Hello, friends!  I apologize for the delay, but after a few days of “rest” and an ongoing attempt to fight the evil enigma that is jetlag, I have finally gone through my photos from the trip.  I realized immediately (actually, after my computer crashed several times) that there are far too many images for one post, so I’m going to split up this photo diary into several mini-diaries, each representing a different place we visited along the way.

So first off, we have Dublin.  Ah, Dublin.  This is where I spent the majority of my stay, right in the heart of the Temple Bar area, a lively bit of the city, crowded with street performers, pubs, paintings, and PEOPLE.  The busy streets bustled with life, hanging flowers and colorful graffiti creating a painter’s palette backdrop for the quiche vintage shops, galleries, and bakeries that dotted the city’s center.  This area is famous for its party-happy vibe, attracting tourists and locals alike, all sharing a common goal: drink lots of Guinness, dance and be merry!

Never one to disappoint the spirit of a city, I embraced this culture right away, partaking in a pub crawl (re: stumbling from bar-to-bar with a rowdy group of travelers lead by a local), which directed me to some of the city’s most energetic pubs.  Our crawl (aptly named) even brought us to Whelan’s, a vibrant bar made famous by the film P.S. I Love You (if you haven’t seen it, grab a box of tissues and get going).  There, more beer was consumed, a dance-off ensued, and new friends were made.

It’s interesting to visit many different cities in rapid succession the way we did on this trip.  Each place has its own feel, its own heartbeat.  Without warning, Dublin scooped me up and held me almost too tight– pressed right into its heart, insisting I feel that heartbeat all the way down into my bones.  This city is a proud and determined one, refusing to let its inhabitants ignore that thumping, a request I was only too willing to oblige.

all photos by me, some via my instagram