"If I buy the tickets, can you get a passport before November?"

I was sure Brendan would think I was crazy, planning our first international trip in less than three months. But when I got the email from Skyscanner in late August (less than a month before I left for Iceland) that flights to Ireland had dropped to $500 each, I couldn't resist.

Over the next four hours, we worked out dates to take off work, managing to tack the seven-day trip onto the end of Thanksgiving. I settled into a research frenzy of things to do, places to go, and where to sleep. Our friend Tomer had a moving-out party that night, and we eagerly told everyone who would listen about our new plans.

Day one

Luckily, our first flight from RDU to EWR/Newark wasn't terribly early and we arrived at the airport fresh-faced and excited to see more of the world. We spent around five hours at EWR, aimlessly wandering around the food courts before our next flight with Aer Lingus.

Our first mistake of the trip was my fault. After Iceland, I realized that I really didn't experience any jet lag if I stayed awake during all of the flights and just slept when I got there. What I didn't put together was that both of those journeys ended in their final destination around midnight whereas we landed in Dublin close to 5AM, and couldn't check in to our hostel until 3PM.

We collected our bags and bought tickets for the bus to downtown Dublin just as the last bus of the night pulled away. Mistake #2. Another traveller asked if we'd split a taxi with her, but we declined, sure that another bus would be on its way soon. Another hour and a half of sitting at a near-freezing bus stop, and the lack of sleep was starting to get to us.

We dropped our luggage off at the Egali Hostel and looked for a place to grab breakfast, our first meal in Ireland! We ended up at The Pantry restaurant around 7AM and each loaded up on a Full Irish breakfast with eggs, beans, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, and toast. And tea, of course!

Reinvigorated, we started to explore Dublin, charmed by all of the architecture and stone streets. Exhaustion was never far away though, and it wasn't long before we'd stop in a free museum or find a bench and take turns napping for five minutes. 3PM didn't seem like it would ever arrive.

We found lunch at Apache Pizza, grateful that its basement seating was empty so that each of us could nap a few minutes longer without attracting attention. We headed back to the hostel at about 1:30PM, figuring that they would mind the least if we ended up passing out in their lobby. We browsed through all of their brochures a few times, and ended up making dinner reservations for a Food and Folklore night at Dublin's oldest working pub.

Finally, 3PM rolled around and right as we stood up to check-in, a large group of Irish guys piled through the door. The staffer took pity on us and got our keys fast, two beds in an empty eight-bedroom dormitory. Brendan passed out immediately on the bottom bunk, but I'm not blessed with his ability to sleep through anything.

A sense of dread washed over me as voices got louder outside the room, before the door slammed open and the whole group from downstairs thundered in to claim the last six beds, lingering for about an hour before deciding to go out drinking. The third mistake was being spoiled by my quiet-enough-to-hear-a-pin-drop hostel in Iceland. You live and you learn, and I learned paying extra for a private room or a real hotel was worth the cost to actually be able to sleep.

Dinner was a bright spot over our cloudy day in Dublin, and we walked along the river to the Brazen Head. Once there, we were led to a small upstairs room with a few 8-person tables and the menu for a three-course meal in front of us. Brendan and I split a bottle of Pinot Grigio and made small talk with the others at our table. We spent the evening regaled with tales of fairies and irish folklore, pausing for breaks with traditional songs (Brendan even knew most of them and sang along)!

Day two

We checked out of the hostel first thing the next morning, and hopped back on the bus to the airport where we had reserved a car with Dan Dooley Rentals. Brendan adjusted quickly to driving on the left-hand side and I only minorly freaked out as a passenger when it felt like he didn't see a stop sign. We set out for Blarney Castle, stopping for breakfast at McDonald's, and booking a bed and breakfast for the night online.

Blarney (and Blarney Castle) were easy for us to navigate to, and we opted to get the audio tour (a small MP3 player) to guide us while walking around the estate. Of course, Brendan and I are awesome at following directions and ended up starting the tour in a weird place, so we spent a good amount of time at each place trying to figure out which track on the MP3 player matched.

We wandered through the castle itself first, taking note of the 'Murder Hole' where residents of the fortress would dump boiling water or oil on anyone who dared intrude. Parts of the castle were being restored, but we were still able to kiss the Blarney Stone! Two years later and neither of us is particularly eloquent though, so we must've done something wrong.

Lunch was beef stew with some hearty brown bread served at a rustic cafe on the property, and we spent another hour or two exploring the gardens (including a neat 'poison' garden with dangerous plants such as coffee and cannabis). [wishing stones]

We made a quick stop at the Blarney Woolen Mills where Brendan found a marled green cable scarf for himself and a beautiful purple Aran sweater for his mom before we headed for our first B&B experience.

Salmon Leap B&B turned out to be a charming farmhouse in County Kerry, and we graciously accepted our host's offer of tea after we settled in. Brendan and I relaxed by the fire in a large sitting room, munching on biscuits and sipping strong tea, washing the chaotic memories of Dublin away.

We found dinner at Mills Inn, a lively pub about ten miles away from Salmon Leap, where Brendan got his first taste of real Irish steak and I enjoyed some delicious mushroom ravioli before heading back to the B&B for the night.

Day three

On the third day of our trip, we began with a delectable breakfast at Salmon Leap, my love for porridge made with real cream blossoming with every bite. Then, we set off for Dingle Penninsula to circle the Slea Head drive.

Originally, we planned to do the Ring of Kerry but realized that we didn't have enough time to do all of the sights justice, and Slea Head would only take two hours vs the Ring's recommended five or six.

Before starting the drive, we grabbed lunch at the Grove Cafe in Dingle, ordering chicken paninis and a pot of tea for the table. The road curved in and out with the rocky Irish coast, a terrifyingly close sheer drop off the cliff into the ocean on the passenger side and a steep rock wall on the other. Every now and then, we'd find a small spot to pull over, take pictures, and listen to the ocean.

We came across a few tourist sites and chose to stop at Cashel Murphy, ancient 'beehive' huts with a 2 euro honesty box (we've gotten really good at carrying change when we're travelling). It was really cool to explore the ruins by ourselves, with small markers leading the way through the old house, describing what each of the different rooms was likely used for. A light drizzle started up as we got back on the road, the only time our whole trip that we didn't have nice sunny, unseasonable for late November, weather.

Half an hour later, near the northeastern-most tip of the penninsula, a giant bilboard with "STAR WARS" appeared. We looked at each other, confused, knowing that The Force Awakens had filmed on Skellig Michael off the Ring of Kerry, not here, and googled it to make sure. It turns out, we had stumbled upon one of the future filming sites of Luke's planet in The Last Jedi!

We passed through a small town trying to figure out where the filming location was, admiring a large group of super-fluffy border collies that crossed the dirt road in front of us, before reaching the end of the road.

A steep hill with a few tractor paths and fences loomed before us and Brendan parked behind the only other car around, another couple exploring a little ways up the hill. We got out of the car and walked to the fence gate as the other couple drove away, still on the lookout for any hints of Star Wars.

I started to feel a little uneasy for trespassing, but Brendan forged ahead, trekking up the muddy hill. Flashbacks of my hike in Iceland filled my head, and I struggled to keep up as the same panic began to set in. I ran my hand along the wire fence next to us for support as the muddy slope tried its hardest to steal my boots only to feel a slight jolt. I jumped back.

"Oh yeah, the fence is electric."

"Yep, I figured that out."

Brendan waited for me to catch up to him at the top, snapping some pictures of the sheer drop off the cliff face into the swirling Atlantic. We admired the view for a minute before turning back to see a tractor heading up the path towards us.

We made a few jokes about what we'd do if we were arrested for trespassing in Ireland as we clambered down the hill to meet the landowner in the middle. Nervous, I hung back as a middle-aged fellow with a grey beard jumped down from the tractor and Brendan stepped forward.

Luckily, the man wasn't angry about us being on his property, and instead asked whether we liked the view, whether we were Irish (and where Brendan's family was from in Ireland) and whether we had a place to sleep tonight. I could tell Brendan was disappointed that we had already booked a B&B for the night, since it seemed as though he would've invited us to stay if we hadn't!

After our short conversation, the farmer headed back down the hill and we followed on foot, back on the road to get to Doolin for a visit to the famous Cliffs of Moher in the morning.

We checked in to Glasha Meadows at around 7pm, exhausted from spending all day on the road, and our host took our breakfast orders on a slip of paper. Glasha Meadows, only about five minutes from the entrance to the park, was very lavender and felt much more like a hotel than the homey farmhouse of Salmon Leap.

Dinner was a quick meal at a local place in Doolin, Gus O'Connor's Pub, and we each grabbed a beer and a bite to eat before turning in early.

Day four

We got up bright and early the next day, enjoying breakfast at the B&B before heading out to the Cliffs of Moher. There were only a few other cars in the lot when we arrived, but it quickly filled up with buses and cars as we hiked up the stairs to the lookout tower.

The view from the top was breathtaking. The grass on the cliffs glistened with morning dew and deep blue waves crashed against the rocks, not a cloud in sight. Pictures don't do the Cliffs of Moher justice.

We walked the trail along the main part of the cliffs typically shown in photos, stopping halfway to ask another couple to take our picture since we realized before the trip we were severely lacking in the photos-of-us department.

The official trail ended with a warning sign about high winds and danger after rain, with a smaller path along a wooden fence continuing on a little further. We said hi to the indifferent sheep on the other side, glad that this fence wasn't electric.

After walking all the way down the path and back up the tourist trail, we stopped by the visitor center to get out of the sun for a few minutes. Brendan was quick to notice that half of the exhibits were broken, and running a broken copy of Windows 7. We decided that if we ever moved to Ireland, there would be plenty of work for him to do fixing computers!

There was a really neat (but short) point-of-view animation of a day-in-the-life of a seagull that lived on the cliffs, and upstairs we found a small exhibit that showed the crests and meanings of all of the Irish family names -- Ryan and Mahoney for Brendan, and Moore for me.

We left the Cliffs around 11am for our next adventure, the Aran Islands, which required us to take a ferry from Rossaveel, about an hour past Galway.

In Galway, we stopped for lunch at Route 66, an American 50's themed diner with burgers and shakes. My mushroom and swiss burger and chocolate shake were delicious but I didn't realize the cheesy-garlic fries would be fries with cold shredded cheese and a little bit of garlic sauce. An interesting take on American food (melted cheese would've hit the spot) but not a bad effort!

When we got to the small port of Rossaveel we had a few hours to kill so Brendan napped in the car in the ferry parking lot, somehow managing to sleep peacefully through the cacophany of jack-hammers and bulldozers at the construction site across the street.

The sun had set by the time the ferry returned, and we stood with all of the locals who lived on the islands and worked or shopped during the day for the last trip across the Atlantic. The journey was violently rocky, but I've always loved that about boats.

Our B&B on Inismore, the larger of the two Aran Islands, was a small yellow house called Clai Ban about a ten minute's walk from the port. We checked in and grabbed dinner at one of the three pubs in the town, Joe Watty's, before turning in for the night.

Day five

Our host the next morning graciously offered to keep our luggage as we explored the rest of the island, recommending a bicycle rental place near the pier we had come in on the night before. Unfortunately when we got down there, it wouldn't open for another hour, so we decided to walk the 9 kilometers to the small town or Kilmurvey on the far side of the island, where the ancient ruins of Dun Aonghasa were.

It was a long, hot walk through the middle of Inismore, dotted with houses and small unpaved roads branching off the one paved route that we followed. Finally, we spotted Kilmurvey in the valley ahead of us, nestled in a small valley with hills rising up behind it.

We stopped for an early lunch at the first place we saw, a tiny cafe called Teach Nan Phaidi, just as other tourists started to arrive for the day, hopping off of small tour buses. We both got bowls of beef stew dolloped with a generous portion of fluffy mashed potatoes.

Then, we started the hike up to Dun Aonghasa, the ruins of an ancient meeting place/trading area on the cliffs of the island. The ruins themselves were neat, with stone walls in much better condition than you'd expect with the wind coming off the ocean and countless storms since being built in 500 BC, but the view was the real attraction.

On one side of the fort, the sea battered against the cliffside but looked extraordinarily calm as it stretched off to the horizon, and the other provided a gorgeous view of the valley of Inismore, with stony farm walls and the midday sun peeking through the clouds to create beams of light.

After about an hour of enjoying the archaeological site, we headed back to Kilmurvey and stopped in the Aran Sweater Market, where I found my all-time favorite sweater (sorry, Icelandic lopapeysa). The marled green yarn shows off the cables beautifully -- and it even has hidden pockets!

Outside the market, we came across a tour group, and Brendan convinced me to hop on instead of walking the 4 miles back to Clai Ban for our luggage. Our tour guide navigated the tiny roads expertly while explaining some of the sights, and we were able to see several sites on Inismore that we wouldn't even have thought of! We spent time at the Seven Sisters Church, an old lighthouse, and a few more spots on the coast before the tour dropped us back off at Kilronan, the guide stating that the tour was 30 euros each, so much cheaper than I was expecting after Iceland. And when we got up to the front to pay, he would only take 30 total from us, since we only saw half of his tour.

We still had a few hours to kill before the ferry, so we picked up our luggage from Clai Ban and stopped at The Bar, a small pub next to the port. We had a pot of tea to warm up and a slightly soupy - but still delicious - apple crumble to tide us over until dinner.

The ferry ride back was smoother, and we were back on the road to the Waterfront House Country Home in no time. The B&B had a large white porch with rooms that overlooked a giant lake, and would've been beautiful if it weren't the beginning of winter, between the autumn leaves and the snow when the trees were bare and the sky was grey.

I don't remember what dinner was and Google Timeline's no help, but the most vivid memory is the terrible mildew smell from the bathroom. We were definitely ready for check-out the next morning.

Day six

We drove through the national park Connemara, a slight detour from the fastest route to our destination, but worth it to be surrounded by forests instead of farmland for the first time of the trip.

Lunch was soup and a sandwich at the Comfy Cafe in Roscommon, and we made it to Ross Castle just before our check-in time. Our host, Jackie, gave us a tour of the B&B, with a single stone tower rising above a few rooms on the first floor. Each room in the tower had a ghost for its owner, starting with O'Reilly "The Slasher" on the first floor up a narrow spiral staircase who had died defending the castle - but not before making a significant dent in his enemy's forces. The second floor was inhabited by the Black Baron, a previous owner, and the final, top room was his daughter Sabina's. Sabina had a Romeo-and-Juliet story, falling in love with a man from a neighboring family at war with the Black Baron. There was also a super cute Harry Potter-themed 'cupboard-under-the-stairs' for kids to stay in!

We ended up being the only ones who had booked the castle that night, and Jackie let us choose which room to stay in. We hauled all of our luggage up to the top of the tower and looked out through the archer's windows over the lake, truly feeling like royalty. Jackie suggested a few different sights for us to see before dinner, and we picked Loughcrew, a neolithic underground city. Jackie told us to pick up the key from the garden center before heading up the hill, and to be quick about it since they closed at 5.

Brendan and I drove around, looking for the Loughcrew garden center for a while before deciding just to head up to the site to see if it was already unlocked. The sun started to set as we crested the hill, surrounded by sheep, with only a large mound with a plaque to tell us we were in the right place. Unfortunately, the iron gate at the entrance of the mound to go underground was tightly locked and we set off back to the castle, picking up a bottle of wine for the night on the way.

Back at Ross Castle, Jackie had prepared a lovely dinner of roast duck, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and of course a pot of tea. Dessert was a chocolate-raspberry flourless cake, and by the time we had finished -- completely stuffed -- she had lit a roaring fire in the library to keep us warm until we wanted to sleep. She didn't live on the property, so we really had the whole place to ourselves, and enjoyed looking around the castle while drinking wine and feeling noble.

We didn't end up seeing Sabina or any other ghosts but we slept soundly up at the top of the tower, a fitting last night in Ireland.

Day seven

The next morning, Jackie was up early to make us a full Irish breakfast before heading back to Dublin. We said goodbye to Jackie and Ross Castle sadly, and began the long journey home. After we realized how dirty the car had gotten from all of the muddy back-roads we had taken, we started looking for a gas station with a car wash, stopping at a different one every 60 kilometers or so with no luck. However, we did manage to grab a whole backpack full of various chocolate bars and candy at the last one near the airport as we stopped to top off the tank before returning the car!

When we dropped the car off, the technician working glanced at it with a smile, "Looks like you guys had fun!"

We took a shuttle from the carport to the airport and headed straight for customs. Dublin Airport is pretty awesome, in that you can go through American Customs before getting on the plane so when you land in the States it's treated as a domestic flight. I went up to the checkpoint first, opting not to use my Global Entry to skip the line since Brendan had never been through customs before.

"Name?", "Meaghan Johnson"

"Where are you going?", "Raleigh, through Boston"

"Who are you traveling with?", "My boyfriend, he's behind me"

"Do you live together?", "No"

"Where did you go?", "We started in Dublin, went south to Blarney, through Dingle and Doolin, spent a night on the Aran Islands and one night in County Meath"

"Ok." He motioned for me to go on and Brendan to step up.

"Are you with her?" Brendan nodded.

"Ok, you're good."

Definitely not fair.

Luckily, our trip home was much easier than the trip there, and we arrived back at RDU after a short layover in Boston. Brendan even bought us small champagne bottles on the plane to celebrate our first trip, and toast to many more.

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