It's finally time to complete the Ireland saga. Hooray! It's only been 14 months since it happened!
After Hubs left the hospital and the rest of the family had headed home stateside, aside from the two of us plus my stepmom, we postponed our departure from the Emerald Isle for a few more days. We wanted to give Hubs at least one pleasant memory from this trip. On the way to the bus station I saw two rainbows!
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| (insert leprechaun joke here) |
We packed up from the Rosebud Inn and headed closer to Shannon. We took a bus to Kinvara and stayed at and AirBnB. That place had sweet little puppers and cows. It was really nice and quiet, except for the cows.
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| "Never touch a bull on the head." |
The town in Kinvara was super cute. Our first day there we ate at Keogh's Pub & Restaurant. The last day we had some delicious pizza at Tide Full Inn. If I remember correctly, this restaurant was owned by a husband and wife pair. The husband was Italian and the wife Irish. They were having a heated debate or something, I believe in Italian, when we left. It actually added to the experience.
Our full day we took an early bus to the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs were beautiful. It was a tourist place and was pretty crowded, but there was enough space to find a quiet spot to soak in the view and fresh air. I was so pleased we were able to go. Before we knew all the trip details, Hubs had asked to visit here. Now we were able to enjoy a beautiful part of a wonderful country together and fever-free! There were little merchants along the walk around the cliffs and a couple panhandling folksingers.
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| Cliffs of Moher |
The only downside to visiting the Cliffs was Hubs accidentally left his phone on the bus. We spent the evening changing passwords and log in settings. The bus company was very compliant and helpful which made the loss a little more palatable.
We went exploring around Kinvara and made our way to an actual Medieval castle. I tried to go in further, but it was closed for a private event. It was still really neat to be able to see and touch a structure that was about 1000 years old.
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| castle |
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| Scaling the defense castle |
Overall this trip was an experience. I mean that in a positive way! We were able to bond as a family and strengthen those relationships. Seeing my family love my husband and care for him still makes me teary eyed. Ireland was perfect in every way; the kind people, the culture, the weather held out, the planned parts of the trip went so smoothly. The only kink was us bringing our own figurative baggage (and by that I mean incubating a tick-borne disease).
If you have a chance to go to Ireland- GO! Especially if you want to walk the Western Way.
Thank you, Ireland, for showing us "cead mile failte" (a thousand welcomes)!
-Sarah
