So we took a chance and went to Europe this over the winter break! It was Ana’s first time in Europe (yay US Passport and no visas!) and it was a great trip! This will be the first of several posts about Ireland and France.
We’ll dedicate an ENTIRE post and/or podcast to traveling during the pandemic and not just the pandemic…but Omicron Wave Pandemic. I’m hoping in the future, we’ll look back at that post/podcast and go…what the hell? But it feels a little too soon for that right now.
Anyways, we flew into Ireland and, once settled into our Airbnb, took to wandering the city. Our place was ideally located with a short walk to Temple Bar area, Grafton Street, and so much more. If you know me, you’ll know that the first thing we did was go grab a pint of Guinness! A large part of this trip for me was Guinness, which is hands down my favorite beer and possibly my favorite drink second only to coffee.
I likely drank my weight in Guinness during this trip (and it shows on my belt line….?), but it was worth it so expect to see a number of photos of Guinness….
Trinity College and the Book of Kells
Our first little outing, aside from drinking Guinness, was to go check out Trinity College and the Book of Kells. Trinity College itself was beautiful, but quite small so wandering around didn’t take much time at all, though we enjoyed the college, the library was the real pull. As book lovers, Ana and I were in awe of the library and just how beautiful and old it was! The Book of Kells was also quite fun to see. For those who don’t know, the Book of Kells is a manuscript containing the four Gospels of the New Testament. It’s believed to have been created around the year 800. It was an interesting book to see! Again though, the library was the real pull for us. There was also the national Harp of Ireland that you see as the symbol of Ireland. The Harp became symbol during the Irish Revolution as they broke away from the UK in 1919. Interestingly enough, Guinness already had use of the harp as part of their logo so the newly formed Republic of Ireland flipped the image of the harp so as to not infringe on the Guinness trademark. Crazy! Anyways, enjoy the photos from this post as there will be more to come including Galway, an alcohol focused post (Guinness, Jameson, and general Irish Whiskey), and a few other interesting tidbits in Ireland. Enjoy!
