¡ViVA ESPAÑA!

after mom left, i spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool - a really nice break from my sort of hectic summer of schoolwork and travel.

here are some of the highlights of my month in pictures:

we went to Carmona, a little town on top of a mountain, for lunch one day....

took a day trip to Córdoba...



-------------------------->
inside the Mezquita, my absolute favorite religious structure in Europe

i became a serious beach bum...



<--- one of the beaches in Chipiona

and was completely spoiled by my aunt's cooking.




mussels in coconut curry, yum!---->

i spent a weekend in Portugal....




<---where Ryan and i had the beach to ourselves

AND we stopped in Huelva, where we got to climb around on life-size replicas of the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María!!

of course i had to go back to Cadiz...





so my aunt, my cousin and i made the trip.

we all braved the heat and visited Italica, a Roman city just outside of Seville...

and on my last night, we went to Zahara for some light exploration and tintos.


<---we climbed all the way to the top of the castle!











my time spent in Spain was unforgettable. this whole summer was a crazy whirlwind of good times and great experiences with really wonderful people. whether i was sipping a cold drink or sweating my butt off under the Spanish sun, i truly enjoyed every moment of it.


special thanks to the O'Reilly family for all of their love and generosity - xoxo


i'm already planning my next adventure :)

Mom's time in Spain...

alright, it may not be the hour by hour, day by day details that my readers (parents) have grown accustomed to, but i wanted to finish off the summer...

mom and i spent our first weekend in Spain at the beach in Nerja.

we swam in the Mediterranean Sea, ate pallea and drank tintos.

<--mom and the O'Reilly family on Balcon de Europa

it was a great introduction into the warmer climate :)

we spent the next few days relaxing in a blue house in Morón de la Frontera :)

it was so great to spend time with my aunt, uncle, and cousins.

over the next few days, we drank sangria at the Venta, met some of my aunt's friends and watched the World Cup games.

we took a day trip to Seville---->

<----and a trip to Jerez, where we toured the Bodegas Tio Pepe.

it was my first time to visit Jerez, but we definitely need to go back. next time we'll see the horses!

luckily, mom and i got to Andalucía just in time to see the last of the sunflowers this season.

mom had a great two weeks in Europe, but unfortunately she had to go back to work.

she headed home and i spent the rest of my summer with the O'Reillys in Spain...

County Clare

Day 37 (Day 7) - on Saturday (July 3rd) mom and i got on a bus to explore some family history.

we went to Ennis - in County Clare - which is about 20 min from Tulla.


Tulla is where the Donnellans are from


(my mother's mother's family)

Ennis was a really cute little town.


we started at the tourist office, grabbed a map and walked around the 'suggested walk' to see the highlights of the town.


it only took about an hour.


we saw some neat things.

mom was hoping to stop in the library to look up family records, but they were closed,

so we'll have to do research on the internet.

there were lots of neat statues like this one all over the town->

Fun Fact: in 2005, Ennis won the Irish Tidy Towns Competition. there were plaques and statues commemorating this feat all over the town - it was adorable


after we saw all of the highlights, we walked around the little shops and picked up a few souvenirs.


there was a Street Festival going on in the town that day (i love this country!)





weird fact: i had Another Brick in the Wall randomly stuck in my head all day...


and when we walked up, this band started playing that song. it was pretty frikin cool.


gotta love an Irish boy with a guitar lol





and of course, we had to take a picture of this.


for those that don't know, my brother (hey, Andrew!) goes by the name 'Quin'


so my mother and i were amused by these signs (and may have ran through traffic to take this picture)




we had a good day in Ennis, then hopped a bus back to Galway. we had dinner, a few pints, then packed our bags for SPAIN!

mother-daughter pub crawl PART II

Day 36 (Day 6) - due to excess travel and mountain climbing, we were moving kind of slow on Friday morning.

pretty swans! Spanish Arch in the background

mom and i took the day off to enjoy the sights in Galway and do some shopping.

we hit all of the tourist attractions and collected a plethora of souvenirs and gifts.

it was a nice, relaxing day....

pesto w/ eggplant and other deliciousness 

and then we met up with those crazy Dunn girls.

we started with a lovely dinner and a few bottles of wine at Da Roberta.

two nights in a row? heck yes. the food is delicious and Donna needed to experience it.

 and then it was time for MDPC part 2

let me begin by saying that we crawled through FIVE pubs....in Galway....with our mothers....

let's see some pictures, shall we?

we started out at Quay's Bar.

it was kind of early (thank goodness) so we all enjoyed our Jameson and Coke and went on our merry way.

next, we went to the place that the girls and i had infiltrated a stag party, the last time we were in town 

(i'm sure Hill remembers the name of it)

after that, we came to the bar pictured here.

mom and Donna thought that this singer looked like a slightly chubby-faced version of Kevin Bacon in Footloose.

so i made them stand awkwardly while i took a picture of the three of them :)

ohh and, already nostalgic for the country we were soon (being forced) to leave, 

Hillary and i were all about the BULMERS. 

all night.

so that was three pubs already! hmm...what else happened?

since we were already in that part of town, we took the moms to CLUB K!

wooo hoooo !!

okay, i'm totally joking...

and if you've ever been into Club K (aka 'the sketchiest club in Galway') you'd know just how funny this really is.

it was at this point that Hillary and i started to get silly...

well, maybe not started, but the level of silly was definitely on the rise.

should i further stress how strong our feelings for BULMERS are? or do you get the point?

oh! and the hand stamps...

if you've never been to Galway before, let me explain:

the streets are lined with pubs/bars that are hopping from about 9 p.m. to about 1 a.m.

during this time, club promotors are Everywhere, trying to stamp your hand so that around midnight (when the clubs start to open) you will go to their place of employment.

usually the stamp will get you discounted admission.

anyway, Hill and i thought it was hilarious to get the moms covered in stamps - which didn't take much effort (i told you we were super silly).

anyway, The Kings Head was our next stop.

the band was really good and the drinks were flowing....but it was getting late on a Friday night in Galway...

so the creepers were out....

and the moms weren't lovin' it.

never fear, back at O'Conner's Famous Pub, there was still HOT WHISKEY to drink!

so we cabbed back to Salthill.

here's another picture of the inside of this pub.

isn't it cool?

mom made a friend at the bar....

we enjoyed a whiskey or two...

and we all toasted to a great night.

thanks for a wonderful time, Dunn girls!! <3 

Q: "what did the traffic light say to the car?"

A: "don't look, i'm changing!"

Day 35 (Day5) - after a lovely Thursday morning breakfast at the B&B, mom and i had a few hours to kill in Westport.

we decided to check out Westport House,

because it is owned by direct descendants of Pirate Queen Grace O'Malley and built on the foundation of one of her castles.

check out the GIANT swans------->

(jk, they are just paddle boats)

in the 16th century, Grace was chief of the O'Malley clan and ruled the seas around County Mayo.

she's one of the most famous woman pirates and pretty much a badass.

we didn't pay to go in (it was expensive and we didn't have a lot of time), but we walked around a bit and i'm almost positive that we didn't miss anything.

the "Pirate Adventure Park" was so incredibly cheesy that i think Grace would be incredibly pissed off that her name is on it.

(though i think the girls and i could have dressed in full pirate attire, had a few Bulmers and had a great time at this park. miss you, Dublin crew!)

anyway, after that slight fail, we stopped at The Fish Market for a quick lunch.

mom had a crab cake with mushy peas and i had seafood chowder (fresh from Clew Bay!) with homemade brown bread. YUM.

oh, and at this point, i had made it my mission to drink as much Bulmers as my body could handle before i left the Emerald Isle.

mom was sad to leave Westport,

(she got pretty good at posing for pictures)

but our next stop was GALWAY! my second favorite city in Ireland.

we got back in a cab, got on a bus to Galway, schelpped our luggage through the town square and got in another cab to Salthill.

one of my favorite things about this country? the people.

cab drivers are all too excited for you to be visiting their town and they instantly change professions to Tour Guide.

there was heavy traffic when we arrived, so once our tour guide ran out of things to talk about around us, he started telling corny jokes

(note the title of this post, which was followed by "you can tell that joke to a nun" - so cute)

mom and i didn't have a reservations anywhere, so we went to see Peter at Holiday Hotel (where i stayed when i came to Galway with the girls). he was overly excited to see me and asked about everyone.

once we got caught up and him and mom got acquainted, i took mom to Da Roberta.

pizza with sundried tomatoes, goat cheese and oregano?? sooooo goood.

my mother (the Italian woman famous for her cooking) loved this restaurant. that's saying a lot.

after dinner, we walked down to O'Conner's Famous Pub.

the inside is decorated with lots of crazy, old clutter everywhere. sort of a classy, Irish version of Joe's Crab Shack in decor.

<---random picture i took inside the pub
(click on the link above for even better pics)

the atmosphere is really cool. as Peter says "it's famous for a reason," haha

most importantly, this night must be commemorated in history, for it is the night that mom and i discovered Hot Whiskey.

it was really windy/cold outside and mom wanted a hot (alcoholic) beverage. the pub only served straight alcohol and some mixers. they didn't mess around with coffee or cream or nonsense like that (those of you that have seen Coyote Ugly understand this concept)

off the bartender's recommendation, she tried a new drink: hot whiskey with lemon and cloves (she swears that 'magic' is the fourth ingredient, but i have yet to verify that)

needless to say, she loved it and i had to remove her from the facility before she tried to stuff the bartender into her suitcase.

"this is what Ireland is supposed to look like"

Day 34 (Day 4) - first let's talk a little bit about this mountain...

Croagh Patrick, The Holy Mountain, or Cruach Phádraig, in Irish (which translates to "St. Patrick's stack) is 2,533 ft. tall - the 3rd highest mountain in County Mayo.

the mountain has historical and religious significance to Celtic and Christian culture.

the short version: in the 5th century, St. Patrick (the patron saint of Ireland) built a church on the summit, fasted and prayed there for 40 days, and drove the snakes out of Ireland.

the view from our B&B window-------------->

anyway, the climb to the top is a famous Catholic pilgrimage. historically, the truly devoted would do the climb barefoot.

my mother, the hiker, has always wanted to make this climb, so.....

on Wednesday (June 30th) mom and i started our day with a homemade, traditional Irish breakfast at the B&B.

while mom maintains that she tasted the blood sausage, i didn't see it. but we'll let it slide.

we got on well with the B&B owners (i've adopted Irish linguistics) and we were the only guests that day so John drove us to the mountain after breakfast.

and this is where our journey begins...

our initial cab driver in Westport told us to "hire a stick" for the climb, so we rented a couple of walking sticks.

mom got two and used them like ski poles. i was pretty reluctant, but grabbed one anyway.

mom w/ statue of St. Patrick at the base of the mountain--------------->

this is only about 20 or 30 minutes into the climb, but it's probably my favorite spot.

you can see all of Clew Bay from this direction

and then you turn around and see the whole mountain ahead of you...

about 45 min to an hour into the climb, you could really see all 40 shades of green.

this is a view of the other side of the mountain..

this is also where mom discovered (much to her annoyance) that i was going to stop every 20 min or so to take pictures :)

the climb wasn't so much difficult as it was unsteady.

the terrain was made up entirely of loose rock.

as we got higher, the trail became steeper and steeper and the rocks got bigger and more unsteady.

we had to go through a few smaller mountains to get to the peak of the biggest one.

this is one of the parts where we had to go up and then down to go up again.

also, about an hour and a half into the climb (when we were approaching the steepest uphill to the peak) it started raining.

and then the mountain was almost completely immersed in clouds. let's just say it was quite windy and rather wet.

but don't worry! we made it to the top...

here we are at St. Patrick's Church at the summit------>

it has been radio carbon dated to between 430 and 890 A.D.

it's one of the oldest stone churches in Ireland.

even though we were basically sitting in a cloud, mom and i enjoyed our time at the top.

we had a power snack,

and tried desperately to take pictures when there was a break in the clouds.

this was the best we could do...

mom loved how close i got to the edge for this picture.

on the way back down, mom sort of got over it and let me take even more pictures...

i kept making her turn around, but she refused to smile

i decided this was a nice spot to catch some rays...

see how steep it is? this is the base of the highest peek

(where we felt stable enough to take the camera out again)

this is back at my favorite spot when we were on the way back down...

still mostly inside a cloud.

a little bit farther down, i took a video of mom.

it's really windy, but you can hear some of the audio (a lot better than in the video i took on the way up)

overall, i really enjoyed the climb.

it took us about 5 hours total.

(the average is 4 for this mountain, but i kept stopping for pics and we spent a long time at the top)

i'm not a big hiker, but i've sort of caught the buzz for mountain climbing...

and that has nothing to do with the glass of Jameson that mom and i celebrated with in the pub at the bottom of the mountain.

after some brief mingling with fellow climbers at the pub, we cabbed back to the hotel, covered in mud.

once showered, we went to the Asguard Hotel for Irish beef burgers and homemade onion rings.

(our B&B is 5 or 6 doors to the right on this strip)

then befriended the bartender at another pub where we enjoyed live music and Irish coffee.

it was a really great day. i kind of enjoyed the fact that it rained during the climb.

i like to get muddy

and as the cab driver said, "this way it's really penance" lol