Punching the accelerator our tiny little car scooted across the busiest intersection in Dublin. It felt like all the eyes of Ireland stared at us as our rented carriage moved inches per second as the stick shift car, which I unknowingly had in third gear, caught up with itself. The smell of burnt rubber and the whirring of thousands of RPMs filled the air. My new wife stared straight ahead, embarrassed like a girl standing naked in public, only her wedded bliss keeping her from killing me. For future honeymooners, I recommend taking the bus or renting a standard.
I know the locals watching would have had a good laugh with us once our own embarrassment wore off. During our travels in Dublin and Kilarney, we never met a sour face and always felt like the Irish loved that we were in their country, and they adored the fact that we wanted to spend our honeymoon there. Anytime a native found out, they bent over backward to make our experience an enjoyable one: the guest house gave us a complimentary bottle of champagne, our Airbnb left extra food in the frig, a museum gave us free admission and the Shelbourne, Ireland's crown jewel hotel, gave us some treats that were off-menu.
I had planned for us to go somewhere stateside: a place easy to travel to and where we could relax after the stress of the wedding. But my wife wanted to travel abroad, to visit a place she always wanted to see. For as long as she can remember, she longed to visit this beautiful island. The rolling green hills, sublime cliffs, hearty people and rollicking music called to her. It was the right choice. We planned our trip to be 28 October to 3 November. Traveler's Joy was helpful with planning and had it not been for them my wife and I would not have experienced our favorite things from the trip. It was TJ that alerted us to the wonderful opportunity that was the Shelbourne. Experiencing a delightful afternoon tea with the most delicious teas and treats while speaking with the charming staff in a classy tea room was the best thing for me. My wife savored the tour of the Guinness factory in all its glory, soaking up every moment and every drop of the complimentary beer. Letting people purchase those experiences for us allowed us to share our joys with them when we returned home. While in Dublin, we stayed in a beautiful guest house all Ariel House. We decided to stay there since it was a cross between a hotel and a bed and breakfast with a decent rate and a four-post bed honeymoon suite. The way the staff treated us is worth us returning. They were accommodating to our early check in, gave us free museum tickets and the aforementioned champagne and personally ensured we had a good stay.
We wanted to spend time in the country side too. We drove to county Kilarney which allowed us to experience a lot more of what the Emerald Isle has to offer. After driving the highway for an hour, we got off the beaten path to discover a castle ruin: the castle of Dunamase. The monument to an ancient era awed us. My wife was beside herself with joy as we climbed the hill the ruins dominated and imagined what it looked like hundreds of years ago. We whipped out the camera dozens of times as each new exploration brought forth beautiful and sublime scenes. When a historical romance novel inspired her to touch every stone to see if she could transport herself back in time, I ripped her away from the ruins to continue on our journey.
The cottage we stayed at that night was overwhelmingly quaint with a garden that was out of Peter Rabbit. I had found it on Airbnb and the owner, a potter who had rebuilt and remodeled it with her husband was as charming as the country itself. We enjoyed a refrigerator that was stocked with fresh eggs, milk and butter. After a lovely night next to a roaring fire we set off to see the Cliffs of Moher. The sublime beauty again held us in awe. Thirty minutes into feeling the ocean breeze, watching birds maneuver around the craggy edges and hearing old Irish men play happy and doleful tunes my wife could not contain herself and started doing a gig. I took advantage of the opportunity to record her for posterity. As we were driving back, we stopped in Limerick to see King John's castle. The theme of being awestruck continued as we marveled at the size and engineering of the structure. We wondered how anyone could drive or walk by without stopping.
Anyone who goes on a honeymoon has memories and special moments and I believe that our honeymoon would have been wonderful no matter what we did. I would recommend Ireland to anyone though who enjoys sublime beauty, beer, history and tea. Ireland was perfect for us for those reasons and we had a delightful time and fulfilled my wife's lifelong dream. The trip came under my honeymoon budget too, costing a little over $3,000 since I had booked our plan tickets well in advance. The trip became ever more special when we discovered a few months later that we both had a large Irish ancestry, and we were the first in our lines to return since our ancestors left.