but it's not even that cold...

 For our program's second break, I joined my friend Lenci and her friend Ashley on a trip to Ireland! We stopped at Dublin for a couple days, took a tour of Galway and the Cliffs of Moher for a day after that, and then made our way back to Dublin for our last night. It was packed but oh so much fun. I had a great time with these girls. 

On our first day in Dublin, we took advantage of a free walking tour and lucked out, majorly. Our tour guide was the so sweet. She was Hungarian but had been studying in Ireland for a while so she had a mixed Hungarian/Irish accent and was SO enthusiastic about what she told us. To finish, she brought us back to a great pub and told us an old Irish fairytale. 

After our walking tour, we hopped on a city bus and took a tour of the Guinness Factory. It was an essential thing to do in Dublin and we had the best time. It was a self guided tour with interactive information about the history and creation of the beer. The factory tour leads you up the floors of the building so when it was over we arrived at their bar with a 360 degree view of Dublin. And of course, each ticket comes with a free beer so we cashed in on that and drank it down as we basked in the sunset of Dublin. Perfection. 

I forgot to mention that this happened to be on Halloween day. I had no idea that Halloween was such a big deal in Dublin, but I can tell you now that it absolutely is. I'm not sure Ireland could quite compete with America, but they still give it a good try! Anyway, fireworks are the norm for an Irish Halloween, so after the sun went down we got to watch sporadic fireworks go off as we sipped our Guinnesses. 

tasting!

some cool old guinness bottles

free! you can't tell, but they make a shamrock in the foam

my favorites

beautiful dublin

For our Halloween night, we went to a bar in the Templebar area that our tour guide had recommended. We had such a fun night, listening to a live band play and drinking some more Guinness in a bar crowded with devils, witches, and mummies. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, my camera is a bit of a hulk to carry around at night.

The next day (or a few short hours later) we woke up early and hobbled down the street to catch our bus to Galway. I was a little hesitant to do a guided tour since that usually means spending time with other tourists, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one. We slept on the bus for a couple hours and once we were in Galway, we transferred to our actual tour bus. Our guide was a sweet old Irish man that played his favorite traditional Irish music along our ride. He pointed out different areas of interest as we made our way to a farm outside of Galway. 
This was probably the biggest highlight of my trip. We stumbled out of the bus and found ourselves on the cutest little farm I had ever laid my eyes on. We were passed off to our new guide, Darren, who lived on the farm with his uncle, grandma, and golden retriever.  This is Darren. 

Darren was the ideal Irish tour guide. He was fun, witty, and probably the sweetest Irish farmer there is. He took us up into the hills behind his farm and told us the history of his land. I took an exorbitant amount of pictures that all could pass as postcards for Ireland (I'm emphasizing the beauty of Ireland, not my wealth of photography skillz), but I'll try to limit them to a few. 

Once Darren's tour was over, he led us back to the kitchen in his adorable cottage where he and his granny had made artisan pies and cakes together for us to accompany our coffee and tea...
And he put on his granny's flowered apron as he served us.
And while we ate, he sang us a Celtic Irish song.
What?

YUMZ

Not to mention, my plum tart with cardamom meringue was out of this world. 

When we had said our goodbyes to Darren and his ferm, we hopped back on the bus to see the cliffs of Moher, which were incredible despite the ghastly weather. I don't have any photos except for these because it was too stormy...

Later in the evening we made out way to Galway. The next morning we grabbed some breakfast (which was a lovely change from my normal pastry and cappuccino) and met in the square for another free walking tour. It was fun, but our tour guide was Brazilian and a little hard to understand. Also, our Dublin tour guide was a hard act to follow, so we probably set him up for a failure. Still, we got to see the sites of Galway fo freeeee. 

We were pretty hungry after our walking tour, so we made our way back to a cute cafe that we had passed along our walking tour. It was delish. Despite how everyone seems to rag on food in Ireland and the UK, I love it. Who doesn't love a hot stew or crispy fish and chips when it's so freezing outside that you're afraid your nose might fall off? No one. 

Following a little shopping and wandering, we made our way back to the hostel to grab our stuff and catch our bus back to Dublin. I really couldn't have asked for a better trip. I had so much fun with Lenci and Ashley, and am so thankful that they included me on their trip! Ireland, you'll be seeing me soon.