Three lads in Ireland

Ireland is one of the best places in the world to visit. It has the friendliest people, great music, beautiful scenery, a rich history and Guinness. With that list of qualities, it came as no surprise that two of my besties of Irish heritage would want to join me for a week sightseeing, drinking too much Guinness, listening to traditional Irish music and stress testing Irish patience toward American tourists.

To kick things off, here are the top 10 things I learned on the Dublin 2012 trip:

1) Don't drink and talk religion...ever. Sorry, Toni (the Killarney B&B owner).

2) All college aged Americans think they have Irish blood and even those who don't feel the need to claim they do to look cool in front of their friends. It doesn't make you cool, brah.

3) I ate the full Irish breakfast 7 days in a row and would not have stopped. It's that good.

4) Galway is a great night out. Highly recommend it. The morning after Galway is not great.

5) Josh has lost nothing in the way of people skills and Mike has developed really good skills. I still don't like talking to strangers unless they know the mommy-agreed code word.

6) The Irish don't like the English and they like to talk about it...anywhere. One older Irish gentleman told me, from his bathroom stall, that I need to move my kids out of London immediately.

7) Mike doesn't like people making fun of his boots or his show-man Dallas style.

8) U2 is wayy over-rated, but Irish musicians are wayy under-rated. Can we give U2 (and anyone who covers them) back to Ireland and take the other guys?

9) Josh has an unhealthy fascination for castles and forts which means there is a 95% chance he played with a Castle Grayskull as a boy.

10) I missed Shelley, Brylie and Truett every day I was there. Thank you, Shelley, for making it possible. I love you!

Day 1: Rugby in Dublin

Because we're three lads with below average planning skills that think cross Atlantic flights rarely get delayed, we saw no problem buying tickets to a Rugby match that started less than two hours after our scheduled arrival. We were therefore incredulous when informed that Josh's flight would be delayed by 5 hours and he may not make it to Dublin until 10 the next morning. We were at risk of losing day 1 to our poor foresight. Josh managed to use his crafty people skills to find an alternate flight that had him at the Rugby match just before the second half (or period or whatever). Ireland won the match 32-14 and we were off to the races.

Day 2: Galway food and music
Sunday morning came too early which meant most of the daylight was spent on the road to Galway. In Galway, we ate at this great seafood restaurant and went out after for traditional Irish music.

Day 3-4: The Dingle peninsula and Cliffs of Mohr

Mike wants to know why I'm making him take a picture on a rock.

Is this Josh or just him playing a sweet old Irish lady who wants you to drink her coffee?

We met the owner of Crotty's. She chatted us up for a half hour despite that we only bought coffee. Irish people are like that.









Fact 1: a ram is an uncastrated male sheep.


Fact 2: this ram is not castrated.





This was an old church and a graveyard. Some of the headstones went back to the 1300s. Neat.










We couldn't figure out why the top of this mountain was smoking. I asked some old Irish guy and he responded with some form of Gaelic or old Irish guy drunk talk. We still don't know.

Day 5-6: Killarney and the Ring of Kerry
The Ring of Kerry was supposed to be this really amazing scenic drive in Kerry county. We thought it was nice but not as nice as the Dingle peninsula.

The Irish sheep owners spray paint their sheep for the same reason Texas cattle farmers brand their cows. They think it looks cool.

Some pints at a tourist bar in Killarney. This place had great music and was a lot of fun despite the American college dude element.






The next day, we found this old church on the drive out of Killarney. There wasn't anything too special about it other than it was old and churchy.






We found this old fort dating back to 200-300 AD. It was built to protect the land owner and his family from the neighboring tribes. And also it was brought to you by Guinness.




The below sign politely asks visitors to stay off the wall tops.


America, yeah!





Josh made us stop here because he really likes castles. It was a police station.


When it became clear that driving aimlessly and "keeping our eyes peeled" for a castle wasn't working, we asked the B&B owner in Killarney to find us a castle. This castle was 5 minutes away.











I stole Josh's idea and bought the kids Rugby outfits. Bonus points for me.