July was a good month!
With the lifting of the travel ban across the island, we can finally move outside of our county.
The first place we went to was Glendalough in Wicklow National Park, for a breath of fresh mountain air.
We then visited Powerscourt Gardens
Voted no. 3 in the World’s Top 10 Gardens by National Geographic.
And Ireland’s highest waterfall
I even made it as far as Galway for a three day weekend
Hiked up to the Cliff of Moher on a rare windless sunny day
Then got hit with rain and gusty wind at Inishmore – the largest of the Aran Islands – the very next day.
I had fabulous food in Galway which I will elaborate in a later post.
Back in Dublin, we see these beautiful hanging baskets everywhere.
While Temple Bar, the pub, is still closed as of date, the market is open with social distancing rules in place.
We had an amazing meal at Bang, the first restaurant we visited since the lockdown.
The croquettes are light filled with Ibérican ham. The Noceralla olives from Sicíly, marinated in chef’s own secret herbal blend, were divine. The mussels were tender, its broth infused with confit garlic and wild orache, paired with sourdough from Bread 41. For dessert, we had strawberry and elderflower Eton mess, a masterful interpretation of the traditional British dessert without the excess sugar and the use of mascarpone in place of whipped cream adds a buttery dimension to the texture. All staff wore face shield. It was a jovial experience.
On a sad note, following my weekend in Galway, there was a public outcry, in the press and social media, of American tourists arriving Ireland openly flouting the 14-day quarantine rules and local business turning away American customers, which caused much concern in the expat community. Personally I have not notice any ill treatment even though I received friendly inquiries of my nationality – a topic which doesn’t usually come up in conversations – largely due to my accent. All I did was to reassure the business that I am a resident and went through the lockdown just as everyone else in this country.
Travel-Gourmand.com 
The nature there is amazingly beautiful!
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I was in Galway 17 years ago. Thanks for the revisit.
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Love Galway. Hope to be back another weekend in September. Lots to do.
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Lovely images and it’s made me nostalgic, and wanting to return soon (from the UK). I’ve visited all the spots except the Isle of Inishmore (is that the island where the Father Ted series was filmed)? The food looked delish too, especially the moules avec frites, my favourite.
Re the tourists from the US. I’m afraid these are casualties of the outbreak of the virus and sad though I am that it spoils some people’s holiday, it just can’t be helped. Quarantine must be maintained and we all have to learn to treat these things as a normal part of travel these days.
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Beautiful shots. Would love to visit Ireland one day. 😊
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Sounds like a great month of July for you! The landscape of Ireland is truly surreal, and it’s awesome you got to visit Galway and the Cliffs of Moher, the latter which I’ve been meaning to visit for a long time. Those croquettes look delicious, and it’s a shame that American tourists have inundated the county with their lack of discretion. Stay safe, and happy travels this summer!
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Such wonderful photos of this exquisite country. We’ve only been once, but we were able to spend three weeks traveling there. Would love to return, but not to drive on the left side of the road! Quite harrowing! (But the beauty would win out, and I’d do it all again.)
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County Wicklow! I have been to Glendalough with my cousins last time I was in Dublin. Now those cousins have moved to other places in Ireland. We were going to organize a family reunion but then…well you know what happened then. We will do it another year. Thanks for these lovely photos of Eire!
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Thanks for brightening our day with beautiful photos. Regarding the 14 day quarantine… this is tough if people went on vacation for ONLY 14 days right. BUT then they should have canceled their trip and not gone overseas. We are in tough times. NOT sure if you heard, Chicago was looted again, very sad. SO, seeing your beautiful photos reminds us to be positive. 🙂
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The 14 day quaratine rule is tough and tbh the Irish government should just ban the flights instead of having individuals and business make the hard choice. Didn’t know about the looting in Chicago. Stay safe and keep writing!
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Agree — people should be SMART enough to know that RIGHT NOW is not the time to travel abroad. I would LOVE to come to Dublin, but that will not be until next year… maybe later, need to see how this Fall plays out, right. Stay well — the Fall is coming, we will need an Irish Stew recipe from you! 🙂
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Never made that stew before. I will get to work on a recipe 🙂
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I haven’t had an Irish stew before, but saw a picture, looked yummy… gotta have potatoes, which they are known for, right.
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This sounds like a wonderful visit to Ireland!
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We were in Ireland a year ago and spent time in Wexford and Powerscourt. Thanks for the memories. Allan
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