books in the library, most notably the extremely famous Book of Kells. There are two of the four volumes on display for the public.
I live in Paris, so cities rarely impress me but I knew I had to return to Dublin. We then started to make our way towards Cork, the second largest city of Ireland.
The Air b&b in cork was as Irish as it gets. Green all over, and perfectly set in the middle of fields. We arrived at around 9 pm and settled in. The night was still young, so we got out to experience the Irish nightlife. I am a huge sucker for the Irish bars, and this felt like homecoming to me. We started working towards our list of “things to do” but we failed to find a place open that would sell us Fish and chips although a lot of places were more than happy to serve us that beer! So, that’s exactly what we did. We hopped from one bar to the next experiencing the Irish life, and I was in love!
Every bar had its live Irish music and if great music and good beer is what you love too, Ireland is your country. We came back by 2 am and fell dead into the bed! It indeed was a long day.
Today, we started our way towards the Blarney Castle. This castle is an impeccable representative of the architectural style of Ireland.
This was the first time that I was travelling to a country across the English Channel and I could see the difference in the architecture immediately.
Right outside the castle, we met an old gentleman who was playing the bagpipes. The beautiful sunny day, the sound of the bagpipes and the tall castle in front of us, I was transported to back in time.
The Blarney castle is famous for the Blarney stone. Millions of pilgrim have climbed the steps to kiss the Blarney Stone and gain the gift of eloquence and fullfil a long lasting wish
I know, bullshit right?
But did we try to kiss the stone? Yes! Did we fall in the touristic trap and buy our professionally taken photo of us kissing the stone? Hell yes! Lol
By the time we left it was afternoon, and we were famished! Now we had to do the first task on the list! Eat fish and chips. We stopped at a small pub on the road and got in for our lunch. I got the baked salmon and Theresa got the fried cod with chips. We decided to share and try two dishes instead. Both were incredibly great, and we were not disappointed is to say the least.
Next stop on our plan was the Torc waterfall. When you arrive here, you are immediately hit by the cold fresh air, something that lacks in the cities. The hike through the tall trees to get to the falls is worth it and I would highly recommend it. There are 3 type of trails that you can embark upon, each with a different level of difficulty.
The forest to me was more impressive than the fall itself. They are beautiful, but, as we have seen many such waterfalls in different parts of world, it seemed just like a regular waterfall to us.
We drove around the ring of Kerry and decided to make a stop at Limerick for the night. We rested for an hour, and then got out for some beers and food. We asked around where we could get to hear some live music and boy we were in for a treat. The bar that was recommended to us was about 15 minutes’ walk from our hotel and this is one of my favorite bars I’ve ever been to. To make it extra special along with the music there was a woman river dancing.
We could not stop being astounded by this woman who danced like amber being poured into a mold. The smoothness of her dance and music were in perfect sync with each other.
Unfortunately the bar closed at midnight, and they recommended we go to another one in the city center. Although it was the best one in the city, it lacked what I loved the most about Ireland: its live music!
The next morning our aim was to make it to Galway as I wanted to spend at least one night there. So, we tried to start early, but with the night we had, haha, we barely left before the checkout and started our way towards the most iconic destination of Ireland: Cliffs of Mohr
We drove through some of the most scenic places in Ireland and that’s when I understood why Ireland was called the emerald island. The green that surrounds you, puts you in a marvelous mood instantly.
Now it was time to start toward Galway but the first stop we needed to make was “food”
So, we drove in the direction of Galway hoping we would run into a pub on one of those small streets and stop. While doing this we came across this following board. I am still confused as to what they are trying to say! If one of you gets it, let me know. Until then enjoy this.
Later we stopped at a small pub on the way and I had the best fish and chips of my life!
Galway is my favorite city of Ireland. It is of the perfect size to travel around for a couple of days, not too touristic and soaked into the culture. We had the chance to see 2 live bands in two, separate bars. Both the bands sang all types of music with an Irish twist to it, and I was swooning! In fact, the second bar was actually a church once upon a time.
I had never imagined that I would have the chance to go crazy inside a church! haha
Today, I had my flight back to Paris late in the evening, but I had to get to Dublin from the closest train station. Theresa decided to stay a couple of days more, and visit the Northern Ireland. We had been incredibly lucky during our trip that we had sunny days every single day. We started early towards Sligo and then the Wild Atlantic way. Although I did not have enough time to stay at the beach, whatever I saw was beautiful. I caught the train from Sligo to Dublin and then, back home.
The weekend was exactly the break I needed from the monotonous life of a 9-5 job. I love my job but a pause resets my mind, and when I come back, it lets me continue with extreme pleasure.
