Oh Ireland, how did we love thee? Freezing cold, wet, and windy. What a great trip!!! Ok, so if you didn’t know, Nicole and I took a trip to Ireland in mid-December and had a blast! I feel especially chatty right now, so get comfortable because it’s trip detail time! We were accompanied by our good friends, Larrion and Sam. For the first part of the trip, we spent two days at the beautiful Dromoland Castle near Shannon, Ireland, to second shoot a wedding. The castle was absolutely beautiful with an amazing staff! The entire inside of the castle was decorated for Christmas and was incredibly festive! We really loved the giant Christmas tree that was in one of the sitting rooms. Despite the tree being very tall, it had a bit of a “Charlie Brown tree” feel to it, as did most of the Christmas trees we saw. Our room was down a few flights of stairs but was very nice. They even had an American power outlet in the room! The first night in the castle, we spent having dinner and a drink with Larrion and Sam. Dromoland was celebrating 50 years and just so happened to have brewed a beer for the occasion. I did enjoy one of those special beers, and it was pretty good…very wheatie! The next morning, we woke up and enjoyed a lovely breakfast before spending the day working at Dustin and Adrienne’s wedding. We ended the night in front of the castle’s giant fireplace enjoying a late night Diet Coke. We had to leave Dromoland the next day to venture onward, so we soaked up as much time in front of the fire as possible. The next morning, we woke up, grabbed a delicious breakfast and took a few pictures around the castle!

I really wish we could have spent more time at Dromoland, but spending a few more days there is just a good reason for us to go back! So right after check-out, we hit the road and headed towards the Cliffs of Moher. We were all super excited to see the cliffs! I just knew we would get a few stunning images from this destination. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. When we got to the Cliffs, a terrible storm was starting to blow in. A seriously bad storm! We were just walking away from our car when it started to pour down rain, and we heard that they were evacuating the area! Crazy, right? But, since we drove all that way, and had about 5 minutes before we had to clear out, we stopped and grabbed a few pictures. A running theme through this vacation was that just when I wanted to take pictures, the bottom would drop and I’d have to put the camera away to keep it protected. So we took just a moment to look around and grab a quick picture before hitting the gift shop and heading out. It was fun to be in the gift shop as we saw most of the people that had been at Dustin and Adrienne’s wedding the night before! So, with our disappointment in not being able to see more of the Cliffs, we headed off. (Again, just another reason to go back right?!?!)

A big thanks to Larrion and Sam for handling the driving duties on this travel day. Nicole and I were pretty exhausted from shooting about a 16 hour wedding, so we caught a few ZZZs in the backseat. From what Larrion and Sam told us, we drove through several cute little towns, but pouring (and I mean pouring!) rain kept us from stopping to check things out. Our plan was to stop in Cork that night so we could wake up the next day and visit Blarney Castle first thing the next morning. Thankfully, the staff at Dromoland was great and told us that not far from Cork was the Jameson brewery! Larrion and I were pretty interested in stopping by and doing a taste test, so we made our way to the brewery. We were too late to do the full tour, so we just looked around the grounds and hit the tasting room. I was all excited about getting a bottle of the Jameson that you can only buy at that location, but, after a taste test, I wasn’t really sold on it. We did enjoy sampling four different Jamesons, though, and even Nicole had a taste! (She wasn’t a fan at all! It was fun to see her facial expression, though!) We did sample a few other Irish whiskeys and found a brand we really enjoyed…Bushmills! Bushmills brewery is in Northern Ireland and will be visited on a future trip!

The next morning, we were up bright and early and hit Blarney Castle right after it opened. It was so nice to be visiting here during a non-tourist season. There were maybe four other people on the grounds at the same time as us, so we basically had the place to ourselves! Of all the things we did on this trip, I think I enjoyed Blarney Castle the most. The grounds were just so beautiful and peaceful. While it was a bit chilly that day, it was just so pleasant. There’s something about spending time abroad with the person you love that just seems right, and I totally felt that way at Blarney. It was also nice to be there with our dear friends, too! We’ve been working hard with Larrion on his photography skills, and he is getting much better!

Walking through the castle was interesting…you’ll notice in this next image that the door is barely big enough for Nicole to fit through…well it was definitely a challenge for me to fit through those doors and up the spiral staircase!

This next image is one of a kind! Nicole in a kitchen!!! (For anyone who doesn’t know Nicole, here’s a little tidbit…she isn’t much of a cook! But she sure is cute!)

We made it to the top and it was time to kiss the Blarney stone! Nicole had to stretch every bit of her 5’3″ body to make it happen!

It was pretty strange to drive down a main road and then, BOOM! Castle to your right!

After Cahir, we headed to the Rock of Cashel. This place was spectacular! We could see it from miles away on the interstate! The disappointing thing about the Rock, was it was covered in scaffolding. Scaffolding is ugly, but renovations are necessary. Before we toured the Rock, we walked into the small town and grabbed some food at Fahy’s Bar and Restaurant. I’m not sure if I was just starving, which I was, but that food was amazing! I had something called taco fries and they were awesome!!! After we were good and full, Nicole and I walked back up to the Rock while Larrion and Sam toured the town. At the foot of the hill going to the Rock is a cute little souvenir shop with the sweetest lady working there! She was just so happy we stopped in her little shop! Nicole bought some earrings, and I grabbed myself an Ireland hoodie before hitting the road to Dublin!

We made it to Dublin pretty late, and, after three or four missed turns, finally found our way to the hotel! Dublin is a pretty crazy place to drive, so we happily parked the rental car and walked the rest of the trip. Dublin was such a great city! We were within walking distance to the Temple Bar region (similar to a clean version of Bourbon street) and to many main areas, so we spent a lot of time walking around. It was so great to be there at Christmas! Decorations galore filled the City but the best part, I mean the coolest most awesome thing ever, was that everyone (and I MEAN EVERYONE!) was wearing tacky Christmas sweaters. The tackier the better! From young to old, people were decked out in terrible sweaters, but they loved it! If you didn’t see our facebook Christmas post, then you missed out on seeing Nicole and I in our Deadly Christmas Jumpers! Yes, we went into the Deadly Christmas Jumper store and each came out with super awesome sweaters!

Just like the rest of our trip, it rained everyday in Dublin, so we didn’t get the chance for photo excursions like we wanted. And it was cold and windy…so windy that it would actually lift you up and move you forward! Still, we snapped pictures when we could.

I love pizza, seriously, LOVE pizza! And I will happily grab a slice at any time of the day, but when your sign says “Probably the best Pizza in Dublin,” you’re not selling me on a slice.

Nicole and I aren’t too risky when it comes to food overseas, but when we travel with Larrion and Sam we tend to branch out and stop at random places. We were all pretty hungry one afternoon and decided it would be a good idea to get out of the rain and get some food. We walked into BadBob’s Temple Bar to have lunch and man oh man did we strike gold! I ordered a steak sandwich that came with the most delicious pepper sauce ever!!!!!! Oh it was just so good! I don’t remember how everyone else came out, but I sure was full! Before leaving we took a few scenic while in BadBob’s since it was decorated for Christmas!

Our hotel lobby had a nice Christmas tree too!

While we were in Ireland, Nicole’s sleep schedule got pretty messed up. Basically, she was up every morning at about 4 am…and if you know anything about Nicole and I, we are not early risers! So one morning, while I snoozed, Nicole went on a 4 am photo safari!

Nicole’s tradition of finding art on our overseas vacations continued as we bought a few paintings from a very nice artist who was setup outside the park seen in the above image. We chatted with this gentleman for a while and really liked his work, so we made sure to grab a pic with him!

While walking around Dublin, I saw a giant Disney vacation poster on the side of a building, so I had to grab an image of it. You’ll also notice that we took a tour on the Ghost Bus! Nicole loves scary stuff, which means we do ghost tours. It’s fun to do these tours because you get to see stuff you wouldn’t otherwise see! The big deal on this tour was stopping by Bram Stoker’s old apartment! The Dracula writer lived in Dublin! In addition to teaching Larrion how to take better photographs, we put Sam to work holding the off camera flash! We really loved the look of the Temple Bar, so we pulled out the off camera flash, and grabbed a nice portrait of Larrion and Sam and had them take one of us! We also enjoyed seeing all of the colorful doors all around town! I’m not sure which color we are going to go with, but I think we’ll be re-painting our front door from red to some thing else!

Well, that’s it for the Ireland trip! Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out our trip! In addition to our “big camera” pictures, we always try our best to share lots of instagram photos from our travels too, so if you are on instagram make sure to follow us @kevkberg and @nicolehberg!

Blogstalkers, we will soon be sharing our pictures from our recent trip to New York City! A snow covered Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park will be coming your way soon! There may also be a celebrity sighting on the NYC blog too!!!