A Little Adrift: Wisdom Without Blemish : Ireland

We're here! After a long series of delayed flights and "sleeping" sitting up while simultaneously having dreams that incorporate everything the girl in front of you is saying at 2 AM....

we had our first glimpse of Ireland!

The people here are incredibly nice. They all want to speak with you and welcome you to where they live. We pulled over to look at a map and a man pulled over and got out of his car to come help us with directions.

Our first stop was 15th century Bunratty Castle and village.

The architecture:

We saw beautiful poppies... One of my favorite things to remind me of France. I even painted them on my graduation cap.

Adare reminds me of Annecy, France. The incredible place in the alps and the "flower village" of France. See my blog post "We're Going to Steal a Duck."

In the town there was a place to look up our family names and their crest and history. Our family's motto was "wisdom without blemish"

Family photo at the castle!

Banished to the dungeon

We toured the banquet halls and I had the opportunity to listen to a tour in French which made me beyond happy.

These antlers were at least 10 feet wide

Not your average light fixture

The Rose Cottage:

Yes Ireland, Yes it is

A flower crown I made while exploring

Next we departed for Limerick and had our first exposure to Ireland's highways (which are gorgeous)

We stopped into Limerick and saw Saint John's fort

..and the Dutch celebration of the summer solstice in city center. Notice this woman's flower crown, a Dutch tradition.

Finally, we arrived in Adare and checked into our hotel for the night:

Dunraven Arms Hotel

We walked around the streets of Adare before dinner. This photo was taken moments before I had a bird poop on me.

...then a bird pooped on me....

THIS is what the town looks like!

We went to a pub in Adare and my dad and I stayed after for live music. We sat with a stone mason and couldn't really understand anything he was saying. According to the waitress he has a "city accent"

The poppies there were nearly the size of your face