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jedivader


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Ireland for the first time
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Sept. 30
Flew from Dulles Airport to Dublin Airport

Oct. 1
~Arrived Dublin in the a.m.
~Took Airlink bus to O'Connell Street and walked to Days Inn Talbot Street
    -Bus was easy to use
    -Days Inn was great (location, staff, room)
~Took the Hop on/Hop off Tour Bus (could have done without, it was just ok)
    -I wasn't interested in many of the stops
~Dinner and pints at Messrs Maguire
~Walked around city center

Oct. 2
~Airlink bus back to airport to get rental car
    -Irish Car Rental (tried to give us a piece of crap car at first)
~Drove north to Ballycastle
~Arrived Glenluce Guesthouse (Ballycastle)
~Bushmills Distillery tour, Whitebay Park Beach, Dunseverick Ruins, Coastal Casueway
~Pints and lunch at O'Conners in Ballycastle
~Late night fish and chips at Traditional Golden in Ballycastle

Oct. 3
~Coastal Causeway drive all the way to Portrush, Dunluce Castle, Giant's Causeway, various sights along the route.
~Lunch at Giant's Causeway (The Nook)
~Pints at (Antrim Arms)
~Late night fish & chips at Traditional Golden again
~Walked around Ballycastle harbour in the evening

Oct. 4
~Kinbane Ruins
~Carrick rope bridge
~Bonamargy Friary
~Drove Causeway Coast down to Carrickfergus Castle (closed) but took pictures and then headed through Belfast back to Dublin area.
~Lunch in Whitehead (Think it was called Mia's, it was on a golf course)
~Arrived: Ophira B & B (Dun Laoghaire)
~Pints and late dinner at The Eagle House

Oct. 5
~Stayed in Dun Laoghaire for the day because we were tired of driving
    -Walked the city, harbour, pier
    -Lunch and pints at Gastropub
    -Dinner at Bits & Pizza
    -Late night pints in Dun Laoghaire

Oct. 6
~Drove south of Dun Laoghaire
    -Wicklow to see the Black Castle ruins (the place is a dump, not much left             because of vandals and trash everywhere. Spoke with a local and he said         on the weekends, there are 50-100 teenagers hanging around it drinking         and that the garda do nothing about it)
    -Macreddin Village to visit Macreddin Brewery (Acton's Pub)
    -GlenMacnass waterfall
    -Bray for pints and bar food at Porterhouse Brewing
~Last night of pints in Dun Laoghaire

Oct. 7
~Left for airport and back to Maryland

I'm sure I missed a few details and stops along the way. We enjoyed our stay in Ireland and were glad that we changed our initial plans of trying to drive the entire country. We loved the Northern part of the island the most.

We loved the places we stayed:
Days Inn: Great Location but noisy at night (just dealt with it). Great staff.
Glenluce: Host james was fantastic, great location. Our last night there, we ran into him on our fish & chips run and he gave us a ride back to the house. We all had our late night snack in his kitchen talking about travel and life. His cat Barney joined us.
Ophira: We had a complete mix-up and arrived in Dun Laoghaire a day early (still don't know how we did that). John form Ophira had no rooms that night to give away but called Mary at Windsor Lodge and she put us up for the night. Great Location.

Rental car was fine, no problems:
Irish Car Rental: only issue we had was their attempt to give us a "hunk of junk" at first.

Flight:
Aer Lingus: was great, fantastic staff.

~Guinness was yummy, it was on nitro almost everywhere.
~The people were great.

**The U.S. Dollar was the worst part of our trip**
       -By the time we got to Ireland, the dollar had dropped another 50 cents.         In Northern Ireland, for every U.S. Dollar, we got 50 pence. We had to             double everything we purchased. Expensive but what are you going to             do.....not have a pint!

smile
   


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Merle


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We were in NI in September. I loved the scenery on the Antrim coast. We also stayed in Ballycastle. I just climbed over the gate to look at Kinbane Castle. We walked to the Rope bridge earlier that day and the climb down to Kinbane Castle was a bridge too far that day!! I loved the friary in Ballycastle. Glad you enjoyed Northern Ireland.

Merle

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Merlene M Black
Michele Erdvig


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jedivader,

Thanks for the outline of your trip. Now I see why you didn't care for Co. Wicklow. You missed some of the best bits. Glendalough and Powerscourt are delightful, as well as the Vale of Clara and Vale of Avoca. Well, there is only so much you can fit in.

The exchange rate is a killer right now! But I'm glad you enjoyed Ireland (and the Guinness) despite it. Perhaps your comments will send more tourists to No. Ireland. It is beautiful up there.

Michele

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"Ireland Expert"  Michele Erdvig

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jedivader


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Kinbane was pretty cool, especially if you walk all the way out to the tip. It is a hike down and even worse getting back up. After the first gate you had to jump, there was another to get onto the grass and then another to get into the ruins. It looks as though they've just shut the place down and are letting it fall apart.

Haven't put all of the Ireland pics in my webshots album yet, but feel free to check them out:

http://community.webshots.com/user/jedivader13

There were parts of Co. Wicklow that were pretty, the further you got away from the coast. We did stop in a Avoca where a local TV show is filmed "Ballykissangel". The actual town of Wicklow turned me off just because of the Black Castle experience. We did have plans to go to Powerscourt but ran out of time. We did stop in Glendalough to get directions. We actually pulled into the monastery to get directions to Glenmacrass waterfall. The monastery was packed, so we did not tour it.

James, our host at Glenluce said if we ever come back to Ireland, we must do Co. Donegal.


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youngka


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VERY nice first time pictures.   You actually saw an awful lot of beautiful sights!  We are going back in March for a month, but mainly stay in the S.W. corner of Ireland.  This time we want to go back to Westport and maybe to Waterford.  We will have the time, but - once again, don't think we will make it North.  There are so many things everywhere, what you saw was fantastic.  Make another trip soon!
Youngka

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Michele Erdvig


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jedivader,

I've been to Kinbane before they put up the fences. I am too short to hop them so I'm glad I saw it when I did.

Nice photos. Thanks for the link. Glendalough can be very crowded on weekends. I enjoy it when I can spend the night there. Once the crowds leave the locals go for walks through it in the evening or early morning. It is magical then. The Wicklow coast is not Ireland's best although the dunes at Brittas Bay are nice. Donegal has a fantastic coastline as does the southwest and west. You saw the Antrim coast and that is beautiful. Ireland packs a lot into a small island. That is why many people return again to see what they missed.

Michele

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"Ireland Expert"  Michele Erdvig

Click links for Michele's Book or Custom Ireland Itinerary

Visit Michele's Irish Shop for unique Irish gifts and beautiful photos of Ireland.
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