Ireland: 50 Shades of Green

I visited Ireland in 2013 together with a childhood friend who was so kind to invite me on this trip when I came home broke from my trip around the world. Between the two trips I had two weeks to acclimatize and off we went to the green island.

Our first destination was Dublin where we spent the first two days before we started a clockwise roundtrip through the country. Since we had only 10 days ahead of us we heavy heartedly decided to only visit the southern half of Ireland because we didn’t want to spend too much time in our rental car.

The beautiful pattern on the floor of a church in Dublin

In the woods at Glendalough

When we were hiking in the area of the old monastery of Glendalough we saw a nun sitting at the lake, reading a book. The scene was so peaceful and quiet that we didn’t dare to disturb her and quietly passed by to look for another spot at the lake.

Our next stop was Rock of Cashel – an old cathedral on a monolithic hill with a fantastic view over the surrounding area.
A nice addition to the countryside are the countless ruins of old monasteries and castles as silent witnesses of long forgotten times.

View from Rock of Cashel

On the way to the southern coast

We explored the foggy coastline of Beara Peninsula by car. After a few hours of small and curvy roads without vision of the road ahead I started to feel sick and we were really happy to end the day with some beers in a pub in Glengarriff.

On the next morning we took a ferry to Garnish Island. A unique feature of the island is the mild humid micro-climate thanks to the protection of the surrounding countryside and the gulf stream. Gardens with exotic flora and mediterranean architecture make the island look magical yet completely out of place in comparison to the mainland.

The italian garden on Garnish Island

Hiking in the area of Killarney National Park

Resting on a mountaintop

Ireland has truly fantastic beaches with cristal clear water and we even spotted surfers occasionally

Next on our list was the Ring of Kerry: a panoramic coast road along the North Atlantic with fantastic views.

Anglers in Kilrush

The Cliffs of Moher

Karst landscape of the Burren