That is “Welcome” in Irish 🙂

3/20 – Our journey from Scotland to Northern Ireland was an adventurous one as we didn’t travel by plane but rather by four other types of transit – train to bus to ferry to taxi! 🚂 🚌 ⛴ 🚕 The most exciting part of that journey was definitely our ferry ride, which was more like a mini cruise! As it was our exact 1 year anniversary we decided to do something extra special so we were able to reserve a room and a bottle of champagne to enjoy on the journey. The crew even gave us a complimentary box of Butler’s chocolates ❤

3/21 – Being in Northern Ireland, we knew we really wanted to see the Giant’s Causeway so we decided to do a bus tour which also included stops at Carrickfergus Castle, Carrick-a-Rede lookout point, and the Dark Hedges (famously known as the filming location for the road to King’s Landing in Game of Thrones). The tour took up the whole day but was totally worth it and having a funny tour guide helped too! 🙂 Of all the locations, we had the most time to stop and explore the Giant’s Causeway which I was really thankful for because it was definitely the highlight of the day.

3/22 – Went to popular brunch spot called the pocket and had gourmet French toast (see picture <3). On our way to the Titanic museum, we walked along the boardwalk area to see the “Glass of Thrones” statues, six beautifully crafted stained glass monuments each with a different scene from the Game of Thrones series. Portions of the Game of Thrones series were also shot in the Titanic Studios, located right next to the area where the Titanic was built. The Titanic museum now sits on these grounds as well and was probably the most uniquely designed museum we went to on our whole trip. After the museum, it was time to catch the 2pm train to Dublin. Once there we checked into our Airbnb located right on the River Liffey near Ha’Penny bridge and then got takeout from Dall’ Italia pasta bar – really yummy!

3/23 – The next day we got breakfast at Lemon Jelly Cafe and then wandered over toward Dublin Castle. Along the way, we stopped at the labyrinth at Christ Church Cathedral then took a tour of Dublin Castle. Afterwards, we walk through the beautiful Dublin Gardens and then visited the nearby Chester Beatty collection. For lunch we went to Mama’s Revenge Burrito Hut – super tasty – and then ate it outside at Trinity College. The weather was sunny and decently warm while we were in Dublin so it made for a really nice visit 🙂 After lunch, we continued to wander around before an afternoon rest at our hotel. That night, we went to the Merchant’s Arch pub for dinner, drinks and live music. It seems there is always somewhere in Dublin to enjoy live music any day of the week.

3/24 – Today was the last full day of our honeymoon 😥 We went to Bread 41 for breakfast pastries and then went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, the Long Room and the Brian Boru harp. In the Long Room, we were pleasantly surprised to find both a Foley and an O’Sullivan (i.e. Kaelan’s great Grandmother’s side) emblazoned in gold letters among all the books 🙂 Afterwards, we walked to St. Stephen’s Park stopping at some shops along the way including This is Knit (a yarn store of course!), Secret bookshop and record store, St. George’s Arcade, and a cute clothing/jewelry store called Om Diva. We got takeout from yet another Japanese restaurant (there appears to be quite a number of them in UK and Ireland!) and then had a rest before doing our return to US COVID tests (we picked up kits before we left which you can do in our hotel room with a tele-health person). That evening we went out to the Gin Palace for some drinks and picked up some (not so good) Thai food at a nearby restaurant.

3/25 – Time to travel home 😦 We flew from Dublin to Chicago and then Chicago to Seattle with no issues! It was such a lovely and memorable trip.

Looking forward to sharing my travel drawings and more textile-related details in the weeks to come. Thanks for reading! ❤