Air, Landier, and Sea

Sadly, our time with Mark is coming to an end and we are headed back to Dublin.

As with all of our experiences with Mark, our last day was wonderful.

As we headed across the country to Dublin, we stopped along the way at an Irish chocolate shop as well as the oldest bar in Ireland (and the world).

Like I mentioned in a previous post, nothing excites a Mullen more than drinking- except maybe dessert followed by drinking.

We filled up on dark chocolate bars and flavored hot chocolates and then made our way to Athlone, where Sean’s Pub is located.

Sean’s has been a pub in Ireland since 900 AD, so it also holds the Guinness Record for the oldest bar in the world.

Not only is Sean’s fun because of its history, but inside its full of character- license plates on the wall from different countries and states in the U.S., a piece from the original wall from 900 AD and sawdust on the floor.

While we love all of Ireland and we’re excited to see more of Dublin, we were sad to say goodbye to Mark and his green bus.

He kept us in stitches with his quick wit and impersonations, and wowed us with his wonderful singing voice.

Yes, he sang us Irish songs relating to the counties we visited all along the way!

Not to mention how much we learned and how we grew to adore Ireland even more than we already did.

Mark was truly a highlight of our trip and we are so grateful for the time we got to spend with him.

We very much hope that our paths cross again someday soon!

To keep with tradition of drinking, we decided to head to Temple Bar to drown our sorrows of missing Mark.

Temple Bar gets its name from William Temple who owned the region in Dublin where the bar sits.

This bar is not exactly where the locals hang out, but one of the most iconic bars in Dublin.

Unlike our time in the countryside, where we enjoyed lots of space to ourselves, Temple Bar is shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow tourists, which is really part of the fun of it- enjoying the tipple and live music in a pub in Dublin- life really doesn’t get much better.