Just to start a random thread on my trip to Ireland with my plans/itinerary. Hoping to have some good pics and videos when I return. And should hopefully be tweeting throughout the trip.

Land in Dublin early Tuesday the 27th, renting a car and driving to Belfast. I'm jotting down places to see/stop at along the drive, will probably take a longer trip up the coast (if you have recs there let me know). Maybe a pub stop or two.

Plans chanced slightly for mid-week, I'm now flying from Belfast to London on Wednesday and going to see Tottenham vs Inter Milan at Wembley that night (pub stops in London). Flying back to Belfast Thursday morning, flight was $26 RT.

Thursday is open, but will spend the day driving around being a tourist (more pub stops). Going to do some Game of Thrones location stops. Looking at restaurants for that night, several highly rated/Michelin starred places. Staying at the hotel with the team for the rest of the trip.

Friday in Belfast, Game 1 in the afternoon. Pub crawl with fellow Lumberjacks that night.

Saturday in Belfast, Game 2. Probably more pubs that night.

Sunday drive back to Dublin and fly home.

If you've been to Ireland/Northern Ireland, would love to hear experiences, advice, recs, etc. Can't wait!

Made it back! I'll try to post some pics and whatnot later.

Trip Recap (long post warning):

Landed in Dublin Tuesday morning, no issues with the flights either way...so that was nice. Rented a car and drove up north. Honestly driving on the left side of the road, on the right side of the car....was pretty fun to me. Didn't have any issues, didn't think it was very difficult. If you can follow simple road directions like a normal person, it's not that different. The only hard part sometimes is that the roads only have white markings, so it's hard to tell how many lanes their are, which were one way, etc. But didn't have a ton of time (sunrise this time of year was around 8:30 and sunset was around 3:30), but stopped at the Tollymore Forest. The place is huge and would normally need a full day or two to hike around. But I knew where I wanted to go, to the Altavady Bridge, where they filmed several Game of Thrones scenes (you'll notice a pattern here with my trip).





I walked for about an hour, just a magical place and definitely would have liked to have stayed longer. From here I drove to Belfast for dinner at a restaurant called the Barking Dog. Highly recommend to anyone that goes to Belfast. Had a sweet potato gnocchi with ham hocks that was one of the best things I've ever had. Drove to a small hotel next to the Belfast airport, as I was flying to London early the next morning.

Had to get up at 4:30 to grab a taxi, and get on the early flight. Got to London and stopped by the new Tottenham Stadium and one of their old pubs.

Took the tube down and my stop was right next to Buckingham Palace, so unexpectedly walked around there.




Then on to Fulham where I wanted to see Craven Cottage, the oldest football club and stadium in London.


Original seats from 1910 still there:


Finally it's on to Wembley for Spurs/Inter Milan in the Champions League. Incredible experience, especially for a huge Spurs from from the United States.





Back to Belfast (this is Thursday now), got up at 3:30 to catch an early flight. Got back to my car and drove up to the Northern coast. Possibly the highlight of the trip.

Downhill Beach (Dragonstone on GoT)


Dunluce Castle dating back to the 1500's

Giants Causeway, ran into several other SFA people on the trip here.



Had a few other stops planned, but just ran out of time really due to the short days and time it spent to drive around. Drove back to Belfast and checked into the Grand Central hotel, new place where the team was staying, very nice. Downtown Belfast was really fun, their Christmas market was spectacular.



Had several of these:


It's Friday now, got up early (as usual) and drove down to the Dark Hedges. Apparently the road was closed to traffic, and the SFA people on the full trip/tour were not able to go the day before. I had done my research and read that it was best to go early to avoid crowds. Got there right after sunrise and was the only person/car around. Totally worth it.





On the way back I stopped at the Belfast Castle


Finally, it's game time. Made it to SSE Arena, pretty nice place overall, it's mostly used for hockey. But they did a great job preparing it for hoops. Friday was 85% kids from school. Big highlight was alcohol sales. Not just beer, but liquor and wine. Meaning you can buy Jamison and FULL bottles of wine from the concession stands. Blew my mind. Had great courtside seats for Game 1:

So yeah, game was meh but whatever. Travel had started to catch up to me so I was pretty worn out the rest of that day.

Saturday, got up and drove down to Castle Ward (Winterfell from GoT).





Alright, Game 2. Sat on the other side in the SFA section this time.

Spent the last night celebrating around different pubs in Belfast.


Overall just a trip of a lifetime, can't really put some of into words. Tons of other pictures, which honestly doesn't do the countryside justice of how beautiful it was. Weather overall wasn't terrible to me, cold and windy for sure, and a little wet off and on. Locals were nice and very welcoming, tons of Irish people told me how happy and excited they were to have real basketball to watch. Being there for SFA Basketball just put it over the top. Went up and down the elevators with the players and coaches, was great seeing them interact together and could really see how awesome of an experience it was for them.

Definitely a place I recommend traveling to, and will definitely try to go back.