What a beautiful view to wake up to!

Today’s agenda consists of getting a tattoo to commemorate my trip and then having afternoon tea at the castle. I knew I wanted to get a tattoo on this trip, and I knew where I wanted it (on my wrist), but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to get. I was inspired by the Jameson motto “Sine Metu” which means without fear in Latin, but I wanted to make it more related to Ireland, so I looked up the Gaelic translation which is Gan Eagla. I looked up the best rated tattoo shops in Dublin and found Colour Works Tattoo Studio. A few emails and a deposit later and I was all set with an appointment at noon today (the 26th). My artist was great to work with and I’m incredibly happy with how it turned out! Now I have a permanent reminder of this trip and a reminder to live every day without fear.

The tattoo didn’t take near as long as I thought it would (it only took about 20 minutes) so I walked around downtown Dublin a bit before heading back to the castle. I spent the time before tea rearranging my suitcases and getting ready for the trip home in two days. Then it was time for afternoon tea. I had a wonderful selection of sandwiches, scones, and desserts, and of course some tea! My only regret was that I scheduled tea time for 4pm because I wasn’t sure how long the tattoo would take, so I only had a little bit of down time between afternoon tea and dinner, but I paid for it, so I was going no matter what! I had stuffed chicken with a bacon roulade and sweet potato puree- it was supposed to come with Brussel sprouts but I guess they changed the menu without changing the physical menus, and if you know me and my Brussel sprout obsession you’ll know how disappointing that was for me- but other than that the food was good. One more full day in Dublin and then an early morning flight on Friday.