Ireland pt. 1: Dublin, Ticknock, Kilkenny Castle, Rock of Cashel

 

Cameron and I went to Ireland for a week and had the most wonderful trip. We started in Dublin for a very jet-lagged first day. We were absolutely exhausted by the end of the day, but it was such a cool city. This pic is at Trinity College.

Doing a Dublin Rick Steves walk, looking like a real tourist.

We saw all the craziness of the Temple Bar area and went to a pub to hear cool music. It was definitely a lively crowd on a Friday night, but such a fun energy. 

Dublin Castle had officially closed, but we walked around the grounds.

We woke up in the morning feeling like new people after a good night's rest. We picked up our black VW golf and headed out on our week of driving! We started at Ticknock mountain biking. The course was definitely harder than I anticipated and it pushed me. Both technically and athletically. But it was so gorgeous and such a cool experience.

After our ride we headed to Kilkenny and grabbed a delicious quick lunch and headed to the castle.  

Inside the castle

We headed to the Rock of Cashel next. Rick Steve's got the times wrong and it was closed. :( But we walked around the outside. It's breathtaking!

And the city of Cashel is so pretty.

Sooo we thought we were heading to Cork that night. Then we realized our hotel was in Charleville IN County Cork. County Cork and the city of cork are pretty different. And then we also realized that staying in Cork made no sense either and there's nothing to see there. So...we headed to Charleville and actually had an amazing dinner that almost made up for staying in the most random non-tourist city. I still remember that vegetable soup. It was my favorite from the whole trip.