Tag Archives: Roadtrip

Sep9

An adventure in Northern Ireland – The Drive

Posted on September 9, 2025 by perfectusvarrus

Saturday, 16-Nov-2024 through Sunday, 17-Nov-2024

It’s been a while since I’d been to a new country. I’d adventured across Europe, explored countless amazing spots, and finally found myself in Ireland… But had gotten settled into a new life of apartment hunting, Irish trips, and classwork.

Thanks to my amazing adventure partner Andrea, that was about to change – Northern Ireland lay on the horizon! We’d split the trip planning up – I’d selected spots, and would be covering navigation, while she had found us not only a cheap rental car, but an amazing Bed and Breakfast to stay at outside of Belfast.

We packed the car, and headed North.

On our way, we took a few adventure stops – nothing major, but little pauses to stretch our legs, refuel the car, and on one occasion to pet an incredibly cute little puppy in its Christmas sweater. We Drove, we chatted, and we had an absolutely lovely time sliding out of the Republic of Ireland, and into Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom.

On the other end of the trip, the return journey, we didn’t take quite as leisurely a drive – we pushed through to Dublin in a solid run, though we made a point to take our time and not rush. We chatted, traded stories and thoughts, and earned a very lovely dinner and pint in a pub nearby, upon our return.

Jan24

Limerick, the Cliffs of Moher, and Galway

Posted on January 24, 2025 by perfectusvarrus

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Saturday, 26-Oct-2024

Brian and I have been adventuring while he’s here! I had a week off from classes, and while I did have quite a bit of reading to catch up on… I was able to carve a few days off for us to get out of town and into the adventure.

After Oweynagat Cave, we took to the road again – this time, going a bit further out from my fair city of Dublin, all the way to the West Coast of the Emerald Isle. We started out early, taking a beautiful sunrise walk through Stephen’s Green on the way to pick up our rental car before hitting the road toward Limerick, where we aimed to grab some lunch.

A farmer’s market was an absolutely lovely surprise, and so fortified with snacks and mushrooms we hit the road again to the gem of the West Coast – the Cliffs of Moher!

We arrived in the rain – not a surprise, thankfully, and so after a quick armoring of rain gear we were well fortified against the weather and heading out toward the cliffs.

It.

Was.

Gorgeous!

I could try to describe, but… I took pictures. I’ll let them speak for themselves.

After the cliffs, we headed back onto the road, forging our way North toward dinner in Galway. The road met all the expectations and hopes that Ireland suggests; every turn was another glorious view, and every look out the window gave us a vista worth photographing.

Frankly, it made it a bit tough to make quick progress, and Galway saw us arrive a fair bit after dark… not a challenge this time of year, to be fair. It went well, though – we parked, wandered a bit, and even saw a huge art installation of a travelling newt before we settled in for a quick Guinness stew.

https://videopress.com/v/mec2aQX3?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

The rest of the evening saw us driving home by headlights – taking our time, enjoying the music, and reveling in the mystique and fantasy of the Irish countryside.

Jan22

A trip into legend – The Cave of the Cats in Rathcrogan, and the origin of Samhain (Halloween)

Posted on January 22, 2025 by perfectusvarrus

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Thursday, 24-October-2024

It’s pronounced “Sell-Win”, by the way. Not “Sam-Hay-ne”.

I learned that pretty quickly, as we drove out into the Irish countryside, on our mission to find the roots of Halloween, buried beneath the earth of the Emerald Isle. I was on the road with my friends Brian and Megan, heading West toward the midlands of Ireland, enjoying the quiet and good conversation as the highway passed beneath the wheels of our rental car.

Megan had invited us out to explore the Cave of the Cats, or Oweynagat Cave in its native Irish, in the town of Rathcrogan. She’d first heard about it years back, when she was first getting interested in Ireland, as the origin of Halloween – according to myth, this cave was where the spirits of the otherworld would enter ours one evening per year. That evening, people would stay indoors, or dress up to avoid being taken captive and dragged back underground to the otherworld… an evening that evolved over time into what we call Halloween.

It was an excellent adventure – I can’t say that we passed into the otherworld, or that we did battle with any ancient spirits… but we did get an excellent tour of the land, heard stories about its history, and even had the chance to step foot into the cave itself. We didn’t go particularly deep, of course, as who knows how long it could have taken us to get out…

On the way out, we stopped in for lunch, and a bit of exploration, in a town called Roscommon. We grabbed a bite to eat, explored Roscommon castle, and I even flew the drone around a bit!

Nothing of major note, but definitely one of the fun parts of Ireland – being able to stop into small towns, tour a castle, and then get back on the road. Good times!

Rathcrogan itself found us stopped at the visitor’s center, meeting our tour guide, and then descending into history and myth of Samhain. Our guide was absolutely amazing – as the guy who literally wrote the book on the area (we definitively got copies), he regaled us with myth and story from all across Ireland, focused on those tied in with the cave that we were exploring. We listened, absorbed, learned, and let ourselves be transported back in time… to the days of Celtic heroes and monsters.