In early July, my husband and I traveled to Ireland to attend the wedding of a friend. Normally, I travel with my Sony Alpha A600, but that camera got misplaced on a trip to Florida this past April. So, I opted to bring my old Canon Rebel Xsi, due to its lighter weight.

We began our 9 day journey the same place we ended it, Dublin. We spent 2 days taking in all the city had to offer, from a traditional dinner and show at Johnnie Foxes to a tour at the Jameson Distillery. After exploring Ireland’s capital for a couple of days, we rented a car to head South. Our road trip got off to a rough start, getting a flat tire not even 5 minutes after leaving the Enterprise parking lot. Fortunately, we were able to get the issue resolved and went quickly back to our journey. We drove through the Wicklow National Forest, stopping for photographs and short hikes.

Eventually we made it to Cork City, our destination for the next two nights. We enjoyed the shopping and dining in Cork, especially an amazing sushi dinner at Ichigo Ichie. On our way out of Cork we made a stop at the Blarney Castle. This was the first castle we saw on our trip, but it was actually my second time seeing Blarney. The first time was in high school with the People to People Student Ambassador program. It was fun to revisit a place I enjoyed so much in my youth with my now husband. Before heading to our next destination, we had to make a stop at Blarney Woolen Mills to get Irish wool sweaters.

Sweater’s in tow, we traveled onward to Shannon just in time to make it to Dromoland Castle for the rehearsal dinner. The next day was the wedding in the same location. We decided to squeeze in another castle tour in the morning before the ceremony. This time we went to Bunratty Castle & Folk Park, a 15th century tower house. Here they had people dressed in period costumes and the grounds were built to replicate their 15th century lifestyle. It was a fun way to experience a castle.

The wedding itself was beautiful and even more charming than I expected a castle wedding to be. The day after the nuptials, we took a ferry to Inisheer, the smallest of the Aran Islands for the night. We had a beautiful Airbnb, hosted by a sweet Irish couple. We spent the day traversing around the island and spent the evening listening to the locals play music at the pub. It was definitely a highlight of the trip. The view of the Cliffs of Moor from Inisheer was also pretty spectacular. The next day we took the ferry back to the mainland, where we saw the musicians from the night before. They even pulled out their instruments and played for us on the ferry! Upon returning to the big island, we grabbed our rental car and headed back towards Dublin. Our final hotel was called 31 and it was the perfect boutique hotel to end our long, adventure-filled journey.

Enjoy these photos taken on my Canon Rebel XSi.