Ireland

Ireland is not just about the Cliffs of Moher. But these Cliffs have appeared in the classic "My Love" (we all remember Westlife) and more recently (maybe not so recent its 2017 lol), in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince where Harry and Dumbledore braved the perils of crashing waves to hunt Horcruxes. To quash the misconception: Ireland is a country on its own and is completely different from Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. I was a little confused at first because I was about to change my euros into pounds for the trip hahahahaha but yes lesson learnt.

A seven-day road-trip was definitely too short to truly admire both the natural and cosmopolitan sides that Ireland is. I wish we had more time to spend on the road because the views could change drastically from concrete pillars of the highways to vast, vast green land and mountainous regions. What Yingkiat and I did was to pick out a few counties and book accommodations there. We bookmarked places of interests between each accommodation and pulled over one by one as we made our way to our lodging for the night.

We met at Dublin from there we made our way to Kilkenny > Cork > Killarney > Galway (cue Ed Sheeran's song) > Aran Islands (day trip) > Dublin. We returned the car at the airport before heading back to Dublin and spent two full days there. Ireland is not known for sunny skies even during summer but we were blessed with the perfect weather at the times when we needed that the most.

I shall now use pictures to jog my memory as I try recall as many places we visited in that one week, starting from Kilkenny:

The county of Kilkenny from the Round Tower of St. Canice's Cathedral

Kilkenny Castle reminded me of the boarding school Emma Roberts attended in Wild Child (still one of my fav chick flicks)

This was taken at the Rock of Cashel, which was totally a castle on a hill

Wouldn't mind being on the road if the view looks like this :')

Breakfast provided by our first host of the trip -- three cheers for Weetabix!

St. Fin Barre's Cathedral is a Victorian Gothic cathedral in Cork

We headed out (bright and) early to check out a market but realised that the Irish don't get up so early on a Saturday

One of the only food stalls opened in the English Market

Had to make maggi mee this way because our host at Cork didn't let us use her kitchen

On our way to Killarney we stopped by Cobh, the county that was the Titanic's last port of call, and visited the Titanic Museum

The interior of one of the many cathedrals we visited

Endless field of wheat

Killarney National Park is the first national park in Ireland and spans over more than 100km²

Would've spent hours just taking in these views if the sun didn't set so early in the Irish winter

We scaled Muckross Abbey -- an old Irish monastery and graveyard in Killarney National Park

This stopover point in Killarney is called Ladies' View

Looks pretty ladylike to me hahahahaha kidz

While driving we also looked out for long empty stretches like this to take pictures ;)

Had a nice big breakfast before leaving Killarney (we stayed at this Airbnb that doubled as a yoga house)

We stayed in Galway for two nights because we planned to spend a day at Aran Islands

Aran Islands consist of a group of 3 isles at the mouth of Galway and the nearest one to us, Inis Mór (pronounced Inishmore), was a 30-min ferry ride away

Rented a couple of bicycles and armed ourselves with Google maps and a sheet of brochure the bike-rental guy gave us

Imagine this view with the sound of waves, slight smell of the sea water, nice cool breeze and the sun on your face (one of my favourite feelings ever I cannot emphasise enough)

We rounded the island (took about 6 hours) and the wo-wo followed us for half of that :')

Caught this dusk just as we were boarding the ferry back to Galway :')))))))))

We drove out to Burren for the Cliffs of Moher and boy did it scream Harry Potter to me hahahahaha

Bookmarked couple of random places and we stopped by just to take some pictures heh

Clonmacnoise Monastery in County Offaly was one of our last stops before we headed to Dublin -- like many monasteries, it had a deep-seeded history but what impressed me the most were the different temples surrounding the main structure

This is what's left of the Clonmacnoise Castle as it was attacked frequently in the past

We also stopped by the Belvedere House and Gardens, famous for its Diocletian windows and terracing -- they also had a HUGE backyard ^ look at the endless lake...

After 6 days of greenery and gorgeous views of nature, Dublin was a breath of fresh air (only figuratively hahahaha). This is Dublin Castle -- notice how its part medieval part modern? Some of the rooms were destroyed by a fire in the mid-1900s and underwent a major refurbishment to become today's tourist attraction and occasionally a conference centre.

How does it feel to have tourists walking around your university all day going oooooh and aaaaah at the architecture you face almost everyday

And of course what's a trip to Dublin without visiting the Guinness Storehouse???

Behold chicken essence with alcohol hahahaha it was really fresh drinking a pint from the brewery but nahhhhh still not my thing

Temple Bar is an area in Dublin that has one of the liveliest nightlife (and tourists). I thoroughly enjoyed the pubs in Dublin cos damn, the feels were just right~~~~

Took this shot from the rooftop bar at the Guinness Storehouse and it was also our last attraction before grabbing dinner and heading to the airport

I would say that renting a car would be the best way to get around because you save a lot of time. But because both Yingkiat and I were under 25, we had to pay a premium for the rental and that doubled our estimated cost. Wouldn't say that Ireland was cheap because I spent almost the same amount as I did for Iceland but it's definitely not impossible to scrimp. I was nearing the end of exchange so I was more liberal with my money hahahaha. All in all though, it was well worth it. Special shoutout to Yingkiat for helping with all the planning and booking of accoms, as well as taking pictures for me heh. 7 days in Ireland was albeit too short but it was a wonderful week nonetheless.

Weina

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