Top of the mornin to ya!

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So on Saturday the 15th we flew out of London Gatwick to Shannon, Ireland. Our flight arrive just after 11pm and we rented a car (we got a Nissan Micra...not a bad little car!). We opted for the upgrade, which was only 4 Euros, because it was an automatic. Now, Stacie and I can both drive stick but didn't want to be bothered trying to drive stick on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car, and trying to shift with our left instead of our right hand. Yikes!

We found our B&B after getting a little turned around. We stayed at Avalon B&B in Shannon which, if you know where you're going, is only a few minutes drive from the airport but it took us a bit longer lol. The B&B was great and Stacie had her first B&B experience, which included the wonderful breakfast. I think she's addicted now 😊 We got some driving recommendations from the B&B owner, Mary, about some towns to drive through and it really helped since our GPS was not a whole lot of help (I can't believe TomTom failed us!). With our list of towns in hand we headed towards the Cliffs of Moher.

Now, let me just say something here about driving on the wrong side of the road. I don't know who it was scarier for...the driver or the passenger. The roads are pretty narrow and when you're sitting on the passenger side (normally the driver side where you would be in complete control of the vehicle) you have absolutely NO control and the road comes up pretty high, like a wall, and it looks like you're going to run into it at any second. Which, you're not...it just looks that way. So that's stress for the passenger. The driver is trying to make sure that she stays on the left, not on the right, doesn't run into oncoming traffic on those teeny tiny little roads, and doesn't run into the side of the road...plus she has to put up with the passenger squeezing her eyes shut, gasping, and flinching every time it looks like you're about to hit something. Yes, Stacie and I were in both of these roles (and we both gasped and flinched...me probably more than her since the car was rented on my credit card lol) so it's no wonder that we were happy to turn in the car later that evening!!

Finally we made it out to the cliffs. It was cold and windy but beautiful. Before walking out to the cliffs we stopped and looked through some of the shops and the girl working in the t-shirt shop caught our eye. Well, actually our ears...she had an American accent! So we asked her where she was from and, you'll never guess...she was from Akron, Ohio (for those of you NOT from Ohio, that's pretty close to where we're from)! She had gone on vacation to Ireland like 3 or 4 years ago and just decided to move there. So we talked about all the foods that we miss from home. I told her about Stacie bringing me Cracker Barrel (I haven't told you all this yet! Stacie got me Hashbrown Casserole and Dumplings and put them in one of those insulated lunchboxes with a bag of frozen peas in the bottom to keep them cold and they made it over! I was SO excited!) and she told me about how her mom was still trying to figure out a way to send her Taco Bell. So I gave her my email and told her to let me know if she comes to Germany because we have Taco Bell on base 😊

Anyways, Stacie and I walked as far as we were legally allowed to up on the cliffs and then hopped with wall along with everyone else and walked further. It was gorgeous, as you can see in the pictures. It was a little bit muddy but it only got bad in one or two places...not too bad for spring. After visiting the cliffs we started making our way towards Dublin but we drove through Doolin and stopped at a little pub for lunch. Doolin is known for its live Irish music but, unfortunately, we were 4 hours from Dublin still and couldn't stay until they started playing. That's for another trip 😊 But everyone was very friendly and we had lunch and then kept on driving from there.

The driving stress ended once we got on the highway...whew! And we were able to relax and sing along to the radio. Well, our MP3 players anyways 😊 I thought ahead and brought my FM transmitter so we could play our MP3 players in the car. We made it to Dublin airport without any major mishaps and dropped off the car. Then, not feeling like figuring out the Dublin bus system so late in the evening, we took a cab to our B&B. We discovered on our trip that everyone loves to discuss American politics once they find out you're American...and sometimes they know more about it than you do! Our Dublin cab driver was no exception. He told us that he loved Americans but wasn't too impressed with our president (you know, I feel the same way...).

Stacie and I had plans to go out and see some of Dublin once we got checked into our B&B but were so tired we ended up falling asleep in our clothes in the room. Wow...aren't we so much fun??

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Photos

I love Ireland!
This is an old castle or manor house that we found off the side of the road.