8 days in Ireland/London with an Icelandic stopover

in this next edition of “travel plans we made to revolve around a wedding”, mat and i headed east across the great wide ocean to ireland for my australian cousin’s marriage to an irish lady. i unfortunately wasn’t able to take a proper vacation so this trip wasn’t as long as we would’ve liked, but i’m not complaining. any travel is good travel. furthermore, i’ll always go out of my way for family gatherings because a) they don’t happen all that often and b) i really love hanging out with my family, and mat does too. it was because of this short duration of trip that we opted to cram as much as possible into the time allotted rather than be sensible and just spend the whole time in one place. plus, everyone was parting ways pretty much right after the wedding so we weren’t missing out on any additional family hang time. so, in total we spent 5 days in ireland, 2 days in london, and one very long transit day catered to an intentional iceland stopover just so we could go to the blue lagoon (and yes, it was worth it). lots of flights, a couple airport close calls, and one 3 hour delay and it was a fantastic trip.

ireland

the wedding we were going to was in the small (and i mean 1 grocery store, 2 pubs, a chip shop and a pizza place small) town of borris, which is about an hour and a half outside dublin. we decided to leave dublin right after flying in and travel down to kilkenny for one night then carry on to borris. catching the train out of dublin was super easy, which was amazing because after an all night flight before which i had worked a night shift, slept 2 hours, then decided i needed to pack and clean our house, easy was very very necessary. there’s a handy bus right at the terminal that will take you all through dublin, the last stop of which is the train station, where you can catch a train to kilkenny.

kilkenny

we only spent about a day total here, so i don’t have much to report, but we wandered around this very visually pleasing town, had a tasty lunch at the left bank involving very large salads in an upscale but traditional pub atmosphere, beers and chips at the charming and historic kyteler’s inn, and ate a tasty dinner at harper’s restaurant in the hibernian hotel. we also forced ourselves to stay awake and listen to some live music at a pub down the road from our hotel, because what is an ireland trip without listening to some live music?

borris

you probably won’t have a reason to ever visit borris (unless you’re lucky enough to attend a wedding at borris house, which is essentially a castle) but mat took beautiful photos that should be shared, so here you go.

dublin

we arrived in dublin in the morning on a sunday with an early flight on monday, so we made the most of our afternoon/evening there by hitting what we would consider to be the high points. word to the wise: if you’re taking the bus to the airport, make sure you have plenty of time. i know this usually goes without saying, but we had an 8.30am flight and the first bus wasn’t until 6.30am because of a holiday. we figured we’d have enough time because the bus takes about 30-45 minutes if it’s not stopping all that often. how wrong we were. it stopped at every.single.stop to pick up people and their luggage and probably took double the amount of time one would expect. so either suck it up and pay for a cab, or don’t leave on a weekend/holiday. lesson learned. moving on.

to eat

queen of tarts: a delightful spot to sit and have afternoon tea (there may or may not be a wait) or grab a scone or tart to go. i had a sweet scone, mat had a savory and of course there was also coffee. always, all day everyday, coffee.

cornucopia: aka paradise for vegetarians with a hearty appetite (that’s me). load up a plate, sit by the window and watch the people go by on wicklow street, or sit upstairs in this beautiful georgian building. i prefer people watching, so i enjoyed my meal and wine with a view of the street (pictured below).

to do

powerscourt centre: we love to just wander and pop in and out of shops and bars, usually without any kind of agenda, and this place was a nice stumble upon. i wish we had been hungry or ready for a drink, because there are some cute cafes and a very attractive bar inside that i would’ve liked to have patronized (pictured right).

st stephen’s green park: we were very fortunate to have sunny weather for almost our entire stay in ireland (unheard of!), and this park was a nice spot to be amongst some nature and escape the business of the city.

book of kells and old library: obligatory tourist spot in dublin. do what we did not: buy your tickets ahead of time and go early. like so many tourist attractions, it gets crowded and really loses its magic. that being said, the old library is stunning and i think mat took more photos there than anywhere else on the whole trip.

jameson distillery: yes we did. between beer and whiskey i’ll choose whiskey every time, so when it came down to going to the guiness factory or the jameson distillery, my choice was a given. we went near closing time so we didn’t actually take the tour, but the bar inside is beautiful and there is a “variety pack”, if you will, of different whiskeys that you can sample which i highly recommend.

england

we had about 2.5 days in london, so we tried to pack in quite a bit. i had been to there rather recently (if you consider 2010 to be recent) but mat hadn’t been since he was 12 (not recent) so we tried to mix in some touristy things and of course walked a whole lot. i have always enjoyed london but one very perturbing question that’s always on my mind when i visit is “why don’t people know what side to walk on here?” i’m not the only one who is bothered by this, either. it’s a constant battle to not run into people or constantly engage in the “i’m trying to walk/get out your way” dance.

to eat

barrafina: recommended by multiple parties, this tapas style restaurant has a unique setup of being all counter-style seating, which i particularly enjoy. i like watching what the people in the kitchen are doing, and after having been with mat for 7 years, i don’t need to face him at dinner all the time. we run out of things to talk about.

westerns laundry: a bit off the beaten path for most london tourists, but we were meeting friends for dinner and they selected this spot. it used to be a laundry facility and has a neat communal concept with all the small plates listed on a chalkboard. it was not the most veggie friendly but the fish and meat eaters had an enjoyable meal.

afternoon tea at the national theater: i love me some afternoon tea. after a lot of research by mat, he decided this venue was best value/didn’t require reservations months in advance. all their food items are themed around past theater performances and everything was really tasty. somehow we were the only ones there so when we first walked into the restaurant we thought we were in the wrong place, but we eventually figured it out.

to do

buckingham palace:  we walked by and looked at the front gates, but there is more to be seen here. there are tours of a select number of rooms, or you can plan to watch the changing of the guards, where the current on-duty guards ceremoniously change shift with the next set of guards. i’ve never seen it because i can’t stand crowds, but it could be worth while if you have the time.

tate modern: as i’ve probably said before, mat and i aren’t huge museum people. i find them overwhelming and tiring, and rooms full of slow moving tourists are not my idea of a good time. i do love modern art though, so mat and i made our way over to the tate modern just as it opened, and dedicated a couple hours to wandering around. it was definitely worth it to get there early, as i felt i had seen a good amount before it got too crowded. it’s a pretty sizable museum, so if you want to see everything, plan on at least 2-3 hours.

see a show: a long time bucket list item for me has been to see the book of mormon. mat surprised me with tickets and it was a wonderful way to spend an evening. i was forewarned that it is pretty crass and intentionally offensive to make a point, so i had to brace myself a little bit for that brand of humor. i never really watched south park (same writers, if you’re not familiar) so i was still a bit taken aback by some of the jokes, but having grown up with a fair amount of mormons and having ex-mormon friends, i found it to still be very entertaining.

iceland

several years ago, a friend discovered some deal that if you bought a certain amount of iceland air points, they could be translated to tickets to elsewhere, like hawaii. fast forward to last year, when those points that we never used were about to expire, and mat talked some customer service representative into turning them into credit on that airline. we have always intended to do an iceland trip, but time and other travel plans have gotten in the way. we decided to turn to my favorite life motto “something is better than nothing” and take the long way home through iceland on our way home from europe and spend that credit. this was solely for the purpose of visiting the blue lagoon with no intention of actually seeing anything else in the country. it was a pretty ideal scenario: the lagoon is closer to the airport than the city of reykjavik, a mere 15 minutes by car/bus. i had seen photos of this cloudy watered bathtub paradise, and it ticked a lot of boxes of things that i like: spa? warmth? mud masks? beverages? yes, yes, yes, and yes please.

upon arrival into the airport, we were able to check our big bag through to new york, despite our flight not being for 6 more hours. we were then able to catch a coach bus that we had booked in advance to the blue lagoon. we had also booked our timing tickets in advance (a must do. don’t show up on the day of and hope for the best.). mat booked us the “premium” package, which included robes and flip flops, as well as an extra mud mask at the mud hut, but you can book a more basic package that includes just a towel. we had planned on spending 2 hours there, but a surprise flight delay allowed us to spend closer to 4. we could have spent even longer, but the last bus of the day back to the airport was at a surprisingly early time (4pm if i remember correctly).

all in all, it added a lot of extra time to our trip home, but i’m glad we did it.