Mom and Nancy come to Ireland!

So I am on my way back to Dublin from Galway after a great extended weekend with my mom and nancy! I am really tired though because we were busy since we wanted to see as much as possible! Also I am writing again from my phone so hope the spelling comes out ok.

After I returned from Scotland I worked extra productively to crank out 2 papers, I only finished one but hopefully I will finish the rest in the coming days before I leave for practically 2 weeks! I am getting really excited about my upcoming spring break which includes 8 days in Italy. We are flying into Milan, going to Venice, Verona and Florence and then leaving from Rome. I am not sure yet how I will pack for this long of a trip. I will be returning to Dublin on Sunday night and then celebrating St. Paddys day on Monday, there will be one day of relaxation  and then me and Erica will be jetting off to Paris and returning Friday night. Then on Saturday I am flying to London and meeting Alex there for her spring break and we will be coming back to Dublin on Tuesday! This is a pretty extensive plan so I am really excited if I can make it through! Anywho that's all for my upcoming plans so now I will go back to my weekend with my family. 

So they arrived on Saturday morning and rented a car from the airport and picked me up. From there we went to Belfast and stopped briefly (I was glad since I hate Belfast) at the botanic gardens! Then we continued a longer drive up to the north coast which included the dark hedges, something that I read about on pintrest and really wanted to see. They are a pretty under rated attraction and You can really only visit them if you have a car. I will attach a photo. From there we drove up to our bed and breakfast which was by a few sights that we wanted to see. We went out for a nice dinner in a cute little coastal town and then since they were so tired my mom and nancy went to bed at 8. Lol. 

The cute little town PortStewart

On Sunday we got up early so we could beat the rain. We continued on the coastal highway and stopped at dunluce castle, giants causeway and the rope bridge. I was absolutely blown away by this part of Northern Ireland. The views were so unreal and everything was picture perfect. I would highly recommend this, I just couldn't believe how big and beautiful everything was. Anyway after we saw those we had a long drive to Galway for our next activities. The drive was actually pretty awesome since we got to drive through really small roads and see what I pictured to be typical Irish life. There were sheep in the roads and the roads could basically only fit one car. Actually a little scary at times. We arrived at our bed and breakfast which turned out was in Galway county but not the actual city. This actually worked out in our favor but it was right on the water and in the mountains! Really amazing! 

Dunluce Castle

Giants Causeway

Selfie of me at the Causeway

Stumbled upon this beach

Anyway on Monday we decided that instead of the cliffs we would go to Connemara, a national park and hike the diamond hill which I actually think should be called a mountain. We woke up early and had a delish meal from our host while looking out at views of the ocean and then went on our hike. It was actually  a pretty difficult hike because from the bottom we looked at the top and thought that there is no way that is that the thing we would be hiking. But we made it too the top and the views were lovely! Then there also happened to be an abbey in the area with a huge Victorian garden. The abbey used to be a castle though and it was the best castle I have seen so far! It was so adorable, I think I will try to buy it from the nuns when I save up the money. I will also accept donations and I will let you stay there for free! Anyway the abbey was great.

View form top, ignore the couple not intentional

Kylemore Abbey, aka old castle

Outside our Bed and Breakfast!

The next day was Tuesday and we got up early again to see the cliffs of moher! We were lucky and had great weather! The cliffs were so big and magnificent. I definitely liked them but I guess after seeing Northern Ireland I could have been more impressed. Well I split off with mom and nancy as I have to return to UCD for my classes :(. They will continue their travels for a few more days and I will hopefully see them on Friday before we both leave! Overall I had a really great time and it was nice to be with my family again and have yummy meals! I am really glad we rented a car because I got to see parts of Ireland that I wouldn't have otherwise seen ( and more sheep than I could possibly imagine) 

The Cliffs! Caught in a haze

no caption needed

Just me playin around on the cliffs