Ireland Vacation!

Aug 15, 2021 09:44

Well, we were supposed to go to Scotland in August 2020, had to postpone that trip to 2021 due to Covid, and then had to postpone it AGAIN, so maybe we'll get to Scotland next year. In the meantime, back in June 2021 we were freshly vaccinated and full of optimism for the Hot Vax Summer in store for all of us (cue sardonic sad laughter). We booked a last minute trip to Ireland when the Irish government opened up international arrivals for fully vaxxed Americans. It seemed like a good idea at the time! The Covid situation here in the US has continued to worsen dramatically over the past month, and honestly if we knew how bad it would be, we probably would have thought twice about traveling. However, it all worked out! Amazingly! I'm glad we went, we needed to get away so badly. West is too young for the vaccine, so we worked out an elaborate plan for him to go to his first ever sleepover camp, in Maine, for the two weeks we were gone. My dad and stepmom helped with West logistics and were on standby for emergencies. Luckily, no emergencies arose, we all managed to get through multiple negative Covid testing requirements, and we pulled it off. It was VERY STRESSFUL to deal with the potential risks of any of us popping up a positive test result. Ok, onward to the trip report! I'll try to add some pics at some point.



Day One- Travel day, had to take a red-eye flight from Boston to Dublin. We would have preferred a day flight, but they're only running one flight a day, so we had to take what we could get. The airport process was pretty easy, we used an app to upload all of our Covid documentation and breezed through the process. Landing in Dublin, we were the first non-EU passengers in immigration control and it literally took less than a minute to get processed and allowed through. Like, we will never experience such an easy immigration control process again! We had reserved a room at the Maldron hotel that's right next to the airport, so we picked up our rental car and popped over to the hotel for a few hours' nap before check out time. Totally worth the money to book a room even though we barely used it, the nap was worth every penny (or euro).

Day Two- First proper day of vacation. Refreshed from a nap, checked out of the hotel just before noon. We puttered our way over to Kinnitty, about an hour and a half west of Dublin. Our hotel for two nights was the Kinnitty Castle Hotel, which is a gorgeous castle in the middle of nowhere. We booked the haunted room, of course. No ghostly sights or sounds during our stay, but the staff seemed amused when they saw that we specifically requested that room. The castle has an actual ancient stone circle on its grounds, so of course that was our first order of business after getting settled. The castle grounds abut a forest that has a network of trails, so went for a walk down a trail and enjoyed the scenery. Got back to the castle and settled into a table in the courtyard for drinks and reading books, then eventually moved to the Dungeon Bar inside the castle for dinner. We had a secluded table in a little nook that was just perfect for this Covid-paranoid lady. Spent some time in the Library Bar after dinner catching up on our Love Island viewing and enjoying some pints of Guinness.

Day Three- Breakfast in the hotel (they did a really good job with physical distancing, capacity limits, and windows were open for ventilation). Then we were off on a jaunt around the countryside! First stop was the tiny town of Kinnitty. There's a cemetery in the town that has a random pyramid in it, constructed by some old timey rich dude. Saw the pyramid. Attempted to get some cash but there were no ATMs in this entire town, and the little corner store that was cash only told us we'd have to drive like 20 minutes to a nearby town for an ATM! Not a huge deal because most places (other than said corner store) were preferring contactless tap-and-go payments for the rest of the trip.

We then drove over to the Rock of Dunamase, which is a crumbled ruin of a castle high on a hill overlooking the Valley of the O'Moores. It was beautiful and so peaceful up there... until our only spooky situation of our entire trip! We were standing at the very highest point, all alone up there. It wasn't particularly windy. We both heard three distinct, deliberate loud knocks, sounded like knocks on heavy wood. Looked all around us, not a single plank of wood to be seen, and nothing that could possibly look like it would make a banging noise in any wind. Must have been my ancestors calling to me from my ancestral valley.

After that we drove over to Leap Castle, which we entertained some vague notions of possibly visiting. It's a private castle that is only open when the owner is up for visitors, but it was a Sunday and we felt a little weird interrupting a guy's peaceful Sunday to bang around his castle, so gave it a look and moved on. We saw a road sign for a megalithic tomb and decided to take a hike to it, but after a while of hiking we abandoned the effort because we weren't property kitted out for a wet 10 km forest hike. The portion of hiking we did was very scenic, though! Finally went back to the castle for more sitting in the courtyard to read and drink, and more time in the Library Bar.

ireland, travel

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