Note for our new readers: Keith writes or narrates the initial review of each day, which you will see in regular plain font. Afterwards, Cori adds in her additional commentary (and most likely useful details), which you will find in italics.

You'll also find the photos we took and places we visited linked above :)

Day 0 - Travel "Day"

Cori was sick: to begin with. There was no doubt whatsoever about that. Because of that, she also would not be able to sleep on our flight that was roughly 5:30pm-12:30am EST, and got us in at 5:30am Ireland time. We flew out of Philadelphia, as they offered reasonably-priced nonstop flights on Aer Lingus. I’m at the tail end of a cold that started a week ago, and was not looking forward to seeing how my sinuses would deal with flying. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t great. 

The flight was a little delayed, and overall uneventful. We lucked out with an extra seat in our row, which made things a bit more bearable. Keith read the entire time, while I tried to sleep but gave up and watched Wicked and took photos out the window. Getting out of the airport was equally uneventful, we got our passports stamped and walked right through customs.... it might have been the quickest I've ever gotten out of an airport after flying internationally, which I greatly appreciated given my physical state.

We took a cab to our hotel and slept. I booked our hotel (the NYX Christchurch) starting Sunday, even though we were arriving Monday morning. I made sure to email them to let them know to not mark us as a no-show, so our room was ready for us when we got in at 6am. Our taxi driver considered this a "pro move." The room was perfect, and the hotel is in Temple Bar but far enough away from the bustle of things (and near multiple Hop-On-Hop-Off bus stops). We nodded off close to 7am for a short rest.

Day 1

We (read: Keith) woke up around noon (I was up at 10:30am). We settled ourselves into the room, then went to the RoCo Cafe to fortify ourselves with sausage rolls and coffee (and tea). With food in our bellies, we made our way to one of our favorite travel pastimes: a double decker bus tour. DoDublin conveniently has two stops right by our hotel, one of which was outside of a local bank, so we stopped in to grab some Euros first. Pro tip: getting cash from a bank ATM will get you the best currency exchange rate with the least fees. 

We find the bus to be a good way to get a baseline of the tourist areas and things to do. We have a multi-day ticket, so today as we are sleepy and are just doing a lap. I've also found that packages through these types of companies are a great value! We got the "Days Out Plus Card," which covered 48 hours of bus access, as well as access to a few of the local attractions we were going to visit anyway.

Feeling a bit peckish, we went to The Porterhouse. I had to first of many Guinnesses for the day, Cori had a half pint of cider. She decided on the burger and I had beef and porter stew. It was a great meal, but our small amount of sleep finally caught up with us. We grabbed some dessert-shaped stuff ("Maryland" cookies and Cadbury chocolate) from a convenience store (called Spar) and went to the hotel to watch some game shows and then fell asleep trying to beat jet lag.

Keith went to sleep, but I still had some energy so I ventured out with my camera to take some nighttime photos of the bridges on the River Liffey.  As I wandered around, I stumbled upon some pubs with great Christmas lights, including the brightest one of them all: The Temple Bar. I'm really glad that I took the time to take photos on the first night, because I was able to take my time and get some shots without people. By our last evening in Dublin, navigating Temple Bar was akin to walking around Disney World during spring break.

Day 2

We beefed it. I woke up around midnight fully refreshed and Cori had overdone it with decongestants, which left her throat very dry and she was coughing all night. She didn’t get to sleep until 8am and I was in and out throughout the evening. I actually wound up sneaking out around 6:30am in search of saline nose spray, cough medicine, tea, and honey. After stopping at a few convenience/grocery stores, I secured tea, honey, and lozenges from Dunnes grocery store. I learned that pharmacies in Dublin don’t open until around 9, and apparently even then, cough syrup is mainly made from honey and not actual medicine. Now that you know all of my business... I woke up around noon and decided we needed get up now or we would never adjust to Ireland time. Luckily, the Bittersweet Cafe does all day full Irish breakfast, and Cori had a sausage roll or two. This spot was even closer than yesterday’s breakfast, and very tiny.

Today’s main attraction was EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum. We walked through exhibits that showed the many reasons the Irish found themselves leaving the country, and the impact that has had around the world. Each exhibit had a stamp that you could put in the passport you got at the beginning, which I started doing, but Keith saw through to the end. The museum was decent, but it was mainly just walking from room to room looking at screens, which was not especially exciting. We took advantage of the one photo opp there, but otherwise it was fairly dark and quiet, which led to my downfall. 

When we finished, Cori was feeling pretty tired from lack of sleep, so we decided to go back to the hotel and it would be a good night to order in. So of course we had Supermacs (guess who picked that). First, Keith educated me on the fact that it was “its own thing,” that they got the rights to call something a Big Mac, and that they are owned by Papa John’s. I had a burger with curry fries and Cori had a chicken sandwich with cheese fries. It was fine. 

I have abandoned my wife. Be that to say: Cori stayed in the room and I hit the Temple Bar area for music and overpriced Guinness. I was able to find both at The Quays. As well as at The Auld Dubliner. And finally at The Temple Bar. After sufficient inebriation, I headed back to the hotel for a long winter’s nap. For those who do not know, Temple Bar is a very touristy area of town (think Bourbon Street in NOLA or Broadway in Nashville). Many of the other patrons at the bars were from out of town, I even met a man here on business from Annapolis. That being said, I am a tourist and think people that avoid touristy areas when they travel miss out on their fun.  I got myself ready for tomorrow’s early morning and went to sleep. Keith returned around 10, letting me know that my “husband is very inebriated,” and then decided to tell me of his evening’s tales when he woke up at 2am.

Day 3

I did not sleep a wink last night. I got in around 10 or 11 from the bars, took a shower, and then read. I kept putting down my book, but just could not sleep. I started getting sleepy around 5:50am, which was just in time for our 6am alarm to get on our bus to Belfast and Giant’s Causeway. We booked both of our day trips through Wild Rover Tours, which is consistently rated the best tour company in Ireland and offered a discount if you booked more than one trip. 

We secured breakfast and beverages from Starbucks, which conveniently was where our bus left from at 7am. The tour guide was an Irish man named Brendan and our driver was a small Indian man named Krishna that was constantly trying to convince Cori to abandon me at all the stops. Brendan won me over with his humor, and started by telling us that he “took the cut of our collective jib and liked the way we roll.” He also told us to remember our seat numbers, as we are in a country that has been torn apart by territorial disputes. Keith was less than impressed by Brendan’s quips. On the way to Belfast, he gave a 2,500 year history lesson about the country. 

When we arrived in Belfast, the bus took us to a mall (Park Centre) where we could use the bathroom and I grabbed a sausage bap (at Jam Coffee Shop). It was a nice alternative compared to a typical highway rest stop, there were a few places to get food and I was able to buy a cheap charger for the bus. One of the stores had all the (real) medicine I could have wanted, just a day or two too late. People on our tour could elect to either go to the Titanic Museum (the ship was built in Belfast) or you could be like us and take a Black Cab Tour around the city to learn about the Troubles and see the many murals. 

We were picked up by a driver named Micky and joined by a man from California and a couple from Toronto. Micky drove us from spot to spot in Belfast, telling us about the violent history that happened there. There were many murals throughout the city, including a number of more recent murals that Micky told us were generally updated each year. Toward the end, we were given markers and allowed to sign our names on one of the peace walls. It was a very good tour, but I was really regretting my zero sleep as deciphering our guide’s fast paced accent was taxing. We were dropped off at the Titanic museum to reunite with the rest of our group, grab a coffee, and use the restroom. 

Leaving Belfast on the way to the Causeway, I was finally able to get a tiny nap (don't worry, there's photo evidence). The tour stopped near Dunluce Castle but it was only viewed from a distance since the parking lot was being replaced. An hour and another tiny nap later, we made it to the Giant's Causeway. It must've been a really good nap, because it was actually only a ten minute drive. 

At Giant's Causeway, we only had about two and a half hours, which also needed to include lunch. We ate at The Causeway Hotel. I had my first Irish Coffee of the trip with chicken sandwich. Cori had tea and a burger. After a warm meal, we made our way to the Causeway which was a great sight. Doing lunch first allowed the weather to clear up a bit more before heading down (it rained all morning). Our tour guide advised that we should just head down to the rocks because the Visitor's Center was not worth the admission fee... So that's what we did! Since we took a leisurely lunch and I have a general rule against walking uneven terrain set for myself (if you know me, you know why), we took a short shuttle down to the viewing point for 1€ each. It's walkable (just over half a mile one way), but it is a little steep and it was wet and "slippy" according to the signs.

Quick note: if you don't know about Giant's Causeway, it's an incredible rock formation and a bucket list destination for me. It was either created by volcanic activity or giants, you decide.

The shuttle lets you off on the west side of the beginning of the causeway, which gradually rises from the ocean and grows into a tall "wall" of pillars. This is where we were able to (slowly and carefully) walk out onto the stones to get our photos among the formations. The "wow" moment, however, was a bit further down the pathway through a naturally-created doorway... and completely stunned us. The photos can never do this place justice. After many, many photos, we had to head back to our tour bus to begin the long journey home.

On our ride back, we made a quick stop at Portaneevy Viewpoint for some photos before the sun set. From this spot you can see Sheep Island, Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, Rathlin Island, and Scotland! Sleepy Keith stayed on the bus, but I got photos so he could still see everything. It took about three hours to get back to Dublin, with one rest stop along the way. 

The bus dropped us off at the other end of Temple Bar, so we walked back toward our hotel and decided on the pizza place next to our hotel (Sano Pizza) for quick dinner. We were tired, cold, and hungry, but I don't think those factors even came into play when we looked at each other over our pizza and declared it incredible. You wouldn't think to get pizza in Dublin, but this place learned its tricks from restaurants in Naples and had the best crust ever. Exhausted but satiated, we immediately went to bed afterward.

Day 4 (Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday Grayson!)

MEGAN AND DAVID ARE HERE! For context, Megan and David are our friends that originally planned their own trip to Ireland and we tagged along (and added a few extra days). With their arrival, I found a fun place for us to meet for breakfast, The Cheeky Piglet. I, of course, had a full Irish and Cori had avocado toast. Megan and David similarly did not sleep on their flight, but they were empowered by youth to power through the day. We had some time before our planned activities, so we went shopping at the George's Street Arcade. Cori found a store she really liked and was bummed they do not ship to the US. It was called Søstrene Grene and David and I decided it was like a cheap IKEA for home decor and more.

Now time for the planned activities: the Jameson tour was first. They walk you through the company history, the distillation process, and most importantly, a tasting. We had done this on our previous trip in 2019, but the tasting was different this time since it was all Jameson brands. Last time, we tasted a bourbon, a scotch, and Jameson, so you can taste the difference of the styles of whiskey. Needless to say, delicious. (I am not a whiskey fan, so this is all Keith's area. I do always do the tiniest sip to actually participate in tastings, but it's not my favorite.) With the tour, you receive a ticket for a drink at the bar at the end. For some reason, multiple strangers decided to give their extra tickets to our group too. My personal fave was an Irish coffee with a cocoa dust mustache that supported a Movember charity. I really enjoyed e Jameson and ginger, hold the Jameson.

With no time to waste, we made our way to the Guinness Storehouse. We arrived to a rainbow over the Guinness sign, which might have been one of the most Ireland things I've ever seen. We kinda did the tour in reverse by starting at the Gravity Bar on top for drinks and a great view of the city. This was intentional, we booked our tickets to arrive less than an hour before sunset so that we could start with a pint and some pictures. Making our way down into the building, we learned the proper way to pour a Guinness, which resulted in having to drink another pint. Feeling peckish, we went in search of the only spot still serving food: Arther's Bar. I had a burger and Cori had a Ham and Cheese Toastie (which was terrible). We explored the rest of the Storehouse and took a bunch of pictures as it was all done up for Christmas. It didn't take us long to see everything, they really scaled back the experience since we were there in 2019. The section about Guinness marketing was miniscule, which was kind of disappointing.

Once we made it through the Storehouse, Megan and David felt they still needed to be awake for a bit longer to adjust to the timezone. We journeyed to Temple Bar in search of beer and found ourselves at The Palace Bar. As they reached their breaking point, we went back to our respective hotels to get ready for the next morning's adventure. On the walk back Cloud Nine's crepe menu caught my eye, so a banana Nutella crepe warmed my belly as we walked through the cold.

Day 5 

Another early morning, but don’t worry, I was able to get about an hour of sleep. We met Megan and David at the Starbucks for breakfast, then boarded our bus destined for the Cliffs of Moher. We had another fantastic guide for this tour named Eve, who was partnered with JP as our driver. Eve was an absolute delight. She was a former teacher and called us her "darlings," her retelling of Irish history felt like a calming bedtime story, and Megan and I decided we would take any tour she led. 

After a quick stop at a service station (which was NOT Barack Obama Plaza and we're still salty about it), Eve gave us a history lesson about the island which was very similar to our other guide's. After about 3 hours of a rainy drive, we made it to the Cliffs of Moher and the skies cleared just for our arrival. We had a beautiful view of the cliffs, albeit with wind strong enough to blow small children away. We got our pictures, then headed inside to the Puffin Nest Cafe for waters and a hot chocolate. 

We had 2 hours of enjoying the cliffs before it was time to hit the road again. Our next destination was Galway for the Christmas market, especially food and shopping. Hold it right there! Keith napped for the ride to Galway, but it was a highlight of this tour for me! We drove along the coast on what's called the Wild Atlantic Way and through The Burren all the way to Galway. When you (and I) think about Ireland, green fields as far as the eye can see come to mind... not in The Burren! The majority of the land in this area is made up of rocks that are hundreds of millions of years old and is hospitable to flora from Arctic, Mediterranean, and many other climates. And it's gorgeous.

Back to Keith, who woke up as we arrived in Galway. Our bus let us off right around the corner from the Christmas Market in Eyre Square and our tummies were rumbling. After a quick bathroom break and drink at The Skeff Bar, we headed into the market. I was finally able to try a Spice Box (Underwhelming.) This is sad because this was on Keith's must-do list for this trip. Cori and David had Christmas Dinner fries, which were topped with gravy, cranberry sauce, some kind of crispy onion thing, and were incredible. We walked through the market (underwhelming) and then moved on to other shops along the main pedestrian street. 

We knew Thanksgiving is not celebrated across the pond, but quickly learned that Black Friday is. Megan and I actually shopped, while the boys literally ran away into a pub for Irish coffees. We (Megan and I) found a few gifts and I purchased my souvenir dice set from Dungeons and Doughnuts. Again we only had 2 hours of exploration before having to head back to the bus for the ride to Dublin (about two and a half hours).

Cori and I both slept on the bus ride home, but we were still beat when we arrived back in Dublin. We parted ways with our friends and placed a mobile order for pizza from Sano before starting our walk to the hotel. After a scenic walk through Temple Bar, we picked up our pizza and headed up to our room to eat it and crash.

Day 6

Our last full day in Ireland! We kicked offed the day with the full Irish Breakfast buffet at our hotel restaurant. This is where we plotted out the day. We had a bunch of things we wanted to try to do, plus we were able to secure morning-of tickets to Kilmainham Gaol (hard to get!). With the help of my little AI travel assistant Gemini (more on that one day), we decided on our priorities and planned the day's agenda.

First stop was a tour of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a beautiful old church which is one of Cori’s favorite things to see in Europe. We already had tickets from that bus package we bought earlier in the week- yay! Opposite from theme parks, you entered through the gift shop then could look around. There were definitely some cool things to see, but architecturally I enjoyed the church we saw in Belfast more.

We then decided to do some shopping along the River Liffey. Megan bought some beads from a store called Yellow Brick Road. David advised us to stop at Butlers Chocolate Cafe for hot chocolate, which was delicious. Cori had a mocha and I had an Oreo hot chocolate. Delightful. You also get a free piece of chocolate of your choice with your chocolate beverage, which was a very nice touch. I'm glad we stopped at this location, because the other spot we had on our radar wound up being packed! We walked across Ha’penny Bridge to a store called Forbidden Planet, which was another successful dice stop. 

We then journeyed to more shopping with quick pit stops for street art photos and the Molly Malone statue, which recently had shrubs installed around it to prevent groping.  While they were shopping, I may have stopped in a pub for a quick Guinness. We came upon Powerscourt Townhouse Centre, a shopping center that not only had a Santa but choir children singing carols. It was a delightful surprise! On the way to our next scheduled location, we stopped at Murphy’s Ice Cream where David recommended the Brown Bread ice cream which I paired with the chocolate whiskey. I had a tiny taste of the brown bread ice cream, and I'm glad we made the stop! So good!

Next, we headed to The Book of Kells Experience at Trinity College. We were briefly disoriented, because it turns out that we had chosen "undergrad day" to visit. Once we found the library, we were all set though. While the Book of Kells itself is neat (minus the fact you can't take photos of it), the highlight is the Trinity College Library that houses an apocryphal Brian Boru’s Harp. While it was really the Last High King’s Harp, I can see why they thought they thought that. You could take photos in the library, so the group looked around and then waited around for me to finish (whoops). 

In need of a more substantial meal before our next activity, we went to O’Donoghue’s Pub for grub and drinks (another David rec he got from friends!). We all split a party platter and I recommend that the US import the idea of cocktail sausages made from breakfast sausage being added to typical bar fare. 

We taxi’ed over to Kilmainham Gaol, where we were very lucky to secure tickets online this morning. Cori had checked when they went on sale a month ago and they were sold out but it said that they often release no shows each morning.  It was an excellent guided tour that told the history of the gaol for not only regular criminals, but also political dissidents. The gaol was the location of the executions of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. I highly recommend going if you find yourself in Dublin and are able to get tickets. 

We made our way back to our hotel to gather ourselves before walking through Temple Bar for dinner. On the way, we stopped at Love Lane, which is art-filled alleyway that we added our names to. Wandering out of the alley, we found a cool rainbow light installation in Meeting House Square and took some group pictures before continuing on our way. 

Tonight's cuisine was a place I remember hearing about on a travel show called Gallagher's Boxty House. Boxty is a potato pancake, more like breakfast pancakes than latkes. Cori and Megan had the Chicken Boxty, I had the Gaelic Boxty, and David went with Corned Beef and Boxty Dumplings. The chicken had a wine and cream sauce with leeks and mine had a mushroom whiskey sauce over filet medallions. For dessert, David had Bread Pudding, I had Sticky Toffee Pudding, and Megan and Cori split a Bailey's Cheesecake. Keith's dessert was the best one. This meal was amazing, absolutely worth getting a reservation. With our final dinner complete, we said goodbye to Megan and David and thanked them again for inviting us on this trip.

Our last stop before the hotel was to get grocery store souvenirs from Tesco Express. We grabbed a 6 pack of pickled onion Meanies, a 12 pack of Taytos Cheese and onion crisps, and 4 packs of Maryland cookies. Needless to say, I like my Irish snacks. In all honesty, this grocery store trip saved us money because Keith will buy Taytos chips from a pub in Baltimore for $2 a bag. All of the things we bought totalled less than $20 USD. We took a stroll along the Liffey on the way back so that I could take some photos of Millenium bridge, which was lit with a rainbow of lights. After we got back home and I looked into why, it turns out we caught an early kickoff of Dublin Winter Lights and the installation we saw earlier in the evening was part of it too! We got back to our room to pack and be ready for the morning.

Day 7 - Travel Day

We woke up at 7am to get to the airport and had a very amicable cab driver on the way there. He seemed pleased when we informed him that we will definitely be back. Airport security was a breeze and they also had US pre-clearance so you do not have to deal with customs when you get home. We hit up the airport lounge for breakfast, but they did not have any hot food, so we decided to find something by the gate once we went through pre-clearance. I had read mixed things about pre-clearance, even if you have Global Entry (which we do). The first part of the line is for all travelers- so you don't get to speed through that part. We probably only waited 10 minutes or so, they verified our boarding passes, then we went through to the actual pre-clearance check. There was no line for Global Entry, so we walked right up for our photos and breezed through. 

After putting eyes on our gate, we went to Whiskey Bread where we had our final Full Irish Breakfast and I had my last Guinness of the trip. There was a small line to get in, but it was quite quick. They seat you, you order via QR code on your table, then your food comes out. Honestly a really good concept to keep things moving at an airport restaurant. Our flight and subsequent drive home from Philadelphia was long but uneventful.

With that, another great vacation was in the books!