This is the first of four posts about L's epic week-long journey to the Emerald Isle.
On a windy Saturday morning - on which I decided for some reason not to wear a coat - the boy and I made the quick trek over to the airport and waited eagerly (on my part) for the flight from London to land. My bestie L, after driving three hours to Washington, DC, flying 7 hours to London, and waiting 4 hours for the hour flight to Cork, was coming!!
That chipper little twit didn't want a jet-lag nap or anything, and after a quick cup of coffee, we headed into town for some food and exploring. But the epicness of our journey was to come the following day.
I think I've expounded upon the glories of driving around Ireland before, but just in case you're new:
Ireland might be one of the prettiest roadtrips in the world. (And you all know how I feel about roadtrips). L wanted to see a little bit of the country, including the Ring of Kerry and the Cliffs of Moher - her one other proviso was a castle slash ruin. So we rented a car in Cork City early Sunday morning and headed off into the wild.
Day one of our two-day travel included a trip West to Killarney, the biggest town in County Kerry and about an hour away from Cork City. We stopped in Killarney for lunch, walked around a bit, and then hopped in the car to tour the Ring of Kerry, a long, winding road encircling the Ivereagh Peninsula, following the coast, winding through the mountains. We lucked out with the weather, and our four hour cruise was interspersed with stops, coffee runs, and photo ops.
We were wrecked by the time we got back to Killarney, and we started the drive up to Doolin, County Clare (just north of Limerick City, for those of you who know your way around), where we would stay the night before heading to the Cliffs of Moher in the morning.
Somewhere near Limerick, our starving bellies made us eat two whole pizzas from Pizza Hut (the first I'd ever seen in Ireland, so I guess I went a bit crazy). We finally made it to the hostel at about 10:30PM, after making the poor innkeeper wait up for us.
We stayed in the Aille River Hostel, and if you're ever up in Doolin, please consider staying here. It's one of the nicest hostels I've ever stayed in. Set up in an old stone house, it has a huge and welcoming kitchen facility, the dorms are comfortable and spacious, and it literally sits on the river across from town. Picturesque, affordable, friendly.
Wanna travel the Ring of Kerry with L and I?
Enjoy....
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| Finally made it to the hostel (this picture was taken the next morning... when it was no longer sunny) |
Stay tuned... we're going to the Cliffs of Moher next.
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