Monday 30 January 2012

The Countdown has begun!

19 days to go ...  & the excitement is building!

Lovely Irish Mary from the Tourism Ireland NZ office in Auckland has been organising our return air tickets and booking our B&B’s & car rental for our first week in Ireland.  All this, the winnings of a fabulous competition, entered over 9 months ago now, through their Discover Ireland NZ website.  It seems like a long time ago that I won the trip but now it's just days away... 19 to be exact!

For months now, I’ve been putting together our month long itinerary & I have to say, it’s looking incredible.

Among my most anticipated Irish experiences are:

ü  Setting foot on the land where my Great Grandmother was born - the place she left at the age of 18 to immigrate to NZ – the home she was never able to return to.

ü  Visiting the place of my ancestors & meeting my Northern Irish cousins for the first time

ü  Getting in amongst the St Paddy’s Day Parade in Dublin on March 17

ü  Sitting in cozy wee Pubs, enjoying the craic & listening to local musicians belting out well-known tunes

ü  Acquiring a taste for Guinness

ü  Ringing the bells at St Anne’s Shandon Church in Cork
ü Driving around the Dingle Peninsula & over the scarily narrow Connor’s Pass in Co. Kerry

ü  Standing ‘near’ the edge of the Cliffs of Moher

ü  Taking a ride on a pony trap around the Aran Island of Inishmor

ü  Tucking into Full Irish Breakfasts in  homely B&B's

ü  Drinking a true Irish Coffee

ü  Driving through the limestone landscape of the Burren

ü  Taking a Black Taxi ride with ‘Paddy Campbell’ around Belfast

ü  Visiting the Free Derry Museum in the Bogside area of L’derry & learning about the ‘Troubles’

ü  Walking around the Titanic Quarter, Belfast where the famous ship was built
ü  Stepping across the Giant Causeway stones along the Antrim Coast

ü  Seeing lots of stone fences & a Castle or two

ü  Kissing the Blarney Stone.... actually, to be honest...I'd far rather kiss an Irishman! J 

It really isn't long now... my trusty 'Wagon' is packed & ready to hit the road.  Roll on February 18!




2 comments:

  1. Wow - things to do! Sounds like it will be a fantastic trip. Looking forward to the blogs!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You enjoy Paddy - the luck of da Irish to ya!!:):)

    ReplyDelete