Ireland in a Nutshell

Hi, my name is Julie Ledford and I’ll be your guest blog poster today. This is pretty significant for me because 1) I stalk check the Parkers’ blog regularly, and 2) I have never written a blog post in my life. So I appreciate your patience as I fumble through this important milestone in life. My trepidation is magnified by the fear of a spelling or grammar mistake on the blog of a teacher who always notices... but that’s neither here nor there.


Like the other guests for this week so far, I considered lots of different topics for my post. My husband Justin and I just completed our first Whole30 (I was inspired by Nicole and by disgust at the quantity of processed food we were consuming), but my findings weren’t that different from hers. In short, I lived on Nicole’s Whole30 Pinterest board, we’re glad we did it, and we will keep up some of it.

Instead, I thought I’d post about our trip to see Nathan, Nicole, and Ireland. You’ve seen some of the highlights of England already (including an April snowstorm and a chance encounter with Her Majesty), but after Durham we flew over to Dublin and spent a week working our way around the southern half of the island. The best two pieces of advice we got beforehand came from Nathan Parker (take only one small backpack each), and a nice Irishman at our local dog park (don’t make any reservations before you leave). It was the first vacation overseas that either of us had ever taken, but after how well that advice served us I’m not sure I could travel any other way! I am your classic Type A personality – I plan everything down to the smallest detail and I research ad nauseam before making decisions… so this trip was a refreshing change from that. If you’re at all like me (and maybe even if you’re not), you may be surprised that you don’t need much for a spectacular vacation in Ireland:

1. A small backpack (we’re talking junior high Jansport size, folks) with a couple outfits, toiletries, and some detergent to wash your clothes in the sink. You may never wear those clothes again because you’ll be so sick of them, but who cares! It was worth it because I have back problems, and this way we could just hop up some stairs or walk to the train station in the rain and leave people with rolling suitcases in the dust.

2. Layers. The three-in-one North Face jacket I got on clearance paid for itself on this trip, as we were in constant transition between rain, sun, wind, snow, coasts, mountains, and plains. We were prepared for all of it!

I actually used all of the features on the tag of this jacket - liner, waterproof shell, and both together.

3. Good shoes. Ireland is best enjoyed if you’re willing to get out of the car and go for a hike in Connemara or a bike ride on the Aran Islands.

From the top of one of the Twelve Bens in Connemara National Park

4. A small rental car with GPS. We mapped out a rough idea of cities we wanted to visit before we left, but that’s it. No schedules, no tour buses, just driving until we felt like stopping each day. This prevented me from being stressed that we might not make it to our next city for the hotel room we already paid for, or that we might not see the 67 things in Town X that I had read about. Justin and I each had a couple ‘must see’ places, and that’s it. Thankfully Ireland is more about the gorgeous landscapes and kind people than touristy checklists.

Justin in his new Irish hat with our trusty Peugot

5. One or two tour books max. We brought a (literally) pocket guide to Ireland and a book of B&Bs so that once we felt like stopping, we could find something with decent reviews. Every other house in Ireland is a B&B, so we never had a problem finding a place to stay. The fewer hotels, the better – the B&B owners were so fun, and after a huge Irish breakfast all we needed was a PBJ and a banana to get us through to dinner. 

The Cliffs of Moher are tall (an understatement). That's a castle on top there.

 

Gorse. It's like the Irish version of kudzu. But way prettier.

There are a few more things, but nothing you couldn’t come up with on your own. Besides, I don’t want to wear out my welcome and this post is getting a bit long. The end result was a relaxing trip with breathtaking views and sweet memories. So glad we got to share part of our journey with the Parkers - we miss you, nPn!