The Former Baker: Ireland: part one

We just returned from Ireland this Monday morning...woohoo, we were certainly tired of traveling! I'm just going to jump right in and tell you what we did for the first half of the trip. I know, the suspense is KILLING you!

Last Sunday Andrew and I flew from Memphis to LaGuradia airport in NY. Unfortunately, our flight to Ireland was out of JFK, so we needed to find some form of transportation to get us to JFK. Fortunately, my Uncle Paul and Aunt Margaret live in Queens, so they picked us up and drove us to JFK, it was such a treat to see them!

The flight from JFK to Shannon, Ireland was not the most pleasant I have ever experienced. It wasn't terrible, in fact, I watched The 5 Year Engagement, which was quite funny. The only problem with the flight was that I did not sleep, and continued to not sleep for 24 hours straight, it made the first day a bit long.

After six hours, we land in Shannon and picked up the car. Yes we rented a car, although this car was actually a nine-seater van. The whole family talked about how we looked like a 6-piece church choir in our van. The only problem was that our van was a depressing shade of blue instead of white. We headed, in the church van, to the Cliffs of Moher, then headed to Knappogue Castle built by the McNamara family, and finally jumped back in the van and drove to Dingle. We stayed at a lovely B&B in Dingle, The Heaton House, where we lodged for two nights. While in Dingle we walked around, went on a tour of the penninsula (did you know Ryan's Daughter was filmed there, we heard loadsssss about it. I guess it's Dingle's claim to fame.) and ate at two delicious restaurants, The Chart House and Out of the Blue.

Once we left Dingle, we headed to Cobh (pronounced Cove) and checked into The Knockeven House B&B. We drove into town, with the good' ole church van, and visited the Immigration Museum and walked to one of the beautiful churches in town. Pam, the lovely lady who ran the B&B, made us a delightful dinner and then sent us on our way to the Roaring Donkey, a local pub that has traditional Irish music every Wednesday night. Lucky for us, we were staying in Cobh on a Wednesday night! Oh and while Andrew, my Mom and I were having a casual conversation with two local women, my Dad, and two brothers made it on the Roaring Donkey facebook page....can we say celebrities!

On Thursday we left our dear Cobh and headed to Cork to catch a train to Dublin. One of Cork's main sites to see is their English Market, a big market with lots of delicious local food. Well, since I loveee markets, I HAD to go to the English Market, even though we only had an hour from the time we arrived to the time our train left. So my sweet, sweet husband speed walked with me all the way to the market, which took about 25 minutes, where I preceded to take pictures for about 5 minutes and then left. Oh yes, and on our way back we got slightly lost and I started freaking out that we would miss our train, but of course we made it back in time...after I forced us to get a taxi after walking half-way back. A five minute visit, an 8 euro taxi ride and a stressed out husband and wife...I have to say, I don't think the English Market was worth it.

We arrive just in time to board our train, and make the three hour journey to Dublin. I will end my post with this incredibly riveting cliff hanger in hopes that you will visit my blog again in a few days...