My husband and I had a cozy honeymoon in the mountains our first week of marriage. We were married during Christmas break (on 1-1-11), so we had one semester of college left. We saved our money and decided to take a much bigger honeymoon trip during spring break. We had originally thought of taking an Alaskan cruise, but Dustin came across the same trip to Ireland that my family had taken together a year earlier - the trip that Dustin proposed to me on!
Of course we decided to repeat the trip together as a married couple, and it was magical. Since it was March instead of December, the weather was a bit warmer (although still quite cold), the grass was much greener, and we were able to visit many incredible little towns we hadn't been to before.
We hiked up to the Witches Hat, we saw the Cliffs of Moher, we visited Waterford and Galway, and we even celebrate St. Patrick's Day in the great city of Dublin. We were in the beating green heart of Irish enthusiasm. Our hotel surprised us that morning with little corsages of fresh clovers, which we enthusiastically pinned to our coats before heading out for our day of Dublining. We stood for hours to enjoy the rather grand spectacle that is the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Dublin - it was both beautiful and strange and sometimes dark, and we found ourselves baffled and fascinated by their displays of color and music and characters.
It was so cold in the shade that we were overwhelmed with gratitude when we found a coffee shop that was open a few doors down towards the end of the parade, and eventually we wandered into a warm pub that was crowded with green-clad people. I ended up getting horribly sick towards the end of the trip, probably due to the hours in the cold, but it was worth it. (Although in hindsight I should have been wearing much warmer clothes. I was way too persistent about wearing my shamrock-green tights).
One of my favorite pictures above is of the three clearly drunk Irishwomen who demanded, rather excitedly, that we take their picture. I was also flashed by a redheaded Irishman later on, which I'm quite sure he doesn't remember.
It was an incredible day - one that I hope never fades as time goes by. It is a memory that is still as full of color and hollering as the day I stood there with my new husband, rosy-cheeked and freezing.
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