Ireland: Thursday

Sick of Ireland posts?  Too bad.  I still have a couple days left. Then I promise I'll move onto something else. :)

We started off the day with a traditional Irish breakfast at the B&B.  There was bacon (ham), grilled tomato (which I quickly gave away--sick), potato bread, soda bread, egg, and sausage.  Yum! (We also went back to get more pastries for later)

Then we headed out for a dangerous adventure.  Okay, it wasn't too dangerous, but it was fun!  We took a short hike to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.  It's a rope bridge originally built for fishermen that connects to a tiny island.

It's about 20 meters long and 30 meters above the water.  I felt pretty secure on it, but it was still pretty bouncy!

Kristen got a pretty good video...

 No hands. That was scary.

"I'm on a scary, bouncy rope bridge!"

 Couldn't resist the classic Asian tourist pose.

 It was absolutely beautiful there.  And it was a really clear day, so we could see Scotland in the distance!

Then we drove around trying to find the Dark Hedges.  I had seen a picture of this on pinterest or something.  We weren't positive where it was, and suddenly we saw it!

It was pretty awesome!  I can only imagine what it looks like when the leaves finish coming in (actually, you can just google Dark Hedges, and it comes up with all sorts of amazing pictures).

On our way back south, we went to The Glens (valleys).  I was feeling a little disappointed in the area until we stopped for a hike.  Holy moly, it was beautiful!  Pictures never really capture what you see.  Everything was so green!  The park was really well developed and had these amazing wooden walkways and nice trails.  It was all very downhill, which meant we had to go back uphill later.  But after all the trifle and digestive cookies we ate, we needed it. :)

For most of the trip, we just snacked in the car.

So that night, we wanted a good pub grub experience with live, local music.  We thought we'd find a good place in Limerick.  We found a random pub on the GPS, and decided to head there.  Well, when it said we were at our destination, we were in a random neighborhood.  Yeah, didn't look too promising to us either :)

Who knew the perfect dining experience was actually right in the town of Adair where we were staying.  Aunty Lena's was the best!  (Don't worry, we went back on Saturday).  Kristen and I split the Irish Stew and Bangers and Mash.  So ridiculously good!!!  And to top it all off, there was a live band that night.  Accordion and all.  They were really good.  And funny.  The guy on the left kept looking at us like we were crazy because we were only having water.  Our favorite line of the trip came from him, said in a thick accent.

"We're Irish. We drink."