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Hey Everyone!
Hope everything is going great in America. We are just having a blast over in Ireland right now. Our first adventure that we went on was a tour over to Galway to see the city and visit the Cliffs of Moher! We went on a tour with about 60 other people, most were about our age and from all around the world. The tour guide was very humorous and kept us Al happy and laughing despite the rain, wind and cold! What else would you expect really? We learned one of the 13 tribes that controlled Galway was actually named Richard Martin and was responsible for the ban on cruelty of animals! Kyle thought it was pretty cool as his name is Kyle Richard Martin for those of you who don't know haha. Then we were off to the Cliffs! I can't properly describe how gorgeous the cliffs were and I am sure the pictures will not do them justice. It was a spectacular sight that overpowered the 20 mile per hour winds that were blowing us over! We ended up skipping the overnight part of the tour and headed back to Dublin as the traveling still had
us tired.
This brings us to Friday. Next stop Guinness Factory! This tour was like no brewery tour that we have in the states! It was like a Disneyland Brewery. The tour building was in the shape of a giant pint glass and had 7 floors. We took our time through the steps that it takes to make the beer but then quickly made our way up to the 4th floor to "pour a perfect pint" and of course drink it. Kyle volunteered to be the first one to have a go. He did a PERFECT example haha and the rest of us followed. EVERYONE got the certificate as it was pretty near impossible not to pass even if you missed the pint from a mile away. Still pretty cool to say that we did it!! For Kyle's reward I let him drink my beer as well :P. From the factory we left to meet up with Kyle #2 (Gleeson). For those of you who don't know this is my really good family friend that we are staying with over here in Dublin. We met up with his friends and all headed over to the Forbidden Fruit Festival with
Galway
Before the Rain!a few beers along the way. Now this night is where we realized that we could have never fitted enough jackets, hats, scraps, and gloves to prepare us for how cold it was. It was a struggle between freezing your hand off by holding a beer or sucking it up to drink the beer to warm your body. Nonetheless, we had a great time as it was a orally different experience. We were known as "The Americans" or "Parker's little sister." The festival its self was all DJs so wasn't my kind of music but we made the best of it! We had three day passes but one night proved enough for us!
The next day we woke up late and walked around town in Kyle's neighborhood. We were both pretty tired from the night before as the sun sets around 9:30pm and rises around 6am so sleep is hard to get! And I am pretty sure we are still on Pacific Time as staying up till 3am is no problem but being awake at 11am is very difficult. He had a lazy day for the most part.
That bring us to today. By far my most favorite
day of the trip so far!! We woke up to Kyle's parents making us breakfast and his mother taking us in town to catch a tour. This was was the Wicklow Mountains tour that I have been dreaming of and building up in my head for years. If anyone knows me they can attest that I LOVE the movie P.S. I love You. After a ton of research I found the pub it was filmed and the area where Gerry and Holly first met in the movie. I booked this tour in hopes that it would live up to my expectations and man did it!! It was a small tour so we got to have more attention and information thrown at us. As soon as we arrived in Wicklow county the tour guide asked if anyone had seen P.S. I Love You and of course my head shot straight up! So he showed me the lake where the girls got stuck in in Ireland. Then we drove up a path and he stopped at a bridge that I surely remembered. The place where the first met!!! The guide saw my smile and let us out of the bus and it
was the exact area in the movie. I can not tell you how excited I was. Kyle on the other hand was my photographer for the next ten minutes making sure to capture every moment we had there. He pretended to be excited I'm sure. We took about 100 picture but I only posted a few not to bore everyone! 😊 We stopped back at Guinness Lake where they are filming the series Vikings and this was then Kyle's chance to geek out. He watched the series so we knew exactly what was going on. The lake was pretty cool though, the water was a dark red/brown color as the color of a pint of Guinness. Of course that's where they told us they got the beer from haha. After we left the filming sights we head to the famous part of the Wicklow National Park called Glendalough. We hiked to two lakes and just enjoyed the outdoors for a change. Reminded me of Humboldt! Oh and mother, I was sure to take a few photographs of the cemetery for you as well. I must say it was pretty cool and VERY OLD. Thought you would like that. That was
the end of our half day tour and we headed back to Dublin! Let's just say today lived up to my expectations and I am one happy camper.
By the way I uploaded a ton of pictures and they all got mixed up and it would take forever to put them in order so I named them for you all! Sorry about that!
And the link to the scene where they meet in the movie is here as well if anyone wants to see and compare! The plants are purple in the movie. It is called heather and it blooms in July/August so we were a little early!
We have a few days left in Dublin so I'll try to get in one more post before we head to London!
Lori
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What great pics!! It looks like you guys are having a blast! I LOVE the photos of the cemetery. It's beautiful. Thanks for thinking of me....and my sick fasination, ha! It's great to see both of you getting the chance to cross of a few things on your Bucket List! I told Carey Baily that you guys are going to be in London and gave him the dates. He will probably FB message you. Have fun!!!!!