The Shparagos go to Ireland...

The morning after Jessica and Brian left my parents rolled into town.  Needless to say there was a full day of laundry, cleaning and getting ready for the next set of guests in between!

I was soooo excited to have my parents come visit. First of all, because I hadn't seen them in over 3 months and second, because neither one of my parents had ever been to Europe.  This was the perfect excuse for them to break out the passports and make the journey.  If you are wondering, Lola went to stay with her other grandparents during their trip.

Standing on our balcony....Mom looks a little more excited!

Then Daddy got into the spirit!

The next day we hopped on the train to the Jameson Distillery....yep that's twice in one week!  Oh well it's still fun to see each time.  I knew my dad would really enjoy the tour so it was well worth it.  He had a blast learning how they make whiskey and getting to sample a little at the end. 

Sitting on the train

The 3 of us outside the distillery.

After the tour was over we headed to a little cafe/pub to get some traditional Irish food.  My dad loves beef stew at home so I knew he would love the Guinness beef stew!  My mom and I had a less traditional salad which was also amazing.  

 Of course no trip with my mother would ever be complete without a trip to Starbucks.  I think we went at least 4 times during the 5 days they were in Dublin.  This woman loves her Starbucks coffee!

My mom wanted to explore a little more of Ireland so after a short day trip to Kilkenny we decided to take a tour to Belfast.  Belfast is in Northern Ireland and actually a British territory.  The city has seen a lot of turmoil (including bombings, assassinations and street violence) between the Catholics and Protestants who divided the city.   There are still large walls that the divide the city into 2 distinct neighborhoods...the gates are open during the day now but close at 9pm or if any conflict arises.

Before we made it to Belfast we stopped in Drogheda to see St. Peter's Church.  This church houses the head (yep I said head) and prison cell door of Oliver Plunkett.  He was a Catholic Archbishop of Ireland who was persecuted by the English before he was tried for treason.  He was sentenced to death by hanging then drawn and quartered.  His body was tossed into a fire and one of his followers was able to "rescue" his head.  Somehow it ended up in this church with the door to his prison cell.  Could you imagine sitting in worship with some guys head in a glass case next to you!  He was canonized in 1975 and is now considered a Saint.  Don't worry I didn't take any pictures of his head....I thought that was a little creepy!

St. Peter's Church

Oliver Plunkett's prison cell door

Our next stop along the way was Monasterboice which was at one time a monastery and today houses a tower and 3 large celtic crosses from the 10th century.

After that we loaded back on the bus and headed for Belfast.  On our way into town we drove by a wall of murals which were painted by locals representing different causes related to the fighting in their history.  Many of the buildings on both sides of the walls were painted with murals commemorating those who lost their lives for their cause.

Oh, by the way, our tour guide was a total nut job!! This is him below and I'm pretty sure he was a former IRA member himself.  She drove like a NYC taxi driver and told crazy stories the entire tour.  Let's just say I wouldn't mess with him!

 We headed into Belfast city center and were dropped off to find some lunch.  Our guide recommended a place called Crown Bar so we decided to check it out.  He may have been a little looney but he had good taste in food.  It was excellent!  We had a little time to wander around the city before we headed on to our next stop.

Did you know that the Titanic was built in Belfast, Ireland?  It was....and there is a museum there to celebrate it.  They sell t-shirts that say " Built by Irishmen, Sunk by Englishmen", haha.  We made a pit stop at the museum but didn't have time to go in.  The building is built to the size of the ships hull...pretty amazing huh?  I would at some point like to go back and see the museum.

The last stop on our tour was a megalithic portal tomb that dated back to 3000 B.C.  These 2 stones with a cap stone on top were the entrance the the tomb where neolithic people would leave the remains of their dead.  It now sits on a golf course...sort of sad. 

We survived our tour with crazy man and spent the next day exploring a little more of Dublin.  My mom has the famous "Molly Malone" as a very distant relative so we had to snap a picture of her statue in the city.

My mom also wanted to check out the Irish Jewish Museum so we walked a loooong way there to find that it was closed.  It also happened to look like more of an apartment than a museum but hey, I don't think there are very many Irish Jews.

Outside of the "museum"

The very next day we left to go to Rome for 5 days!  P.S. if you are wondering where Chad was during all of this, he left to go to Chicago after my parents 2nd day in town and then met us in Rome.