The Irish Road Trip #3

We woke up in Ballyvaughan and looked for a restaurant that serves Irish breakfasts. We found one just 3 minutes away. Perfect ! It was nice but hardly different from an English Breakfast so if you’re looking for a typical Irish meal, then, look for something else.

Traditionnal Irish Breakfast

We then started our way to the Connemara. As every French people, we had the perfect song on our playlist… Terres brulées… Au vent des landes de pierre… If you don’t know these lyrics from Michel Sardou, you’re definitely not French 😉

And as in the song, sometimes, it really looks like the lands were burnt. Everything looked dry and even the trees were leaning in the same direction because of the wind.  We wanted to go to the Kylemore Abbey, a surprising abbey in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by lakes and hills. I read that it was first a castle built for Mitchell Henry and that it has been bought by the Benedictine community in 1920 and it’s still a monastery since then.Fun fact, we’ve surely crossed paths with my colleague on the way as she went to Galway and then to Clifden on the same day !

 

We didn’t explore that much as we wanted to go to Galway on this day. So, back on the road with, of course, Galway Girl on the playlist (we are so predictible) !

The city centre is quite nice with his old stoned buildings and mucisians playing in the streets but I found the city quite small. We walked a little and then headed to Tig Coili, a pub made famous for his traditionnal Irish live music.

On the next day, as it was sunny and warm we took our time in a cafe terrace in front of the beach (that’s the thing I liked the most about Galway, it’s a city but the beach is so close !). After lunchtime, we drove back to Dublin with a stop near a lake (sorry I’ve totally forgotten the name). We stayed close to the rentals company for the night as we wanted to give back the van early on the next morning to spend the last day in Dublin. We took a bus to Dublin, let our suitcases at the hostel and finally went to discover the capital. I liked the fact that you can visit everything just walking. We visited the Old Trinity College Library. We had to wait a little bit under the sun and finally got in. I think I was expecting too much from this Library, I mean, I liked it but the visit was very quick and tickets pretty expansive. And it was crowded, the library itself isn’t that big so I didn’t enjoy as much as I could. Shame ! We then visited the St Patrick’s Cathedral -less crowded, that was appreciable- the only significant things I remember about it is the azulejos floor (but in an Irish way -green) and that the organ tool was a beer barrel (most likely Guinness, obviously). We ended up in a pub with nice live music before to have a dinner and head back to the hostel. It was the end of the Irish journey : we had to get up early on the next morning as our planes was in the morning.

 

 

Irish motto

 

In the end, I would like to say that I really loved to discover the Irish landscapes but I’m a little bit disappointed by the cities. At least, we went for the landscapes, so I wasn’t focusing on the cities.

I would have loved to have the time to discover Northern Ireland. I had put in my list some places to see but, unfortunately, one week wasn’t enough, will have to go again, I guess 😀

The Irish Road Trip #2

After our visit to the Kerry Cliffs, we drove a little bit til our destination for the night : Caherciveen (yes, I had to check the name again, Irish towns names are difficult :p ). We met there two people who are living and travelling in their van with their lovely dog all year long (they’ve got my respect, I like my comfort too much to live in a van). We stayed talking with them during quite a long time on the marina while the sun went down. It was, I reckon, the nicest encounter of the trip !

On the next morning, we had planned to go to Dingle and actually even a little bit further : Dunquin (or Dun Chaoin in Irish as hardly nothing was translated in English there)(we tried to deduce some meanings of the road signs, I think we did pretty well).

I really wanted to go to Dunquin as I saw on my Ireland guide that there is a very beautiful harbour in this town. And it is worth it ! If you’re lucky enough, you can see sheeps on this little way, at least it is what the postcards try to make us believe 😉

The Dunquin Harbour and a lock of my hair to show you that it was quite windy

We then headed back to Dingle for a pub lunch before a long journey to the Cliffs of Moher ! We nicely followed Waze’s instruction and had the surprise to board on a ferry at Tarbert ! It made us win some kilometers and it was a welcomed break.

Not the Titanic though

We arrived at the Cliffs of Moher for the sunset ! They look very majestic but the visitor centre kills a bit the wildness of the cliffs. All the way to reach the cliffs is covered with concrete, a few binoculars are there and remind you that you’re just a tourist among thousands of others (no one likes that). Nevertheless, if you go the other way, you can exit the visitor centre part of Moher and find a wildest path (it’s obviously also more dangerous). As the sun was going down, we didn’t go very far on this part but I would have loved to !

We then went a little further in a town called Ballyvaughan to stay for the night and where we saw the end of the sunset !

The Irish Road Trip #1

I went to Ireland during the Easter Holidays with Inès. I had planned to visit the Wild Atlantic Way as well as the Northern Ireland. But I eventually had to accept that it will be impossible to do both in just one week time. Well, Wild Atlantic Way it is !

So, we had planned to stay in a hostel in Dublin for the first night and to pick up our van on the next morning. On Saturday night, we just took the time to visit Temple bar and had a dinner in a burger restaurant of the area. We went back to the hostel to enjoy a full night of sleep (if only) before our next nights in the van. It wasn’t really the case as we were in a dorm and snorings were also presents (I think I’m getting too old for hostels, I just want a total peace to be able to sleep now :p ).

On Sunday morning, we took the bus to the little town were our car rental was located. As always with Spaceships rentals, it was kinda in the middle of nowhere, just surrounded by fields and cows… This time, we had chosen a bigger van than the one we had in Scotland. The difference is not that huge but the confort was significant ! So it was more spacious, with a real tiny fridge, plugs, a light but the van was still not too big to be easy to drive on the narrow Irish roads.

I don’t have a lot to say neither I’ve got pictures to show about our first step as it was mainly a long drive from Dublin to Cork. We stopped a little bit before Cork for the night. Again, it wasn’t a quiet night as it was stormy (I didn’t feel very confident to be in a car with trees nearby while it’s windy haha). We woke up under a terrible weather : heavy rain. Great. No, not really. We drove to Cork anyway, thinking we could at least visit a little bit, hoping the rain will stop. But we were wrong. The time to walk from the car park to the English Market, we were totally soaked. It was like we jumped in a swimming pool with our clothes on. Not a nice feeling. We ended up in the local Starbucks, ate something, had a hot drink (totally needed haha) and decided to carry on the road as it was ridiculous to stay in a city we couldn’t even visit properly.

We headed toward Killarney, we thought it will be a little town with approximately nothing but it was actually quite big (for a town) and pretty touristic ! We were looking for a pub screening Game of Thrones (essential !) and had been lucky to find a place thanks to the very nice ladies of The Shire !

On the Tuesday morning, we were relieved : the sun was finally out ! We started our way on the Ring of Kerry, with a few stops to admire the views !

The Ladies View on the Ring of Kerry

We then stopped at Caherdaniel on a beautiful beach next to the Darrynane House. It was so great to feel the salty air and to walk on the sandy beach, too bad it wasn’t hot enough for a sunbath and a swim (although I wasn’t crazy enough to think that will be possible in April in Ireland :p ) !

 

 

We carried on the Ring of Kerry until Portmagee where we stopped in a little cafe in front of the harbour and from where we could see Venetia Island. We discovered we could visit some cliffs (the Kerry Cliffs) just five minutes away ! Obviously, we headed toward the cliffs. It was windy but it’s totally worth it !

 

 

Seriously, look at these colours !

Next stop : Ireland !

It’s official : my next trip will be an Irish road trip 😀 . Once again, I’m gonna travel with Inès ! We’ve just booked the flights to Dublin yet but I’m working on what I want to see. The problem is : too much places, we’re going to have to come back because I dont’ think that it will be possible to visit everything in one week…

Our plans so far are to fly to Dublin, stay for the afternoon and the night to visit a bit, on day 2, we’re gonna pick up the van (we gonna rent with the same company as in Scotland) and here we go !

My “want to see” map :

Here are the places that I want to visit but I didn’t even buy a guide book yet so I predict that the list will grow up. It won’t be possible to go everywhere, unfortunately…

 

Do you have some advices about the must-see places in Ireland ?