1 . My best friend and I made our first trip to Ireland less than a year ago. I wasn’t very excited about it at the very beginning. But my uncle wanted me to go and offered to pay for my trip. Then I did. All of the words “magical, charming or memorable” don’t even touch what Ireland is. Our favorites were Kilkenny, Cobh, and Killarney. We did a self-drive tour, which was not as hard as people made it sound.

We stayed in a castle in Dublin for two days, where my ancestors came from. The town we thought we might be bored in was Kilkenny, but we loved every minute we were there. There were so many places to explore and the pictures we took were beautiful.

Our driver was so informative and entertaining that he knew just where to stop for the best photos. And seeing the little village of Cobh and knowing it was the last stop for the Titanic were so touching. We loved the visitor’s center there and the little shops. We never got any bad food there. It was so mouth-watering at every stop! And when we stayed in Westmeath and looked out for our window to see the Trim Castle and found some scenes from Brave Heart were filmed there, we were so impressed. Again, more beautiful pictures were taken in that tiny town.

We love the country, the people, the food, and the magic! We would go back very soon. I was so indebted to my uncle who had given me the chance to be here.

The one piece of advice I would offer is to bring your own washcloths. Only one of our hotels supplied them, because people there think they are not environmentally-friendly. I have no words to adequately describe our trip. Go, explore the small villages, eat and enjoy! I still look at my pictures and can’t believe I was actually there.