ireland – county antrim – random castles, mosses, and waterfalls in the glenariff forest
a perfect day for some county antrim hiking.
ireland – dublin – night shots & the guinness storehouse
our last night / day in dublin was spent exploring the temple bar area and taking the tour bus around the city and to the guinness storehouse….i’m not normally a fan of stout beers, being more of a grain alcohol or lager girl, but the pint we had at the storehouse was unlike any pint of guinness i’ve had anywhere else (crisp, fresh, beautiful finish). as usual & per the rugby matches, we were surrounded by visiting frenchmen who had no problem singing all night – right outside the hotel window. good times.
ireland – dublin – trinity university and the temple bar area
pics taken via traveling on foot and from the top deck of a tour bus…also, we saw an absolutely smashing art exhibition called ‘visceral’ at science gallery on the trinity university campus – check out their website - www.sciencegallery.ie
ireland – dublin – st patrick’s cathedral
the days are beginning to blur together at this point so i’ll be categorizing these lil’ blogs by location…maybe they should be updated a bit sooner than 10 days after the fact 
. anyway, enjoy some shots of saint patrick’s cathedral.
ireland day six – dublin – christ church cathedral
we arrived in dublin just as it was beginning to be flooded with frenchmen out to watch some sort of rugby tournament. temple bar, our hotel home base for several days, is considered to be the bohemian section of dublin, filled with pubs (of course) as well as art galleries, artists, and musicians. we spent the first day there touring the cathedral area and trinity university while trying to avoid clusters of the drunken beret-donning french. ce n’etait pas bon! christ church, which blew my mind with it’s magnificence, had a very strange crypt. yes, it was filled with the usual moldy oldies, but it also had a lovely little tea shop where one could sit amongst the dead while enjoying their cuppa. if that isn’t weird enough for ya, imagine the air filled with disco music being piped in from above. teatime was spent with the weather girls belting out “it’s raining men” and the grating sound of strongbow rotating in his coffin.
ireland day five – county meath, our ancestral stomping grounds
the story goes that my mother’s (hi mom!) great grandparents people, the drakes, came from county meath (specifically what was once called draketon). county meath is rich in pagan history and home to the infamous (if highly misunderstood / not understood at all) newgrange burial mound. the sun came out as we were driving around today so we got some lovely shots which were made all the sweeter once we trespassed onto private castle grounds to see the wee ponies (hooligans, those rinks).
ireland day four – caldragh, creepy castle ruins and moldy tombs
heading southwest out of killybegs today, we decided to stop by the beleek pottery studios for a quick tour and shopping spree before touring the mouldering ruins of boa island…a chance drive-by of a castle ruin and it’s church / crypt / mausoleum yielded a very fun experience of traipsing through the squishy marshlands (bogs?) before hitting a goldmine of tombstones and the ancient pagan statues in caldragh graveyard, near boa island.
ireland day three – killybegs and the (freezing!) sea cliffs
off for an overnighter to the west coast, we discovered that chicago’s wind and cold temps have absolutely nothing on the sea cliffs of ireland’s west coast…regardless of the blistering winds and icy spray, there were lots of (crazy) people out hiking. go figure.
ireland day two – derry
derry, also referred to as londonderry by the brits, was a quick day trip from ballymena. the trip started out with heavy snow on extremely narrow roads crowded with traffic and detours galore. we saw LOTS of sheep throughout the countryside – and made many twists and turns until getting settled into the bustling town.
ireland day 1 – giant’s causeway and castle dunluce
what a lovely trip we’re having in beautiful northern ireland! today’s the first real day of exploration which started from our homebase of ballymena and ran up to the north coastline to giant’s causeway and the ruins of castle dunluce, built in the 13th century.
