First and foremost let me say how happy I am to have married Erin and to now be his wife. I am sure we will come across rough time as all couples do - but I know I married the man of my dreams and it was a dream come true to say those two little words, 'I Do'.
Our honeymoon began in full force on the 9th of June. We were dropped off by our dear friend Paul (he was also Erin's best man) at a hotel in downtown Cleveland. We had a nice night together - I caught some sleep, while Erin did a little work. We got up at the u godly hour of 5AM to get on a train bound for NYC. To save some money and to be a bit romantic we took Amtrak into Penn Station, NY. The ride was 12 hours long - but we talked together, read, sat in the dining car and had some meals together. We arrive in NYC at 7PM in the evening. We stepped out into the mad rush that only New York can provide. Got ourselves and cab and spent the night in a hotel near JFK. Nothing fancy. The next morning we got up and took the shuttle to JFK to catch a flight to Ireland. On the shuttle we met a nice man from the UK who wished us well on our journey. We checked in for our flight, ate a meal together, got a massage and I had a manicure (it was nice to be pampered). Our flight was on Aer Lingus and left JFK in the afternoon - it was an overnight flight and we would arrive at Shannon airport at 5:30AM the next morning (June 11th). The flight was great, we had the amenity of being able to watch TV, Movies, Videos, listen to music and check out other options for entertainment. The food was good, the air line attendants were personable and professional.
We arrive at Shannon airport around 6AM (we were delayed a bit)- we were (well *I* was a bit worried because for a little while it seemed we were perhaps to be diverted to Dublin airport which would have really messed up our plans) a bit nervous about the landing but all went smoothly. We got some coffee and went to go pick up our rental car. As always, my love is thoughtful and intelligent and had the brilliant idea to get a GPS to help us navigate Ireland (this turned out to be the best idea and so very helpful to us). If you decide to do this yourself I would highly recommend spending the 12Euros/day for this added feature.
Despite how he must have felt (I don't think either of us got much sleep at all on the flight), Erin navigated driving on the wrong side of the road beautifully. We drove into a little town called Ennis - this was near the bed and breakfast we picked to stay for our first two nights in Ireland.
Here are some of the pics of day #1 - I think what I am going to do is direct you guys to the links of the pictures in chronologic order of our trip - here and there though I will post a snapshot or two.
Ennis is a typical little European town filled with tiny shops and narrow streets. We stopped at the Church in town (St. Peter and Paul Catholic Cathedral). It was still quite early in the day so Erin inquired about going to get some breakfast. We were told that across the street from the church there was an old hotel where we could find a meal. This hotel was very old, very traditional in an 'English' manor sort of way - it was call 'The Old Ground'. This hotel dates back to the 18th century and was truly lovely. It was not my first encounter with an Irish breakfast - not sure about Erin...mainly it consists of an egg made over hard-ish, rashers (bacon), bangers (sausage), brown bread (yummy) and a grilled tomato (so basically meat, meat, and more meat, a cholesterol lover's dream) - but the best part of all was the pot of Irish tea a mainstay of just about any meal.
After breakfast we walked around the little town a bit - under the word quaint in the dictionary, there ought to be a picture of Ennis (I will try to post pictures as I got but this may prove difficult. So instead I will direct you to the place where the honeymoon pics have been posted). Meanwhile here's a little website to give you the low-down on
EnnisCounty Clare - boutique-ish, a tad upscale but a very lovely place to wander about. By now, however, I was running out of steam - so it seemed a good time to get to the B&B, unfortunately it took three attempts (even with the GPS) for Erin to find the place (a word of warning - in Ireland they seem a tad direction impaired - mainly because in the places we were staying it was out in the country and there are no street addresses per se).
Newpark house was the destination for our first 2 nights in Ireland. What an amazing house.
This lovely manor home is older than the US. That's right - it's 300 years old. The website is
here. The family who now owns the house, were very welcoming and helpful. We settled into our room - the only let down being that the bathroom was rather small. We showered and then took a nap in our canopy-covered bed. Woke up and went into Ennis to discover more of the town.
Ennis has narrow streets and cute little shops it fairly screams Europe. We parked the car and began to wander around and came across our first 'ruin' - an ancient Friary built in 1240AD. I adore seeing Erin in places like this - he seems very much in his 'element'. After touring the Abbey and taking pics, we found a book store; Erin found a book about Irish faeries and we bought a cookbook as well. We then headed to one of the local pubs for our first pints of Guinness and a real meal. I admit here and now I hate Guinness - it has never tasted good to me - the closest I've come is drinking a 'black and tan'. However, here in Ireland, Guinness is smoother and sweeter. The food in this particular pub was downright amazing. We shared a bowl of mussels, some lamb stew and a chicken mushroom stroganoff-is dish in pastry (YUM). We were stuffed. We watched some futbol with the locals - again, seeing Erin do this is one of the pleasures of my life for he loves soccer. The atmosphere was nice - not really lively but nice. After we ate, we went to the local church to attend mass which was a bit weird. First of all the 7PM mass was packed - something I don't think you see here in the states, well at not at our parish....secondly, it seemed as if everyone was saying the rite at their own pace, there was no congruity of speech...just kind of weird. Like they were in a hurry to get the hell out of mass but knew that they HAD to be in attendance nonetheless.
After mass we went back to the village and wandered around a bit more, stopped by a couple of pubs but there was no 'lively Irish music' going on - everyone was more interested in the 'matches' apparently there's UEFA tourneys going on right now. I think we were a bit let down but I was certain we'd eventually find some live trad music in our travels.
We went back to Newpark House - we made love...Erin then stayed up to write while I went to sleep.
Oddly enough, I was up at 5:30 AM -thinking what the fuck? I mean here I am on holiday and I am waking up at the same time I have to for work. The weird thing about being this far up North while it's 'summer' is that the sun does not set until 10PM (or later) and rises earlier so when you wake up at say 8AM it feels as if it's 10AM or later..
At any rate, we rose and went down to have a wonderful breakfast with the other people staying in the house. All Americans (well there was a Canadian couple there) - we all talked and compared notes. Today, Erin and I were heading to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway.
Spectacular does not even being to describe the majesty of this site.
Of course, it was also a bit disconcerting to see signs basically listing an number to call for intervention should you feel like 'jumping' - making me wonder what the local suicide rate was...
We were going to try to 'break the law/ by crossing onto private property in order to go view some other ruins at the other end of the cliffs 'Hags Head' - unfortunately we were unable to do so = we did though buy a 'sheep' (sweater) for me to take home which now reeks of well...sheep. And find of finds we came across 'Nun in a box' (*snorts*)
In Ireland, especially in the more rural areas, there are shrines - this particular shrine was dedicated to St. Brigid - St. Brigid's well - people leave things in the 'well' area of the shrine - asking for prayers, interventions (to keep from jumping off the cliffs perhaps? (sorry)) - I found it a tad creepy but I suppose it's a local thing.
Disconcerting is also a great way to describe the feeling of driving the 'back roads' of rural Ireland - scary - downright scary...but hey...it's still beautiful. So we tooled through Doolin (enter back roads comment here) and headed up to Galway. We stopped on the way because we came across Dunguire Castle - where i managed to set off alarms because I ignored the barricade to one of the rooms (go me! LOL I am such the rebel), promptly freaking out the other tourists but luckily not arousing the ire of the people in charge (just what I need on my record - an arrest in Europe). This castle was very well preserved and they actually hold medieval banquets here.
Driving towards Galway you pass through 'The Burren' this land is a desolate moonscape - other-wordly and bizarre...
Galway. Galway is a port city and considered the 'gem' of this part of Ireland. Such a strange shift to go from ancient Eire to the land of shopping malls - but all in all Galway is a lovely town. It was here as well that we found a wonderful pub (
Tig Coili) where indeed finally, we got to hear trad music. The place was packed, the Guinness was flowing, and the music was inspired. Nice.
After our stop in the pub which was fronted by eating fast-food fish and chips, we wandered around the town more and stumbled across a 'corner shop' obviously owned by part of my clan (and here I was hoping for something a bit more regal).
More wandering about, frustration getting out of the parking garage and then back off to Newpark house for our last night there before heading to Ventry/Dingle peninsula. As I write this in our travel journal, I am sitting next to my gorgeous husband sharing some shortbread biscuits and sipping a cuppa tea - I could so get used to this sort of life. I am having a wonderful honeymoon with an amazing man by my side and the beauty of it all is that long after this honeymoon is over we will still be sharing our lives together.
Labels: Honeymoon, Ireland
