For the second year in a row, my family was able to schedule an international vacation over the Christmas holiday. Fortunately, by December 2022, many of the travel restrictions and adjustments that we dealt with the previous year in traveling to Paris were lifted. Although traveling is always a gift to be treasured, it sure is more pleasant to experience when you don’t have to show a vaccine card at every entry or wear a mask.

We wanted to go somewhere new to all of us, but I also had some research to do for my inaugural novel project and we wanted somewhere in Europe that was fairly inexpensive to fly to/from. After many Google Flights searches, we decided to spend a week in England and a few days in Ireland.

Ireland was a joy, it just took a little bit for us to adjust to the city. We arrived in the evening on Sunday, January 1, so everything was dark and it was a bit hard to get our bearings. Was everything closed because of the day, the date, or had we chosen to stay on a deserted side of town. Arriving somewhere at night is never my favourite option. It’s just hard to get a positive feel for things in the dark and I almost never want to be super adventurous after a day of travel.

The next day was illuminating. Although many places were still closed in observance of New Year’s Day, it was clear as soon as we walked out of the hotel that we were just on the edge of the fun things to see. In fact, our hotel was located in an area where locals seemed to hang out, which proved to be fun one night when we played cards in a local pub & got to people watch for hours.

We had a really lovely time in Dublin plus a successful day trip (arranged via Get Your Guide) to the Cliffs of Mohr. Dublin City was very walkable and easy to navigate. The bus system seemed easy enough, but we never used it. People were friendly & helpful. Overall the food seemed a bit pricey, but portions were large and in many cases could have been shared. I loved the few days we had in Ireland & I’m already excited to go back and experience more of the beautiful scenery & endearing culture!

The Highlights

Ha’Penny Bridge. Book shopping at The Winding Stair. Fresh & fancy donuts from The Rolling Donut. Book of Kells at Trinity College. Chester Beatty Museum. Pub culture. Dublin Castle. Day trip to the Cliffs of Mohr. Live music. Christ Church Cathedral. Eating colcannon, boxty (in multiple forms), Irish stew, black pudding (and the rest of a traditional Irish breakfast at The Old Mill), soda bread, beautiful green rolling hills.

SDG