Spring Break 2016 Ireland Day 1

Hey guys,

I know that I haven’t posted in a really long time and some of my posts are going to be really old and back from March but I really wanted to blog about my spring break trip to Ireland because it was absolutely beautiful and I already want to go back. So I also have to add that I have officially graduated from Undergrad with two Bachelors of Business Administration degrees in Management and Marketing. I will do a blog post on this later as well. So without further ado here is my first blog post about my trip to Ireland.

This blog post is technically going to consist of days 1 (March 4th) and 2 (March 5th) because on day 1 all we really did was fly to Ireland. Also, we didn’t really do much on day 2 either because it was our first day in Ireland and we were all pretty tired. We basically just walked around Dublin for a few hours, drove to our hotel, and then grabbed dinner and went to bed. The rest of the trip was a lot more exhilarating, I promise!

So for Day 1 we had to catch a flight from Fort Myers, FL (RSW) to New York (JFK) and then we had about a 4 hour long layover at JFK. While we were at JFK we had some snacks a.k.a mini macrons from Baked by Melissa! If you’re ever in NYC I highly recommend checking out one of her stores because the mini macarons and mini cupcakes she sells are delicious! We also ate an early dinner while at JFK because we weren’t entirely sure if there would be dinner and if there was, I was entirely sure if I was going to like it because I am an extremely picky eater. I basically still eat like a kid (chicken fingers are my favorite!).

We landed in Dublin at like 5:30 in the morning and when we landed we grabbed our carry-ons and headed for customs, which I was kind of scared of. I have never been through customs in another country other than the ones you do when you go on a cruise, which is no big deal. And for Ireland it was basically the same thing, no big deal. We got in line, which was very short because only two planes had landed that early in the morning in Dublin that were going threw the same customs line as us. After customs we headed to get our suitcases and then find out where to pick up our rental car. Since we arrived that early basically the entire airport was still closed and we only found one shop that was open to buy waters at because we were all very dehydrated.

From the airport we grabbed a cab and headed into the center of the city, which was about a 20-30 minute drive. We had a rental car but it was still pretty early and we were pretty tired plus we had no idea where to go so it was a lot easier to just ask the cab driver where he recommended to go. Plus it was also nice being able to ride in a car on the opposite side of the rode and ask the driver whatever questions we had before driving our own car.  

Since we landed earlier than planed and customs took no time at all we ended up getting into Dublin really early. We did a bunch of research online and everyone said that customs would take at least and hour if not longer however, it only took about 10 minutes and we all just walked up as a family and the guy asked us whatever questions he needed to ask and we answered them, he stamped our passports, and then we were on our way.

Since we got into Dublin really early, unfortunately nothing was open. My sister and I had planned a full day in Dublin so we could check everything off our travel bucket list, however, nothing opened until 10 and it was about 7 am by the time we got there. So we basically just walked around trying to find something to do and then gave up because literally nothing was open except for a few random coffee shop/café things. So we found a cab back to the airport, went to our rental car and headed to the Village of Adare where our hotel was.

The drive from Dublin to Adare was a little over 2 hours. It was a pretty smooth drive; my dad drove first, then my sister took a turn and then my mom drove the rest of the way to the village. The Village of Adare was absolutely adorable but then again so was every single Irish village or city we went to. We had a hard time finding our hotel at first because it was under construction at the time and the main entrance was closed. So we had to drive a little bit more into the town before we were able to find the second entrance. The hotel we were staying at was called the Adare Manor.

Once we got there, we checked into our room, which was basically a town house that had 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a full size kitchen, a dining area, a living room, a sunroom, and a patio with a table and chairs. We selected which rooms we were going to stay in for the rest of the week, unpacked our bags a little, and then we each ended up falling asleep for a few hours except for my mom because she actually napped in the car. After we rested we went out and explored the little village of Adare and we ate dinner at a locally owned restaurant called The Arches. The food was very good! I had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with some french fries.

After dinner we checked out the local Heritage Center, which is basically the towns visitors center. We looked around at brochures to see if there was anything that we wanted to do if we had any extra time. After that we went to a local grocery store and picked up a few things we wanted/needed since we had a full size kitchen. We mostly got food for the morning, drinks, and random snacks that we don’t have in America. Then we headed back to our townhouse and called it a night because we were all still very tired even after our naps.

Feel free to leave me a comment or share this post with your friends! 

Thanks for stopping! 

XO, Steph