This is some sort of holiday miracle. What holiday you ask?? Well since you asked, today is National Chocolate Milkshake Day! Yummm. But that's besides the point.

The miracle is that as I went to add a photo here on Blogger, I saw this secret photo folder called "from your phone", which I've never looked in before. And in that folder, I found these hilarious gifs from our Euro trip circa March 2012. Where did these come from!? Who created them? Not me. If you have the answer please let me know, but in the meanwhile I'll just bask in the delight of these awkward yet joyful gifs of Jimby and I in France, Switzerland and Ireland. 

p.s. please note the awkward last frame of gif #3 and #4. Good stuff.

p.p.s. I have no idea what I was going to originally blog about. 

Those Lucky Irish

Aaand we're at the 4 day countdown! Our flight to Italy is coming up so, so quickly. We are pumped and, I'm happy to say, almost all packed and ready to go! I'll write more about Italy soon but let's not get ahead of ourselves -- I'm still catching up on our beautiful trip to Europe!

Our fourth day in Ireland was by far, my favorite. We spent it driving the Ring of Kerry as we traveled from Killarney to Kinsale, and finally to Cork for our flight out. It was a stunning, sunshiny day, and it was so quiet (YAY for the off-season!) that we felt like Ireland was our private playground. We stopped in a couple of cute towns, drove off track to the tops of some mountains, and met some friendly and some not-so-friendly Irish livestock.

Valentia Island was my favorite part of the drive. The whole Ring of Kerry offers amazing views, but taking the time to drive out to the highest point on Valentia Island was worth the trip to Ireland in itself.  

When we were almost done driving around the Ring we got out for one more stunning view, because I'd suddenly realized it was our last day in Ireland and the sun was going down!

Earlier, in Cahirciveen, Jim had picked up the business card for a woman who works with clay, specializing in customized fairy houses. So we stopped by her little studio near Kenmare as we finished up our drive around the Ring. Would I be a freak if I said I was dying for one of those little fairy doors?

After a long day of driving and exploring we finally made it to Kinsale. It was definitely out of our way seeing as we had to make it to Cork that night, but Jim and I had both heard great things about it so we made the trek, which turned out to be well worth it (I think we're seeing a pattern here).

We had heard amazing things about the restaurants (Kinsale is the gourmet capital of Ireland!), so we checked out not one, but two. I'm not lying when I say that the combination of The Spaniard and Blue Haven Bistro created one of my most amazingly memorable travel experiences YET - it was sooo wonderful. The Spaniard was rugged and dark, filled with smoke from a roaring fire and about ten locals who are clearly there each and every night. Jim and I both went for tall dark beers and we sat as close as you can safely get to the fire, listening to (and then attempting to talk to) this adorable old Gaelic speaking man who we couldn't understand for the life of us. I could have stayed there forever. But instead we eventually headed to the Blue Haven Bistro for melt-in-your-mouth entrees and some live acoustic Springsteen cover. 

My memory card ran out of room at this point which explains the lack of pics at the end of the night. We eventually found our way to Cork and had a short, short sleep before boarding our flight to Memmingen early the next morning!

More to come soon!

This Land is Ireland

Seriously getting back on the blogging track peeps - because we have some serious traveling ahead! Thanks for bearing with me while I slooowly go back in time to document our Europe travels (which yes, happened an entire month ago). I've been in lovely but blog-unworthy Boston, so stretching out the Europe posts like this just lets me re-live it all. At least that's why I'll tell myself I'm taking forever, rather than the fact that I'm too busy to breathe lately let alone blog! But that's besides the point - on to Galway!

When we arrived we went immediately to our hostel to check in. The Salmon Weir Hostel was not our best stay of the trip with its rickety bunk beds and tight quarters, but the price was right. We then decided to walk around to shop & take in the sights. Luckily it was a Saturday so we were able to enjoy the festive Galway Market (shops, snacks, flowers & live music everywhere) as well as Shop Street and historic sights around Galway.

We decided we'd walked around enough just as it started to rain, so we decided it was a good time to take a drive  west to Spiddal, a nice coastal town Jim had once been to.

The coastal drive was beyond gorgeous - we finally felt like we were really seeing what Ireland is all about. We looked at the map and were enticed by a little peninsula (that we thought might have views of the Aran Islands), so we decided to keep driving! Everything was so green and the air was amazingly fresh. As we got further out there, it became more and more barren - just coarse green and brown landscape, with curvy stone walls and tiny little cottages with their covered peat piles scattered about.

We went to the very end of the road and wandered around for a bit, taking in the sunset and the smell of peat fires, and saying hi to the crazy Irish livestock. When it started getting dark we finally headed back, stopping at a gas station for some hard ciders. I literally couldn't get enough hard cider at this point in the trip - they have so many delicious flavors there!

Back in Galway we walked around the downtown area, stopping for the BEST fish and chips ever at McDonagh's then checking out almost every Irish pub we walked past for a drink. Favorites were The Quays, McSwiggan's, and Roisin Dubh. 

Cheers to Galway!!

After a long day of exploring the area we were so exhausted that we had no trouble falling asleep in our rickety, red bunk-bed! Next stop: Cliffs of Moher....