So in between the very busy wedding season this year I managed to have a couple of vacations. One of them being Ireland, I also made it down south the 14 hour drive  to see my Dad and his wife in Tennessee. On top of that managed to go for a geeky historic trip with my friends to Gettysburg, PA.

I wanted to show some photos to Ireland, since I have been asked quite a lot lately about my trip  : We visited Carlingford, Dublin, Sligo, Donegal, Co. Meath, Trim, a little of Northern Ireland. We had a complete blast!! This trip was all planned out through Authentic Ireland, who I highly recommend for any trip if you are thinking of heading over to Emerald Isle.

Keith and I drove all throughout Ireland  and believe me its not as bad as you think driving in a foreign country. Our trip had a little hiccup ok maybe two hiccups, our flights were cancelled the night we were supposed to leave from JFK. ( damn you delta) After 18 hours of sitting around airport, we managed after staying over night in a hotel near LaGuardia, yes thats where Delta drove all its passengers to stay. I fought to get a flight out out Newark the next night. After 18 hours of no sleep and driving through many locations. We mangaged to hang out with some peeps from Ireland in JFK while we were waiting. We stuck together like glue and made it to  Newark and even had dinner together before our flights left. Even though we had this hiccup we met some cool people from Sligo and Belfast. Eight hours later  we landed  into Dublin we found out our luggage was rerouted and it would take 4 days, so lucky I had bought travelers insurance and we went shopping. Got some clothes, jackets.

ON that note we had a fanatastic time, we drove manual on the opposite of the road almost 2000 miles in 10 days we covered. (I love driving so I don’t mind) Again driving in Ireland is easy!

Keith and I hit up the best pubs, ate well, visited every geeky historical museum or Neolithic site we could possibly go to. We stopped at ruins in the middle of farmlands and even saw a rainbow. ( how cliche is that?)

We relaxed in the grass, and drove up huge cliffs and sat in the car until the rain stopped. ( yes it does rain in Ireland alot, but the rain goes away usually in 10 min)

I don’t mind the rain. The air feels cleaner in Ireland if that makes anysense. The sights are unbelievable at times you feel as if you have to pinch yourself to realize you are there.

I would probably say this is one of the best summers I have had in a long time. The combination of road trips, going to places you would never think of going and just going on a trip with an open mind that anything can happen is what makes it work..

Entrance to Knocknarea mountain -  Sligo

a Queen is supposed to be buried on top of the Mountain– her tomb is under the rocks

The top of the mountain has amazing views of Sligo and surrounding areas

Neolithic Satellite Tombs

I am pretty tired here.. we had just hiked for a good hour up a pretty steep mountain..

This was one of the B&Bs we stayed in, the owner had tea and scones ready for us.. Of course we took up the offer.

Keith passed out from exhaustion  a couple of mins after taking this shot.. we left the next morning to our next desitnation. Often driving through towns in Ireland you come across very vibrant painted buildings with lovely decorations.Here is one I thought the painting below the sign was lovely.

The west coast of Ireland near Donegal and Ceide Fields is amazing I still can’t get over the scenery In Carlingford

Hill of Tara

Trim Castle

Bog

One of the castles we stayed in

city hall - Dublin

a sneak ..

Hey Everyone -
I will be going on vacation, well starting tomorrow. I am leaving for Ireland with my Husband for the 2nd second time around based on this contest I won in March. Long story short, I was compiling a footage of my 2008 trip of Ireland finally about a year ago.  Keith ( my Husband ) and I had toured the whole west coast by car and stayed in tons of b&bs visited Skellig Islands, drove around the Ring of Kerry . We had an amazing time, there was nothing like it!

Earlier this year around February, Authentic Ireland, (which I had booked my original trip in 2008) with sent an email blast that they were having a contest based on past experiences in Ireland. You had to write about why you would want to go back to Ireland, where you would want to go, etc.  The contest was open to pictures, poems  words and films. I thought ok,  I have this film with footage of the trip and tons of photographs that I had compiled together and left unfinished in imovie for about a year.  So two nights before it was due,  I went ahead and combined stills and film footage from our trip and edited for about 7 hours, on that super stormy hurricane night we had on Long Island  back in early March. ( I have no clue how we avoided not having our electricity knocked out)

I submitted the work, and on March 17  I found out that I was on my way to all expense paid vacation to the Emerald Isle. (After finding out,  this lead me to screaming up and down with tears of joy and happiness and scaring my friends in the process)

This time around we are doing the Ancient Ireland tour through Authentic Ireland. I customized it so we hit up all the hot spots. We are landing in Dublin tomorrow and touring the east coast this time focusing  on Ancient Ruins of course tons of abandon monasteries and ancient sites , such as the HIll of Tara. I am sure my camera will go slowly into a coma as shoot everything in sight.

I am pretty excited about going to Dublin for a night.  As I was writing this entry, while sitting in Starbucks I was overhearing the woman next to me talk about Ireland. I  had to ask her thoughts about Dublin, looks like now  I just got some more additional stops on my list from someone else who was just as excited as I was about the Emerald Isle.

So if you would like to view my entry and have some extra time on your  hands check it out

On that note I have to pack as I am leaving tomorrow, I will be answering all emails / calls after July 23rd.

-L