Paddywagon craic.

This weekend seemed just as a good time as any to enjoy some more of beautiful Ireland. This time my aupair friend, Zoe, and I ventured to the south of Ireland. We decided to book our tour through Paddywagon  because we had such a great experience with them last time, and as expected we weren't disappointed.
Thursday night Zoe and I ventured into Dublin after a long week- the children are back at school so a new routine changed the dynamic of the week for us!
We stayed at the lovely Paddy's Palace so we were ready for our tour the following morning. However, that night we enjoyed a few pint's of cider in the Temple district of Dublin which is well known for its good pubs and great music.
Friday morning up and early, after not so much sleep, we got on our lovely green bus and started driving to the south of Ireland. We drove through the beautiful Connemara area. The scenery was just absolutely breathtaking.

photo stop in Connemara area

We also stopped off at a place called Kylemore Abbey. We didn't have enough time to go in and walk around but it is such a gorgeous abbey sitting in the most gorgeous spot.

Kylemore Abbey

That night we found ourselves in gorgeous Galway and we had an absolute ball. The group all met up for dinner so we ate, had a few pints and danced along to some live music. Galway always has something going on and it is definitely on my list to go back to!

The following day we drove through what is called The Burren which while a desolate rocky landscape, it was absolutely lovely. Stopping at more gorgeous old Abbey's until we found ourselves at the Baby Cliffs of Moher and then on to the proper ones.  We were so lucky with our weather because it was pretty misty and grey and we were worried that we wouldn't get a clear view but the weather fined up for about half an hour giving us plenty of time to snap some great shots and revel in these amazing works of art of mother nature.  They have fenced alot of the main walking tracks off because it is so dangerous out on the edge of the Cliffs- these things are 700ft high, if you get a gust of wind or lose your footing you really have no chance. However, there is one spot where you can walk along and get close to the edge. So I gave it ago.... and just sitting there.... I felt like I was on the edge of the world. 

Baby Cliffs-156ft

The Cliffs of Moher- can get up to 700ft high

on the edge of the world.

After our breathtaking day we drove on to a place called Killarney that was to be our home for the night and what a lovely night we had. Again, we went out as a group and had some good food and found ourselves a few pints while listening to some great irish music. The bus driver had been teaching us Irish all day and he said whoever can use the most got a free pint. I love a good challenge, so I'd been practicing in my head all day and when the moment came, that free pint was mine!

Our final day we headed out of Killarney and on to Cork where we went to Blarney Castle, kissed the Blarney stone and explored the gardens. They say that if you kiss the Blarney stone you will get the 'gift of the gab'- the ability of eloquent speech. Now some would say that I have no problems, I may not be all that eloquent but I do love to talk. However, I don't care, I was a tourist and I wanted to kiss that stone so I did. So in case I needed any help before in the talking department, I'm all good now ;) 

giving the stone a big ol' smooch. 

Blarney castle

From Cork we headed on back for the 2.5 hour trip back to Dublin. What an amazing weekend I had. It was so nice to go exploring in Ireland's south and now I definitely have a few places I want to come back to explore more. I had great company on the trip, I'm lucky to have some lovely aupairs in my area and of course to have had a great group and tour company. Paddywagon are so much fun. Our driver had us in hysterics the whole time and gave us some good old Irish fun.

Despite the weather getting chillier, it is happy days here in Ireland :)

Oh me, Oh my, It is September.

Can I just say what a FABULOUS Sunday I had today. This morning early, My friend Zoe and I took the train to a place called Howth and completed a 10 km coastal walk. I had heard that it was popular and well worth a go, so off we went. There were a few walks to choose from but the 10km had the most coast so we thought 'let's do it'. We spent the whole day walking along gorgeous cliffs with the ocean and Dublin skyline on our left and pink and purple heathlands of the cliffs on our right. We climbed down the cliffs to get to a little beach where we found lots of rock pools and a cave. We did some rock climbing and ate our delicious fudge (bought from the market that morning) on a huge rock with the ocean lapping below us at our feet. I thoroughly enjoyed today. It was so nice to be out in the beautiful weather and walking along seeing the flora and enjoying the landscape made me reminiscent of my outdoor ed days.