My trip to Ireland was basically three different trips in one. I started the trip with my mom and then moved to a castle for a wedding with friends and then went back into Dublin for a weekend with my friends.  Yes I said castle. You did not read that wrong.

To start, my mom and I checked into The Morrison Hotel which made us feel like we were in a doll house because we had purple mood lighting and accent pillows in the room. However, if you want a hotel with a great location to Temple Bar without being in Temple Bar, this is the place to stay.

Neither of us really enjoys drinking whiskey, but when in Dublin you have to go to the Jameson Distillery and see what it is all about. The process of making whiskey is pretty much the same as making beer until the distilling starts. This is where beer starts to transform into whiskey. Jameson is triple distilled in order to make it a smoother drink. Apparently the main difference between whiskey and scotch is that scotch tends to have a much smokier flavor because of the way the barley is dried. I honestly could not tell you if I were to taste it. We received a free drink at the end and I drank about half of it and still decided that whiskey is just not for me.

We ventured over to the oldest pub in Dublin for lunch for some traditional Irish food and more Guinness.

Once mom left and my friends arrived, it was time to move into the castle for a few nights of fun and wedding activities. We rode bikes, went to the Guinness Factory, played capture the flag, watched the World Series and had an overall AMAZING time!

After the wedding we went back to Dublin and did a day trip to Northern Ireland to see the rope bridge, Giant’s Causeway and Belfast.

I went from staying in hostels to hotels to a castle and back to a hotel and now I am back to my hostels. Every bit of this trip was quite an adventure!