Ya’ll I finally made it! The flights were brutal, I went Omaha- Chicago- Philadelphia- Dublin, and let me tell ya, I am exhausted. The first two went smoothly but by the time I landed in Philly I was STARVING. I hadn’t eaten since 10am and it was 7pm. When I landed I got a flight notification that I had an hour and 14 minutes until my connection to Dublin. Perfect, just enough time to go to the bathroom, grab some food quick and sit down and eat. Wrong. I ordered my burrito bowl, ducked into the bathroom for a minute and picked up my food only to get a notification that my flight was boarding, an hour early. At this time I started to freak a little bit, I still had no idea where Gate A25 was. And just my luck it was across the terminal. I had my big ass bag weighing me down from behind, my smaller back on my arm and my coat and burrito bowl in the other hand mildly jogging through the airport. Ya know like the old people in the sweat suits early at the mall jogging. And with a stroke of luck I made it as they were boarding the group ahead of mine. Hallelujah! Not quite… I had my boarding pass on my phone to give me one less thing to have to carry around and not lose, cause I’m dumb. I made it to the front of the line to board, opened my phone to my boarding pass and “error this page can not be displayed at this time”. ARE YOU SHITTING ME?! So I had to step back out of line, get a pass printed and get my ass on the plane. And after a long sleepless night on the plane I finally made it to Dublin and it was all worth it.
The last 20 minutes of the plane ride a slow panic started to set in, I was alone in another country. So I made myself a check list to get back on track. Get through customs, set up my SIM card, get an Uber to hostel. Simple enough. And by golly I was able to keep it under control. When I arrived to the hostel, exhausted and car sick because they drive like maniacs, I checked my bag in and went exploring. Dublin has a ton of free museums that I wanted to check out so I hit the road. First on the list, Dublin Castle. The entire castle isn’t free but you can still see some of it. I accidentally came across the Christ Church Cathedral which was beautiful. I went to the National Gallery of Ireland and saw Monet and Picasso originals, as well as the Natural History Museum which is more commonly referred to as the Dead Zoo. I saw some very interesting takes on taxidermy and wondered in awe with the groups of school children at the large animals. I also went to the National Museum of Ireland, where I spent most of the time in the cafe resting my feet. On the way back to the hostel I wandered through Trinity College where the Book of Kels is. I finally made it back to my hostel and was able to check in early, score! I locked my bags up to take a shower and brush my teeth for what felt like the first time in forever. I spent pretty much the rest of the afternoon and evening laying in bed too tired to move but unable to sleep, curse jet lag!
Dublin Castle 
Dublin Castle 
Christ Church Cathedral 
Christ Church Cathedral 
Trinity College 
A Monet ~original~ 
Irish Deer 
My favorite! 
After 14 hours of travel and an additional 5 of museums #exhuasted 
My hostel has murals covering almost every wall
Luckily day two was a little more laid back, but I took a whopping two pictures. I went to the Saint Patrick Cathedral which was under construction but still beautiful, and then I went to the Guinness Storehouse and did a tour of how they make their world famous beer. I did have a voucher for a free pint but it was 11AM and I still had to walk over a mile back to my hostel so I skipped out on that one. But the view from the top of the Storehouse was more than enough. I very slowly trudged my way back to the hostel, my phone claims I walked 10 miles the last two days. Not sure how accurate that is but my body was feeling it. I spent the rest of the day at the hostel booking tickets and a room for my next stop in Belfast.
Top of Storehouse 
I was afraid I was too late to see the leaves change, I was wrong, again
My final day in Dublin started bright and early. I had a tour to the Cliffs of Moher booked and our meeting time was 6:45. It was a 12 minute walk from the hostel, in the pouring rain, while it was still dark outside. I once again ended up doing that awkward little walk/jog. We finally pulled out after waiting for a few stragglers, and let me tell you the driving in Dublin is TERRIFYING. Cars and buses are weaving between lanes, not to mention the bikes that drive down the middle of the road. There were a few moments I didn’t think we’d make it. After about an hour of highway we turned to back roads for the remainder of the 2 hour journey, a tiny winding road, hardly big enough for the bus. It was like a game of chicken whenever we met a car, and the bus didn’t back down. We did manage to survive and made it to our first stop, Kilmacdaugh Monastery. Let me tell you I was appalled by how many people walked on top of the graves to selfie with the tombstones. But it was beautiful.
Our second stop was at the Cliffs of Moher which was what I was really looking forward to. We had 2 hours to explore on our own, I would’ve enjoyed more time. I was able to walk about half way before I had to turn back. Standing up on top it was so windy it almost knocked me over. But it wasn’t the wind that did me in. I’m stupid and tried to walk over these slick rocks too fast and just like in the cartoons my feet went flying above my head and my ass hit the rocks. On the way down I instinctively tried to catch myself but the only thing I caught was a pointy rock to my hand. I was covered in mud, had a small tear in the my pants, and was mortified. There is a very high probability that someone has a picture or a video of me wiping out. But I couldn’t even be embarrassed for long because lets be honest I’m probably not the first person to go down, plus with a view like that you can’t focus on much else.
It was such a beautiful day! 
So windy 
After my little tumble 
More deaths here than shark attacks 
360 views 
Pretty sure Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince had scene from here! 
It was very steep in places 
The lookout tower
After the cliffs we stopped at the Burren rock formation along the coast. It was freezing and incredibly windy and breathtakingly beautiful. The section of the coast is surrounded by limestone mountains and these beautiful rock formations that lead right to the water. Of course me being me I was taking a picture and not looking where I was stepping and I rolled my ankle on an uneven rock. Not a good day for Jenna. I’m definitely glad we stopped though.
Our final stop of the day was in Galway, which in my opinion is 1000 times better than Dublin. It’s a lot smaller and cleaner and a truly beautiful old city. We had two hours to ourselves in Galway and for the most part I walked around and explored. I was excited to see the Spanish Arch that I had seen online but unfortunately they were doing construction and the area was closed. Instead I ended up walking along down my the port while I made my way to the cathedral and it was beautiful. Such a wonderful city!
It was an intensely long day, the tour was 13 hours, but the views were worth the exhaustion.
I look above and see “my final day in Dublin” and want to cry again. I was suppose to take a bus to Belfast this morning and stay there for a day and then fly to Inverness. Things have not gone to plan. There were no flights from Belfast to Inverness on the day I needed so I decided to scrap Inverness and I’d take a day trip to the Isle of Skye from Glasgow. Well then my card stopped working and I wasn’t able to get to my bus stop for Belfast. After many, many tears and a near panic attack I decided I’d stay another night in Dublin and hopefully get my card problem fixed today and fly to Glasgow tomorrow. So I pan to spend today catching up on sleep and my favorite Netflix shows. Honestly part of me feels guilty, I’m in Ireland watching tv and sleeping, but I know that I can’t continue the “go go go” mindset all the time or I will break. So heres to hoping that tomorrow will be better!
Also here’s what my phone claims I’ve been up to!