My Trip to Ireland!

Several years ago, I was lucky enough to spend St. Patrick's Day in Ireland.

It was one of the best days of my life.

My friend Sonia and I had spent the prior week traveling around Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, with her very accommodating relatives. We spent most of our time in and around county Antrim, including Lisburn and Belfast.

The last day of our trip happened to be St. Patrick's Day. We didn't plan it, it just so happened to work out that way. Talk about the luck of the Irish! Now, every St. Patrick's Day is a wonderful reminder of the most amazing adventure of my life.

We spent most of March 17th at Giant's Causeway and Dunluce Castle. Giant's Causeway lies along the Northern Atlantic Ocean and is a cluster of hexagonal volcanic columns set amongst a backdrop of gorgeous basalt and Irish green mountains. The Causeway is estimated to be around 60 million years old! It is also a World Heritage site.

Just down the road from Giant's Causeway lies Dunluce Castle, another one of my favorite places. Dunluce Castle is the ruins of a medieval castle from the early 1500's (yes, the 1500's!) that fell into the sea below during a party one stormy night in 1639.

The one thing that we didn't do was party it up on St. Patrick's Day. We were sure the holiday would be huge over there, considering how it's celebrated in the States. I had brought this awesome green cocktail dress and we were planning to have the night of our lives. But, in Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is a religious holiday! Not a party day like in America. Our "tour guide" cousin offered to take us down to Dublin where he said "the Americans come to party and celebrate," but we had an early flight the next day and didn't think it was going to be wise to drive two hours away (to a practically different country - Southern Ireland) to party.

I hope to be able to return to Ireland one day and see even more of the beautiful country! We only scratched the surface in a week's time and there's so much more I want to do. And relive!

I still pinch myself when I think about how lucky I was to be able to experience these awesome places, and Ireland in general. If you ever get the chance to go to Ireland ~ jump at it! You will never regret it! 


*** Disclaimer ***
I took these pictures pre-digital camera and then scanned them onto my computer. They are not the best quality! Remember the days before digital cameras and smart phones, when you took your shot and hoped for the best when the film got developed? You kids have no idea how good you have it now a days! So, yes these pics are not the greatest - but now they've got me itching to go back and get better pictures! I sincerely hope to go back one day. Ireland is truly beautiful and amazing!

The Irish countryside. The weather was perfect, and a little better than our typical March weather here in Indiana. It was slightly warmer in Ireland and some days it was bright and sunny like the picture above and others it was overcast and misting, which gave the country an almost mystical appearance.

This is one of my favorite pictures that I took on our trip. It is the road to the Legananny Dolmen. It just encapsulates Ireland, in my opinion. It was raining a little bit and getting dark when we were there. I just remember trying to hang back from the crowd and take in the moment. I stood there looking down this road, thinking "This is Ireland."

 

This is Legananny Dolmen. It's about 5,000 years old and is actually some sort of a burial site! Gross, but cool. This is just one of many dolmens scattered across Ireland. It reminded me of Stonehenge!

An Irish traffic jam! This is a joke in Ireland, but you seriously do run across this ~ as evidenced by this photo! And check out the steering wheel on the other side of the car! I didn't get to drive while we were there, but I'd love to give it a try next time!

These are the Maghera Church ruins.

We went into Lisburn one day to do some shopping on Bow Street. I remember being in a store in Lisburn Town Square and hearing a Gwen Stefani song playing and I was in heaven! This street represents a lot of the architecture in Ireland. Look at how old most of the buildings look! And they are all connected, like row houses.

Dundrum Castle, or the ruins of it anyways! It was built in the 1100's and we were told that the movie Braveheart was filmed here!

Belfast Castle in, you guessed it, Belfast! This beautiful castle sits atop Cave Hill and looks out over Belfast Lough with a view of the shipyards where the Titanic was built!

This is a little courtyard at Belfast Castle that I just loved!

This is a field of daffodils we came across! Can you believe this! They were everywhere! Daffodils are my favorite flowers and I was in love! This is the inspiration for my creekside garden at home! Hopefully, one day it will at least slightly resemble this!

The "gateway" to Giant's Causeway, it's actually called The Giant's Gate. These hexagonal shaped volcanic rocks are everywhere you look at the Causeway.

The mountains surrounding the Causeway are beautiful. This is a long path that takes you around the area.

This area is what most people think of when they think of Giant's Causeway. The winds were so fierce the day we were there and the waves on the Northern Atlantic Ocean were ferocious. The week before we were there, a family was swept out to sea while standing on the rocks.

The gorgeous Antrim Coast.

Dunluce Castle. I once saw a book about Ireland in a bookstore and it had a picture of this area right where I was standing while taking this picture. I still kick myself for not having bought it! How many times do you see a photo of an exact place where you stood in a book?

These are the cliffs beside Dunluce Castle. It reminds me of something out of the movie, The Princess Bride!

If you can't get enough of Ireland, check out this awesome video of Giant's Causeway shot from a drone! It is so beautiful, it gave me goosebumps and brought tears to my eyes! It's amazing and it makes me feel like I am right there again!


Happy St. Patrick's Day!