Ireland Honeymoon!
After a year and a half, I FINALLY have typed up our Honeymoon Diary!! I’ll add some more pictures later too :)
September 17th, 2009
We got to Ireland! Honeymoon time ^^
We got off the plane in Shannon, handed in our boarding cards and got our bags. Bought bus tickets from the vending machine to Galway (15E each), went outside and go on the bus at the first bus shelter.
*later*
We got to Galway around noon, and went around the corner to our hostel. It wasn’t cleaned yet so we had to leave our bags in the kitchen and come back at 2:30. I was really excited! Eeee!! We went to Eyre Square Mall! We went in through Dunnes and there were so many cheap and nice clothes! Then we went to get some food (bread and butter) down stairs. Next was New Look. I can’t wait to go back and guy clothes. Then Penny’s. Charles loved Penny’s J. Then we left the mall, went to some sweater shops, and stopped for lunch at “The Front Door”. I got roasted red pepper and goat cheese soup with soda bread, and Charles go an Irish Coffee (whiskey). It was so gross! Soup and bread tho-amazing. Then we left and went to buy our tickets for tomorrow’s tour. 25E each for Cong and Connemara.
We were SO exhausted and were ready to leave. We went to a convenience store and Tim Horton’s was there! SPAR I think. Then we went to Boots for a hairdryer, toothpaste and blush. Next-> HOSTEL.
We came back and were let into our room on the 3rd floor at the end of the hall. The room is small and all bright blue with a sky light and ensuite. We fell asleep immediately for 5 hours! Oops!
When we woke up, we took a walk around town. I called mom to check in and then we took a trip down to St. Augustine’s Catholic Church. Charles wanted to eat at Super Mac and I was happy with it. He got a supermac burger and curry fries, and I got curry fries and nuggets. I missed curry fries!
Next, we went to Imperial Hotel Bar. He got a pint of Guinness (4E) and I got a pink bottle of Bulmer’s (!!) 5E.
So cold! We walked back to the hostel. He’s taking a shower and I’m eating a Diary milk Golden Bar! (My favourite in Ireland). We’ll try to wake up for the 10:00 tour tomorrow! I love Galway!
September 18th, 2009
So fun! Today we went on the Connemara and Cong Tour with the Galway Tour Company (Bus Driver-Ray). SO good! A little boring for Charles on the bus but really interesting, beautiful and fun for me. We got on at the New Coach Station across from the tourist bureau on Forster street, 10:00Am. We first went to a Friary where monks used to live, and took pics. We went up a mountain next, all the sheep look spray painted. That’s because the farmers need to keep track of them all. The male sheep have a tank of paint under their bellies, when they mate with the girls, the paint goes on to the back of them. The colour in the tanks is changed every 2 weeks, to the farmers know within 2 weeks, when to bring them in for lambing.
We went to see peat bogs. It was really cold. Over thousands of years and many many forests, it was made. For every 1 food of bog (deep) is 1000 years of compacted composted forest! A big bag costs 3 Euros. About2.5E for night heating. Clean burning, the dry it out first and then burn it.
We went to Kylemore Abbey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kylemore_Abbey Mitchell Henry made the castle for his new wife. She had 8 babies but died on her trip to Egypt. He made a church there and glass houses for fruits and flowers, and a big garden. In the 1800s, it was 1.25 million pounds!!! It was bought by a rich man for his daughter and son in law, but they let it run down and finally the nuns bought it for 64,000 pounds. It was 8E extra to go in but we just wanted to stay around the front so we skipped it.
At the Abbey restaurant, we ate soup and brown bread. Tomato soup for me, broccoli for Charles. (4.25E each). Charles got coffee too later. We found a big hill and climbed up it. At the top, were 2 donkeys. We fed them some dandelions. I started to roll down the hill but got scared and dirty.
OH! Before that, we went to Cong Village! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cong,_County_Mayo We went to Cong Abbey (Castle) and walked to Cong Village. There were little posts about 5 metres apart, along the walk way through the forest. I told Charles I could jump from one to the next. He didn’t believe me. So, I stood on the first post and jumped off and started jumping and jumping to the next. He laughed so hard, he wanted me to re-enact it for a video for mom. Haha.
About 8 min later, we got to Cong. We walked around and go to the grocery store. We bought coffee, a croissant, and coconut cookies, and got back on the bus. The little village was really cute and small. The movie “Quiet Man” was shot at the Abbey. This tour was totally worth it!!!
September 19, Supper, 9:45pm
After we got back to the hostel, we went to find supper. First, we noticed the mall was open, so we went in. At Penney’s I got flat shoes and hair bands and Charles got a plaid shirt and a jacket. He said “Charles is back!” haha. Then we saw the Finnegan’s sign. The guy who was wearing the sign was on his phone and was turned around so the arrow was pointing the wrong way! We walked all around Galway but no restaurant!! FINALLY we look again and asked him and he said it was in the other direction! Anyhow, it was SO good! I got Chicken Kiev, Mashed Potatoes, Carrot, turnip, cabbage and Guinness. Charles got the same but chicken breast. AND! All for 27E ^^. Then we bought water and chocolate and came back ^^
September 19, 2009, Shopping Day!
Yay! The day I’ve been waiting for! First we went to the Eyre Square Mall, straight to New Look (on the bottom floor at the back of the mall). Anyway I got a really pretty sheer ruffly dark blue dress (28E). Next: Penney’s. I got a boyfriend blazer (black with blue rolled up cuffs) cardigan, dress, scarf, hat, sweater, leggings. Next we stopped at the bookstore on the corner and bought a Claddagh Christmas ornament. Then we went to Charlie Byrnes used Book Store on the street below Shop Street. I got an Irish Fairy Tale book and Irish Baking book. We went to the church next to ask about prayer books. Over the bridge to the right to the new cathedral they said. Then we went for lunch at Garvey’s Inn. I had a ham sandwich (NOTE: DO NOT EAT THE ENGLISH MUSTARD!. NOT THE SAME) and carrot and coriander soup (5E). Charles got a club sandwich (5.75E). After that we went to take a rest. We saw that the soccer game was on at 5:30, so we came back to Garvey’s (across from hostel-Galway City Hostel-) then we realized we looked at the wrong date! Oops! So he’s watching another one, and we’re drinking Guiness. We just ordered garlic bread and cheese J Not sure what’s next!
-Later-
We left there and went downtown. We got a brownie and walnut cake at the Bakery, then to the internet cafe beside the malt house. We walked around a lot, and finally went to a bar near our hostel.
September 21, 2009
Cork! This city is so much better than I expected! We don’t have enough time at all. I was so tired last night so I didn’t write about yesterday. Well we went to mass at 11:00am at St. Augustine’s downtown. NOTHING is open Sunday morning OR after 6pm usually. Even restaurants a lot of the time! I don’t know what everyone does in the evening? Drink, I guess? Anyway we took the City Link bus at 2:30 to Cork. (At Coach Bus Station, 16 E each) 3H20min. We got to Cork! We couldn’t find our hotel at first. Cross St. Patrick’s Bridge, down St. Patrick’s street, Left on cook street, left at the end to Imperial Hotel. It’s the oldest hotel in Cork and BEAUTIFUL 4 star hotel. So nice, we went to Zanzibar restaurant in the hotel for a drink.
Today we woke up at 8:00 and left at 8:45. We walked to the bus stop. Left out of hotel, end of road, turn left, bus stop. We bough tickets to Blarney (6.20E return). The bus was 224, around the corner on Dean Street (across from bridge). It was about 20 min to get there. The fee was 10E each to go the castle. We walked through the gardens and reached the castle. We climbed up to the very top! (100steps) and it was SO scary! They were winding castle stairs. Designed so someone coming up couldn’t easily hold a sword in the right hand. When we got to the top, it was time to kiss the Blarney stone. SO SCARY! You lie down on your back and slide OUT over the edge, hold two iron bars and pull yourself down and back to kiss the stone. OMG it was scary, really. I really thought I could fall! It felt like he was letting me slip and there were danger signs everywhere! Anyway we both managed to kiss it, so now we will have the gift of gab (hope mine’s Korean). Then we went through the Rock Close (old Druid grounds) and there were huge dinosaur plants and a waterfall. It was so beautiful there. I wished I could live there. There was a forest with such a bare floor and BIG BIG trees. Then we went to the gift shops and bought some presents.
Oh! I forgot we went to breakfast on the opposite side of the road bar first (Musketer or Muskrated or something, and it was really bad!) So, next we went to catch the bus at 12:15 but it would come at 12:50 so we went to the caffe and Charles got coffee, and I got apple pie, but both were a little overpriced and not very good! We went to a gift shop and the people there were SO nice! We were the first thy;ve bet from Korea and they were so nice to us.
Then we caught the bus, came back to Cork, went to Dunnes, and back to the hotel. We took a rest then went to Penney’s, bought a new bag, ate at Burger King (I thought I saw my friend Kieran! But it wasn’t him). Then back to Penney’s and back home. Phewf! Sore feet!!! ^^
Later- 10:40pm
We went to the casino, it was funny! It was just lots of slot machines! We started with 20E and left with 19E so it wasn’t bad! (we won 25E!). It was kind of boring but Charles liked it J He seemed happy after tho! Then we took a little walk. We heard this guy on the street singing and it was so good! So, we gave him a euro. Then we got a slice of pizza and came back JJ Charles took a bath. Something was going on downtown tho. Lots of police and singing adn people talking on microphones. Maybe soccer stuff or vote stuff??
September 22, 2009- Kinsale! <3
We spent our day nicely in Kinsale! Well, we got up at 9, packed up and brought our luggage down to the front desk. We returned the jeans to Dunnes that were too short and i got 2 pairs of little shoes, then we went to get breakfast. We ate upstairs at Adam and Eve’s. Charles had black and white Irish pudding that he loved. It’s like Sundae. Then we checked the bus station to check times, then back to the hotel. We got on the 249 at Bay 10. It was a big one so we could bring the bags. Then the ride was SO scary! I held on really tight. Less than an hour later, we arrived here. We got off the bus and walked with our billions of bags. No one was here so Charles had to walk back to town to call them. We dropped all our bags and went downtown. We stopped at some gift shops and picked up a pamphlet for the ghost tour. We went to check out the place for later. Then we went to Ned Kelly’s for lunch. He got fish and chips, and I got a Cajun chicken burger. Next we went around to a nice gift shop and got big grandfather shirts for sleep. We got Dad a ghost book and then came back to the B&B. Oh, and called Mom. We took a rest for a couple hours, then got dressed and ready to go. We walked down to Top Tavern. It was really nice and homey. We each got a pint of Guinness (4.10E) and sat down. We met a couple from Texas who relocated here for his job. (Lucky!). I got one more pint and after the ghost tour started.
Bryan started it and Sean took over. It was really fun! We started at Desmond Castle where all the French people were imprisoned. A person jumped out and scared me! Then we went to the church and grave yard where St. “Elton” was. He changed his name though. Then up some back streets. I had to pee SO bad. I was sweating and thought I might pass out! We snuck off the tour and started running back to the pub. We stopped in someone’s closed in cove at the end of the driveway and I thought I could pee there, but I was afraid to get arrested for public exposure or something. We kept running down the hill. A lady was outside on her porch and Charles said “ask her to stop and use her bathroom!” I said, no, and we kept running. We eventually got back to the pub. Ahhhhh. Relief. We realized when we came out, that we had just been up the hill behind the pub, but followed the whole winding path we had come on the tour to get back haha. Anyway then we caught up just as they were getting back. We said bye and left. We went to Dino’s and got potato cakes and fries (a lot of potato) and sat on the ledge to eat it. Then we went to the casino for Charles. We won a little money so it was ok! A few euro ^^. Then we walked back and now we’re here! Dublin tomorrow J
September 24th, 2009- Last Night!
Well yesterday, there wasn’t much to say. We got up and had breakfast at 9:30 in Kinsale. The lady was really cranky! We had scramble eggs (?) weird bacon, toast and cereal. Then we went to our room for a rest. At 11:15 there was a bang on the door. “Are you LEAVING or STAYING?!” twice. We were like “umm… leaving?” “OKAY, well check out was at 11:00”. She was so mad but no one told us that! Yeesh! Anyway, so we left with wet hair, and stood on the street bewildered! We had to pay cash too bc her machine wasn’t working!!
SO, we lugged our heavy bags down the street. We stopped at the gift shop to buy Charles’ pocket watch (23E) with a Claddagh on the front. Then to the bus stop! Opposite side of where we got off. We waited for an hour since we had all our bags and couldn’t leave them. Then on the bus (less scary this time). Got back to Corn and onto the Dublin Bus. We thought it was gonna be an hour or 2, but it was 4.5 hours! Shock! We stopped half way and got a snack. When we arrived at 6:30, we got a taxi to our hotel (George Frederick Handel) at the end of temple bar. It was really old but spacious. We put down our bags and went out to get some dinner. We ate it at Oliver St. John Gogarty. I had Chicken Kiev and Charles had spicy Chicken pieces. Yum! There was live music playing upstairs. Then back to the hotel and into bed.
This morning we had breakfast included, and it was good. At noon, we brought down our bags and went out (checkout 12:00! We checked this time). We walked to the National Museum of Ireland (Archaeology) Museum on Kildare street. We saw the Bog People!! They were killed 100s-1000s of hears ago and dumped into the bogs and were preserved! Really cool. Some hair and mostly skin was there. We saw lots of other things preserved too (like a bucket of cheese curds or something). Next we went for lunch in Temple Bar at Bad Ass Cade. 9.95E for started and main. We got buffalo wings, garlic bread and pepperoni and olive pizza, and a chicken Caesar salad. Then we carried the pizza box around everywhere.
Next we went to the Casino for Charles. I lost my ten Euros mostly, and he won some, so we left even again. Then we went to look around shops, back to the hotel, and called a taxi. It cost 30E to get to the Travel Lodge in Swords. It’s old but spacious and only cost 29E! There’s a restaurant and internet (1E/10min!). 10-15 min walk is the town of Swords with a cinema, bars, shops, etc. But we just stayed into repack and everything. Charles just went to get water and we’re finishing the pizza. Flight tomorrow! I love our honeymoon!
September 26, 2009
Last night when Charles got back, we ate Ramen in our room and watched a show about Snow Monkeys in Japan. Next day, we took a taxi (11.30E) to the airport. We bought 3 T-shirts (couple Ts for Adam and Heather), 5 giant chocolate bars, and sheet salt and pepper shakers, put my new blue scarf in the bag and we went to the plane. In Frankfurt, we realized we left our bag on the plane L! We ran around the airport one hour to luggage claim, waited 30 min in there, no luck, and gave up and lost it L I cried.
Then at the gate, they made an announcement that they needed 4 people to take the next day flight. They get a hotel and 600E each! We were too late L !I hesitated and we lost it! So, we bought 2 bottle of Bailey’s (26E) at duty free and left. We flew on Lufthansa airlines. They had TVs in all the chairs. The flight was fine, and we took a bus to Pyeongtaek (15,000W), and Charles Dad picked us up. I had a nap for a few hours, uploaded pics, and unpacked a little.
The End.
