Doolin

I have dying to post these pictures. I actually wanted to skip ahead and not post our Ireland pictures in order. Ever since I was a little girl I had wanted to go to Ireland. My dads family is Irish and I love it. I love having an excuse for my stubbornness (it never works though), I love Irish music and their accents. To me, Ireland was a fairy tale, something that I’d read about and sigh, thinking I’d never actually visit. More recently, the little town of Doolin became even more of a fairy tale. My friend Rebekah visited Doolin a few years ago and when she blogged about this town I knew this was a place I wanted to visit. Doolin looked enchanting, a small sea town that possessed a thrill one would only know from visiting. I remember showing Joe the pictures of Doolin and he too was sucked in. We both agreed that we would visit Ireland God willing. Fast forward 3 years and as soon as we booked the plane tickets and began planning, Doolin was our number one town we wanted to visit. We decided to stay 4 days there and looking back I almost wished we had stayed there the whole time. I remember feeling almost impatient to arrive in Doolin. The first part of our trip was rush rush, we drove from town to town, only staying one night and trying to see as much of the countryside as we could. Once we drove into Doolin I felt relaxed already. Sure it was becoming a popular town, but it still maintained its quaint and peaceful feel. It quickly became our most favorite place…

Each night we walked down the alley to the local pub and listened to the traditional Irish music. Now let me just say that the Irish pub is no where near an American bar. The Irish was felt more like a family restaurant, people didn’t go there to get smashed like they do in any other bar. They truly went there to listen to music, have a drink and socialize. In fact I even saw a toddler from time to time. The locals were there and the 4 nights we were there, we saw the same locals. Joe asked one of them if they minded all the tourists and they said not at all, you could see the pride in their eyes. People came from all over the world to their little town.

Here is a little glimpse of our time in this sweet town…I’ll warn you, there are a LOT of pictures!

this cute little women reminded me of my dads mom, even looked like her too! Cliffs of Moher, the most incredible natural wonder I’ve ever seen… We totally broke the law Sometimes the walkway would look like this… The Burren… look how vast this is… he’s so cute… this is one of my favorite pictures from our trip! We went back to the Cliffs the next day, this time with my wide angle lens… So we were pretty obsessed with the cliffs, so we decided to take a ferry ride to see them from sea. WORST IDEA EVER! The waves were Deadliest Catch high, it would not have been allowed in the USA. There was about 80 people that piled on the ferry and there wasn’t any seats left on top of the ferry so I had to stand. Let’s just say I almost flew off the boat the waves were so rough. Joe and I got split up, he was in the front of the boat, loving every minute.  I was in the back holding on for dear life and dodging vomit flying through the air. By the end of the boat right I was underneath the boat( sorry I don’t know all the boat lingo) holding a barf bag and praying the world could end so the miserable ride would be over. It was like an infirmary, people throwing up every 10 seconds and the deckhand was walking back and forth handing out barf bags and tissues.  It was AWFUL! But I forced myself to get some pictures because I didn’t want my husband to be disappointed, ha love this! Our B&B, Daly’s House, Susan Daly is the BEST innkeeper ever! Oh Doolin…. We left Doolin and headed towards the Connemara region… The Kylemore Abby, unbelievable place! oh yes… English gardens… I feel like Jose Villa would like this picture This was the manor house we stayed in…another gorgeous place! That’s the last of our pictures from Ireland…well I have 3000 more if you’re interestedP.s. Joe and I planned the whole trip using Tripadvisor.com, it’s a great resource and I highly recommend it!