Ireland Trip!

My gf Allie and I are both big Van Morrison fans. She overheard me saying awhile back that although hearing him in NYC was amazing, that hearing Van in his hometown would be an absolute dream of mine. When she saw a deal on Living Social for an intimate show in Belfast, she shot it over to me with the email header "Get your head out of the toilet, Lets book it"! At the time I was newly pregnant and not feeling anywhere close to having the ability to board a plane for a 7 hour flight overseas, let alone stay there for 7 days and enjoy myself. It was hard enough to load the dishwasher without gagging, and my trip to the Bahamas with the family was less than desirable due to how crappy I felt. To make a long story short, Allie was on the debate team in high school and is now in sales. Enough said. She was booking this trip for us come hell or high water, and I'm glad she did. Van is 70 after all and Lord knows how many more opportunities I'll even have to hear him. He never disappoints. The show was intimate, with only 200 of us total & his voice was smooth as butter. Belfast, Ireland, is where he's from and where many of his songs are written about. It was so cool to drive down Cypress Avenue and see the churches and pubs he sings about and to be immersed in the culture of his music. It was WELL WORTH IT!

Van day! Tea in Belfast in the city center

Mystic From the East Tour

My Man, Van Morrison! <3 

Ireland is absolutely beautiful. The Irish are some of the nicest people I've encountered in all of my travels. Everyone was so friendly, helpful and kind. Ireland is clean, and not congested, although Dublin (think NYC) is much larger than Belfast. The food was fantastic; seriously we didn't have a bad meal in 7 days and the scenery was so lush, green and peaceful. My ancestors are from Ireland, so our day trip to The Cliffs of Moher and surrounding small towns was so interesting. I discovered the McCarthys (pronounced McCarty in US, as Irish don't pronounce 'th' rather their 'th' sounds like 't') mainly came from Clare County where we started our journey that day. They began migrating (and dying off) during the famine period where there was obviously little food to survive off of in this part of the country. Currently, the winters in Clare Co are still very difficult to survive and many move into the mainland for the very same reasons it was hard to survive hundreds of years ago. It was incredible to imagine that someone way down my lineage viewed the same coastal sights as I was seeing many a decades ago. I would love to learn more about my Irish and American Indian heritage, but this was a good start. Also while in Belfast we toured the Titanic Museum, as Belfast is the location where it was built & set sail from. It was incredible to see what a beast that boat was, how dangerous it was to build back then (no harnesses) & of course read about those who survived and didn't survive. I always hated the movie though, as Leo is my LEAST favorite actor. I mean, come on, there was PLENTY of room for he and Rose on that raft. Ugh, annoying.

The Cliffs of Moher-Clare Co

In Dublin we toured the cathedral districts, The Guiness Factory & Jameson Distillery. Would have been nice to indulge a bit, but Baby A probably wouldn't have preferred that very much! :) Speaking of, my little buddy was good to me on the trip & I felt pretty good overall, surprisingly. I'm almost 13 weeks, so I think it's true what they say about rolling into the "honeymoon phase". The end of the first tri is near {insert heavenly angels singing}. Here are some pics of Dublin!

Next to a flight mishap in the beginning of the trip (It was cancelled due to weather and I had to leave a day later) it was a really enjoyable time. Everyone, GO TO IRELAND. You won't regret it!! I'm so glad that I did.



XOXO,
Andi