There is a common phrase one finds posted around Ireland's shops and hotels and on every other trinket: Cead Mile Failte, meaning One Hundred Thousand Welcomes. And that's how we felt during our first stop in Ireland, once we recovered from the taxi driver who dropped us off at a gated industrial building instead of our bed and breakfast, leaving us to our own devices, lost and without a map.
And so, at the risk o' sounding like a giant, boring travelogue I have selected some highlights from our recent adventure.
The first leg of our journey involved 2 half days in Dublin and its surrounding towns. We didn't love Dublin, but we did hit a few choice attractions, and those were pretty great.
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| Trinity College |
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| Trinity College Old Library |
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| Dublin Castle |
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| Inside Dublin Castle |
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| Inside Dublin Castle |
The second leg of our journey, and my personal highlight, was a 6-day stay in Scotland with my bestie and her cute family. Lara and I met teaching English in China in 2004, so that's pretty cool.
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| I also met Melissa teaching English in China |
Lara lives in Aberdeen (Scotland's 3rd largest city, also called the Granite City for all of its buildings made of granite) with her Scottish husband Ben and their two sweeties Bethany and Struan.
The guide books don't have much to say about Aberdeen or the surrounding area (Aberdeenshire) so let me be the one to tell you that Aberdeen is delightful! Plus it helped to have a resident to drive us around. Aberdeen's got cool castles- from the kind in ruins to the kind the Queen still visits, tasty fish & chips, gorgeous views, and the friendliest people.
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| Dunnottar Castle |
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| Slains Castle. The one Bram Stoker based Dracula on |
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| Inside the Slains tower |
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| Yippee! |
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| They may look like penguins, but they're really guillemots |
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| And these are razorbills. Right Lara? |
Before we even left the US, everyone told us if we were going to Scotland we just HAD to visit Edinburgh (pronounced Edinburah). And rightly so! So we jumped on a train (Joey's first train ride!) and headed down to Scotland's capital.
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| Bethany is probably singing a song from Frozen right here |
Edinburgh is a true tourist destination. It's a fun, fun city full of history and shopping and pipers (you know, the ones who play the bagpipes) and cashmere and winding streets and cafes and churches and buses and rocky green hills. What? Rocky green hills in the middle of the city? Yep- that's where they build the castles.
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| Edinburgh Castle |
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| Joey had to go to Scotland to find himself a sweet Irish hat. He was pretty giddy about it. |
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| She looks so innocent.... |
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| It's tough being a 2 year old |
The last castle we visited in Aberdeenshire was Balmoral. It may sound familiar to you because that is the Royal Family's summer getaway castle. We didn't see any of the Royal Family, but we did see the Royal Family Chickens.
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| Joey was really excited about this one |
The castle was pretty neat, too, but we were mostly confined to the castle grounds.
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| The river outside of Balmoral |
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| Entrance to Balmoral |
And who knew the Royal Family's summer palace is in the Highlands?!
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| Highland cows |
Scotland is a lovely place.
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| On our way back to Dublin |
During the third and final leg of our journey, back in Ireland, we got to explore the land of Joey's ancestors. We rented a car, quickly learned to drive on the left side of the road, and headed west to Counties Cavan and Leitrim and all of the ancient McGovern (or Magauran) sights. Joey proceeded to take pictures of anything McGovern- from old tombstones to attorney offices.
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| This one really says McGovern, but you can't see it |
There's even a town and a castle named after the McGovern clan.
It was a very old castle.
We stayed at another B&B. There are lots of those in Ireland.
And we visited some old churches. There are lots of those in Ireland.
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| St. Patrick's Church |
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| Not St. Patrick's Church |
Along our drive we unexpectedly found ourselves in Northern Ireland. It looks a lot like Ireland. And the animals look the same, too.
Joey and I had an amazing 10 days of adventure and we can't wait to go back.
Cheers!
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| The dogs were really happy to see us when we got home |
LOVED reading about your adventures. I'm jealous you got to visit Balmoral castle. Looking at all your pictures made me very nostalgic for my brief Scotland visit. Wish I could go again.
ReplyDeleteP.S. You looked so pretty in all the photos.