The Emerald Isle.

I'm just getting back to my routine after a travel coma, which consisted of 8 jet-lagged days in Ireland, 14 hours of travel back to the states, 13 hours of sleep, multiple loads of laundry, and now laryngitis. It felt wonderful to get back to the US, but I'm already missing the Emerald Isle.

Our first big pit-stop: Kylemore Abbey Castle

My journey to Ireland was for a business trip, which was already going to be a huge opportunity for me both personally and professionally. First of all, I've never traveled outside of the US (except to Puerto Rico, if you count that, which I don't) so that in itself was thrilling. Second, the opportunity to represent my company is always an honor, and I was especially excited to have the opportunity to represent Digital Royalty in another country, while also broadening my own personal knowledge of the world. I've always felt so naive having never been outside of the US. There's a whole world out there with billions of people to meet, and it was refreshing to get a small glimpse of what lies beyond. I met people from Croatia, Zagreb, Amsterdam, UAE, Istanbul, England, and of course, Ireland. After meeting so many wonderful and unique people, I officially have the itch to travel all over the world, and hopefully one day visit these new friends.

So like I said, the trip was for business, but my colleague and travel partner, Erinn, suggested we tack on a couple extra days at the front end for personal time. I definitely couldn't argue with that, so I let her take the lead and she ran with it. She put on her travel agent hat and planned everything down to a T. After flying all day and night on Friday, we landed in Dublin early Saturday morning and immediately hopped on a bus across the country to Galway. We checked into our hotel and instantly passed out for a long nap. Unfortunately by the time we woke up for dinner, almost every restaurant in town was closed, but we eventually found something, ate, and then went right back to sleep.

The next morning when we finally woke up, we rented a car so we could do a bit of exploring. Let me tell you how terrifying driving in Ireland was. Luckily Erinn drove the whole time, while I white knuckled my seatbelt and door handle - not because of her driving, but because the roads in Ireland are ALL two way roads, one lane on each side, there's absolutely no shoulder, and the lanes are extremely narrow. Top that off with the fact that we were driving on the opposite side of the road and you could color us terrified (mostly me). But even though my pre-existing car anxiety was taken to new heights, it was totally worth it because we got to see a ton of the country which we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.

So we drove to a little town called Clifden - population: less than 1,000. It was a cute little down where we met a few locals and had a few drinks in one of the pubs. It was just how you would picture it - young people playing musical jigs on their accordions, and taking turns breaking out in Irish dancing. Seriously guys, it was exactly what I pictured Ireland to be like.

After a night in Clifden, we made another terrifying and treacherous drive to see the Cliffs of Moher. The drive from Clifden to the Cliffs was about 2.5 hours, up a winding road to pretty much the tip top of Ireland. I can't even begin to express how car sick I was at this point, but dear god it was worth it. You might recall this scene from the Princess Bride, or this scene from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. That's where I was, and it was one of the most insanely beautiful things I've ever seen in my entire life. I can't get over it. I'm still in awe that this exists in the world, and that I got the chance to see it with my own two eyes.

After the Cliffs, we drove back to Galway and stayed just outside of town in a place called Barna. We checked into a lovely hotel, and after a full day of driving and car sickness, we were excited to finally get a full nights sleep, and maybe, just maybe this would be the night we finally got enough sleep to kick the jet lag and officially be on Ireland's watch. That is, until we noticed a gigantic spider on the window curtains. By gigantic, I mean bigger than the size of my fist. So of course, we panicked and called someone at the front desk to come kill it (seriously, what would YOU have done?!), but by the time they arrived in our room (with only a tissue in hand) the spider had mysteriously disappeared into the curtains. And then we never found him again. Needless to say, neither of us slept a wink that night.

The next day, we returned our rental car and made our way to the train station where we hitched a ride back to Dublin. Both deliriously tired, we attempted to work on the train which was kind of a fail. When we got to Dublin, we checked into our beautiful hotel, The Morrison, freshened up, and made our way to the Guinness Factory. It was definitely a highlight of the trip, and the tour was pretty incredible. Not only do they teach you how Guinness is made and the history behind the beer, they also teach you how to pour the perfect pint and drink it properly (yes, there is a wrong way to drink beer). The tour ends at the very top of the factory in their circular bar that overlooks all 360 degrees of the city. And the beer tasted heavenly.

At this point, playtime was pretty much over and we started cracking down on work. We hosted our third live Google Hangout for DoubleTree by Hilton, and met all of the Socialites who flew in for our camp at a lovely dinner reception. The rest of the trip went swimmingly with 2 days of training and a special tour of the Jameson Distillery for all of the Socialites, where we got to do a whiskey tasting. All bias aside, Jameson just might be the one to get me to start drinking whiskey again.

From the left: Scotch, Jameson, Jack Daniels. Triple Distilled FTW.

We also had dinner at Ireland's oldest pub, The Brazen Head, established in 1198. I personally am most impressed with the fact that 800+ years after opening their doors, they've embraced Twitter. On our last night, I helped host my first ever Tweet-up event, another exciting professional milestone.

It rained the entire time we were in Ireland, and all the locals kept apologizing for the nasty weather, but it couldn't have been more perfect to me. Coming from the desert where it hardly ever rains, I was in heaven and enjoying the dreary, wet days. It made the city just that much more charming.

The flight home was long, freezing, and all around miserable, but I did make the most of it by watching the Breaking Bad finale which I missed while overseas, and 2 other movies in between shivering and failing to take anything that even closely resembled a nap (note to self: sedation!). However, I would take a 16 hour day of traveling to be able to experience another country any day. I'm so grateful to have had this opportunity, and it's one I will take with me and cherish for life.