Ireland Day 1

Flight to Shannon –> The Burren –> Doolin –>Cliffs of Mohor –> Ailwee Caves

Our flight left NYC at 6pm Friday, so we got in to Shannon at around 5am Saturday morning. Neither of us were able to sleep on the plane- too excited 🙂

When we landed, we picked up our rental car and set out in the still dark morning to head toward Doolin on the west coast. This was Joe’s first time driving on the other side of the road & car! It was a little tricky  to say the least!

We realized after leaving the car rental place that the GPS we brought with us didn’t recognize Ireland as a country! Hello old school map…I remember you!

Somehow we made it to The Burren, which is  a huge national park and we stumbled upon the perfumery. Unfortunately it was only about 6:30am and nothing was open!

So, we continued on taking pictures along the way.

And, after a few wrong turns and many confusing road signs, we made it to Doolin!

We were starving and managed to find a place that was open for breakfast (strange note- people in Ireland sleep in! like nothing really opens til noon!)

Joe got the full Irish breakfast everyday of our trip, but said this was the best one. I had the veggie breakfast here and it was by far my best breakfast of the whole trip too!

Then, we found a bed & breakfast for the night, took a quick shower and headed out to explore. We were starting to get a bit tired having not slept all night, but felt it would be better to push through and wait til the night so we could adjust to the time zone. After exploring Doolin a bit (it’s adorable), we headed south to the Cliffs of Mohor. AMAZING!!!!

After the cliffs we headed north to the Ailwee Caves and took a really cool tour of the inside!

Then we visited cheese shop and sampled a bunch of different types.

We bought a smoked gouda to snack on during the ride back to doolin, stopping on the way to take pictures at a really cool spot where people rock climb…too bad we didn’t have our gear!

When we got back to Doolin, we headed straight to Gus O’Conner’s which is a very well known pub that EVERYONE in town goes to.

After a few pints of Guinness and some dinner, we listened to the locals all singing old Irish songs together. But, by 10pm, we had hit hour 52 of being awake and couldn’t take it anymore. We went back to the B&B and fell into bed!

Day 2 coming up!

Have you ever driven in a country that drives on the left side? Do you like Guinness?