With out journey at an end we've spent quite a bit of time travelling back to our original destination where we shall return our monster of a van - which we've all become a little bit fond of - and fly out back to the states. On the day we traveled out of Northern Ireland we made a pit stop in Belfast where we visited St. George's Market (code name for a fancy indoor swap meet where they had the most delicious cupcakes) and the found ourselves at the new Titanic Experience. Where we were expecting a museum, it really was an experience with plenty of interactive studies and.. wait for it... a ride! I love rides, they make me think of Disneyland. And this one was pretty impressive for a ride not built in a theme park. Also found out an interesting little detail... the movie "Titanic" cost more to make than it cost to build the ship.... |
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The views! The adventure! And of course... the freezing cold rain. I am perpetually soggy and my shoes haven't been dry in a week. But, to anyone considering going to Ireland, and currently getting cold feet about the prospect of cold feet, don't be deterred!
It's all absolutely worth it - just buy a pair of galoshes, plan for an extra 20 minutes in the morning with the hairdryer, and bring lots and lots of socks so you can at least have warm wet feet instead of cold wet feet. We drove up the rambling roads to a watchtower on top of a hill to start the day, where I was continuously attacked by an offending slug who was in the way of a handhold (they were very steep, narrow stairs after all).... We got a big change of plans today courtesy of our B&B host. Instead of following our map on our way up to Northern Ireland, we were sent to Achill Island - and island off the coast, connected by a bridge, where all of the signs are in Irish (it's a good thing we have our handy dandy SAT-NAV because no one has a clue which direction we're going)...
There are two ways to tell you are in Ireland.
1) You see 2 sheep walking in a line through a residential area, and there's no punchline, because there's actually 2 sheep walking in a line through a residential area. (Really guys, does your sheep dog know you're out?) Today we shall make up for the Ring of Kerry by filling the day up with beautiful views and castles and quite a bit of history.
I have finally declared a mutiny! There is not nearly enough car stopping going on on this vacation and so in the space of a couple simple hours, I went from shouting and antagonizing and leaning out the open door to simply hopping out of the van and instead of hopping back in, marched myself down the road snapping pictures as I went, hoping the rest of the entourage planned to follow along (the only danger to which isn't incoming cars but the terrifying possibility that a cow is loose and intends on running out of the fields at me).
We begin the day in a beautiful cathedral just a block or so away from our Lodge, where, sadly, the beauty of the church was lost on it's complete lack of a choir. Music of any form does not appear to be a big thing in the Irish Catholic Churches (or attendance for that matter), which is quite a disappointment considering the beautiful music we heard in the Christ Church Cathedral only yesterday.
But now we're off on a new adventure! A new and very likely terrifying adventure, for as we pulled into the Dan Dooley rental car place, another tourist had just been in a head on collision (perhaps they just tell all Americans that to encourage good, scared driving?). Little did we know, the only thing about to be more terrifying than the driving was what we were driving. With such a photo heavy post on the first half of the day, I figured it would be best to give your page loading time a break and divide the day into two.
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The adventures and images of photographer, Noelle Wells. Noelle is available for shoots including Family, Engagement & Senior Portraits, Boudoir, Weddings & Events, and Acting & Business Headshots throughout the Phoenix Metro area, Tucson, and Northern Arizona. To book a shoot, please contact me at 520.840.0754 or nowells.photography@yahoo.com
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February 2017
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