Kicking Off Our Tour
Ireland, in size, is a small county but their heritage and tradition is compete with the largest of countries. The Irish have a reputation for beer drinking and knowing a good time. I have to say, our trip lived up to the reputation. Dublin was the first city on out 33 day Euro trip so we arrived to the city full of excitement. We arrived in the late afternoon and headed towards our hostel just off of Dublin’s famous Temple Bar. Temple Bar a street know for its live music and Guinness and we were lucky enough to be a stumble distance away.
We arrived tired but our excitement make us thirsty for a beer or two. After hopping around the a few pubs then decided to check out the Guinness factory. The factory was a great way to spend the afternoon, we checked out all the old Guinness artifacts and closed out the tour with a beer on their top floor sky bar. The sky bar offered a great view of Dublin and because the building weren’t too tall, you could see for miles. After we wrapped up the tour and headed back to temple bar to continue what we started. Each Pub had its own live music. The packed pubs were jumping with enough excitement for us to forget how tired were from our travels. That night set the bar high for the rest of our trip.
The Cliffs of Moher
The new Morning we hopped on a paddy wagon tour and headed through the country side to the Cliffs of Moher. Feeling a little rough from the night before, the bus started making its way out of the city. The modern building started to be replaced by green pastures partitioned by short stone walls. We were all glued to the window as we passed small cottages and farms on the Irish countryside. This tour stopped at a few Castles along the path that we got out and explored. It was amazing to see these structures still standing after hundreds of years. The world as we knew it didn’t exist inside the walls of the castle and it was as if we had traveled back in time.
The bus finally arrived at the cliffs that afternoon. We heard told how tall they were by other traveler but did not realize their height till we walked close to the edge. From the ledge of the cliff to the ocean waves crashing was around 700 feet, enough to keep my distance from the edge. The view down the coast line was so majestic, a view that seemed like a movies scene. Fields lining the cliffs edge were a vibrant green, with tall grass blowing in the strong ocean breeze. In the distance was a single castle tower that acted as a gauge for the cliffs enormous size. After walking miles up and down the coast, it was time to return to the bus. We had a few hour ride to rest up on our way back to Dublin for another adventure on Temple Bar.
