ireland photo diary + travel guide

I have previously written travel guides for the European cities of Gdansk, Krakow and Szczecin and today I bring to you my personal travel guide for Ireland! You can see my photos throughout my week roadtrip through Ireland in a few different blog posts including Slane, Kilkenny, Wiklow Mountains National Park, Dublin Botanic Gardens & Howth Cliffs. See the travel guide below!

Getting there // I flew from Gdansk to Dublin airport to get to Ireland. It was a fairly short three hour flight (compared to being used to usually taking 14 hour flights anywhere from Australia!) that went by quickly. The majority of airlines fly to Dublin, both from Europe and across the world. You can also catch a ferry from the UK to Ireland. 

Getting around // I spent the majority of my time in Ireland exploring the countryside, which I strongly recommend is best/most convenient by car. You have the ease of being able to go wherever, whenever you want, you can stop the side of the road to take photos whenever you see something interesting (which dan and I did way too many times!) and you're more available to going on spontaneous road trips. On our first day in Ireland, we visited Slane and from there decided to take random roads to explore the island and accidentally almost ended up in North Ireland where all the road signs are only in Gaelic. I feel like I should make a note that the highways in Ireland are smooth and spacious but pretty much all the other roads are SO tiny, they seem like one lane but are two way, you have cobblestone fences half a metre away from your car while you're driving through them and most of the time you can't see around the corner because of all the trees and overgrown shrubbery. If you're not up for the idea of driving in a different country or on the narrow winding roads but still want to explore the countryside, there are lots of coach busses that you can book day tours with that will drive you to different country towns. 

If you want to spend most of your time in Dublin, then I would suggest to forget about a car completely and just explore the city by foot. There are so many stores, pubs and restaurants crammed next to each other you would miss out on too much driving through the main streets of the city. Everything seems to be walking distance in Dublin. Dan and I spent a day on one side of the river at the botanic gardens and managed to make our way across to the other side and ended up at Dublin castle without an issue. 

Where to stay // The Irish countryside is known for its amazing bed and breakfast accommodations. So without a doubt I would say to go online and look for bed and breakfasts to stay at while in Ireland and you probably can't go wrong. While in Slane we stayed at this gorgeous b&b, they had a cute kitty that followed us around while we took pictures in their huge gardens. This place is a very close drive to all the main attractions in Slane. We also got fed an amazing breakfast when we woke up in the morning, we didn't need to eat for the majority of the day!

In Kilkenny we booked a guest house accommodation, and although this wasn't a traditional bed and breakfast, the owners were very welcoming and would bake fresh Irish bread for everyone every morning and provide local jams, honey and organic farm yogurt for breakfast. We grew to love our little but very spacious room in Kilkenny. It was situated in the most perfect and convenient location, if we ever come back I would stay here again in a heartbeat!

What to do // I can only offer advice for things to do that I personally experienced, so I’m going to go through each of the towns I visited while I was in Ireland! 

Slane // First stop is the beautiful town of Slane. There are an abundance of things to do in Slane starting from experiencing the historic town itself. Lined with limestone buildings the town of Slane is built alongside the River Boyne. In and close by to the town you can visit Hill of Slane, Slane Castle, Newgrange and Hill of Tara Tombs, plus so many more! Just take a look at TripAdvisor for the endless list of places to visit! It is worth mentioning that something we didn’t know while visiting Slane is that most of the places to visit you need to have an online pre-booked tour or have your bed & breakfast book you a tour the day before. We missed out of seeing a couple of things since we didn’t know this and were sadly in Slane for only a short time. 

Kilkenny // Walking through the city of Kilkenny and visiting Kilkenny Castle is an absolute must! The city is huge with a maze of streets filled with cafes, restaurants and pubs. If you make your way to Kilkenny Castle, be sure to walk around the castle grounds and make your way to the Canal Walk by the River Nore. Nearby are the beautiful gardens of Butler House, a hidden gem tucked away on a side street near the city centre. Lyrath Estate Hotel also makes a great late morning or afternoon getaway, a mansion covered in vines just outside of Kilkenny for a perfect brunch or high tea spot.

Dublin // I personally spent the majority of my time in Ireland exploring the towns in the countryside, so I only had half a day to spend in Dublin. During the day, I visited Dublin Botanic Gardens. There is no entry fee to the gardens, only a small 2 Euro parking fee if you are driving. I couldn't recommend the gardens more! There are around 5 greenhouses with varying themes including a Palm garden, Succulent garden and Orchid House. The grounds are huge and you could easily spend a couple of hours walking around through the rose gardens and getting lost within the abundance of Cherry Trees, Cedar Trees, the list goes on!

If you are just visiting Dublin while in Ireland and don’t want to venture too far away from the main city to visit other towns, there are still plenty of things to do! Howth Cliffs is almost an island, connected to Ireland by two main roads and only a half an hour car or train ride from the centre of Dublin. You can easily spend a day in Howth exploring the small town, eating the delicious fish and chips and spending time hiking in various spots around the island. A few of my personally recommended hikes include the main Cliff Walk, Bailey Lighthouse and Red Rock Beach.

One last spot only a 30-60 minute drive from Dublin (depending where you want to go within the park), is Wicklow Mountains National Park. This is definitely a full day trip where you can spend your time driving around the National Park, pulling over in various spots and going for a small hike. There aren’t too many “official” hiking and viewpoint spots within the park, the gist of the park is you drive around and when you see something, you pull over and make your way towards it. We saw SO many cars pulled over in the most random spots throughout the day, with us being no exception. A few of my more memorable stops in the park include Lough Tay Guinness Lake, Powerscourt Waterfall (although this was the only spot that was extremely busy it was still beautiful), Glendalough Monastic Site, Glendalough Lake and many others viewpoints which don’t even have a name on a map!  

I hope you’ve enjoyed my Ireland Travel Guide and Photo Diary! If you have any more suggestions or things that you absolutely loved experiencing while in Ireland, please share them with me in the comments! I was only in Ireland for a short time and would love to go back one day to explore even more of what this beautiful country has to offer.

all photos edited with my Gdansk Lightroom Preset

krakow photo diary + guide

Dan and I took the 5 hour train from Gdansk to Krakow, eyes glued to the window watching us zip past the world. When we arrived at sunrise, Dan's family friend Stan was waiting for us at the station and drove us home. We spent the next few days exploring Krakow from morning to night to see everything this beautiful city had to offer.

Find my travel guide to Krakow at the bottom of this blog post!

Exploring the Main Square in Krakow.

Mariacki church.

Market Square building in the middle of Krakow. On the outside of the building you can find restaurants and bars, inside is the start of the markets and just above the markets is an art gallery.

Wandering through the streets just outside of Krakow Main Square.

Visiting Wawel Castle (pronounced Vavel, as w in Polish is actually a v!)

Inside Wawel Castle.

Walking around the grounds of Wawel.

At the top of the Bell Tower.

Back in the city, where we did some souvenier shopping.

Trying Polish street food, obwarzanek. It was a bit too "bread-y" for my liking! 

Inside Mariacki church. 

Visiting the art museum above the Market Square.

Inside the salt mines.

Gazing over at the mountains in Zakopane.

Visiting a 15th century castle in the countryside of Krakow.

If you come to Kraków in the summer, like many European cities, be prepared to be an early riser to beat the crowds and lines at the main attractions. At the time of me writing this, Kraków is the second most popular European City for tourism. 

How to get there // We took the Pendolino train from Gdansk to Kraków which is the new train line in Poland. The ride takes 5 and a half hours but I found it went past pretty quickly with my eyes glued to the window watching the forests, spotting deers and admiring all the little country cottages in the middle of nowhere. If you are catching a train in Poland I would recommend to purchase your tickets as soon as possible. The earliest you can book train tickets is a month in advance, and every day that goes past they get more and more expensive.

Flights to and from main cities in Poland are also an easy way to get around. You can find tickets just as cheap as train tickets and you'll get there in half the time. We decided to stick to train rides on this trip as we were growing tiredsome having already spent 50+ hours on planes over the past few weeks. Plus I also wanted to see what the Polish countryside looks like!

What to do

Old City Square // We probably spent most of our time here in the city square. It's the perfect place for a meal and a drink as the entire main square is lined with restaurants and bars. We did a bit of souvenir shopping here too, wandering and making our way through all the streets and alleys connected to the main square. Here you also have the main markets and above the markets a lovely little art gallery. You can find the entrance to the gallery via the outside of the Market Square building. 

Mariacki church // I think this church is a must see if you're in the Kraków old town. It costs 10zł to purchase entry tickets and 10zł for a photo pass. This money goes towards renovating the church, so I didn't mind to pay the fee. It's absolutely stunning inside so I couldn't recommend it more. On certain days you can also pay to climb to the top of the bell tower (which we didn't do) where I assume you'd have an amazing view of the city. 

Wawel Castle // You could easily spend an entire day at Wawel Castle. I would recommend to get to the castle as early as possible as tickets for attractions are limited to a certain amount of people per day. We unfortunately missed out on seeing the armoury, we were almost to the front of the line and watched helplessly as the number of tickets available went from 20 to 10 to 5 and to 0 before we could purchase them. In saying that, there are still many more attractions to see. We went to the Royal Crypts, Church, Bell Tower, Oriental Art museum, the second Bell Tower and the Dragon's Den. If you go to the Dragon's Den, I would recommend to leave it to last as the tunnels lead you out of the castle and you exit to the street on the other side of the entrance to Wawel! 

Salt mines // The Wieliczka Salt Mines are located in a suburb called Wieliczka and is about a 20 minute drive from the Kraków city centre. We arrived fairly early and still had to wait in a huge line to purchase tickets - I wasn't lying when I said there are a lot of tourists in Kraków! Once your purchase tickets, you line up yet again to get inside the mines with a tour group. You can only visit the mines with a tour group, you cannot unfortunately wander off on your own as I usually like to do. There are tours running every half an hour for about 7 different languages. The groups are pretty big so even though this line seems daunting to wait in, it eventually goes by pretty quickly. Upon entering you will receive a headset to listen to your tour guide and you need to walk down about 800 steps in a wooden narrow staircase to get to the mines. Overall it was a really interesting experience and I would recommend to visit at least once! Dan and I went with a family friend who is a local and he mentioned that in summer the tours of the mines are shorter to cater for the amount of people coming in, so if you can I would say it's better to go during the off season so you can have a slightly longer and more in depth tour! 

Zakopane mountains // Once again an early morning rise is definitely needed if you visit Zakopane mountains! The main attraction here is the mountain top where you can dangle your feet on the edge of a cliff, half of you in Poland and half of you in Slovakia. Unless you purchase your tickets online, our local friend recommends to leave at 4 or 5 in the morning to arrive at the mountains by 6am to beat what can be a 5 or 6 hour wait in line for tickets to ride the Kasprowy Wierch Cable Car to the top. Alternatively, you can also choose to hike to the top of the mountain which takes approximately 3.5 hours up the mountain and 2.5 hours down. Dan and I tried fitting in too many things in our short time in Kraków so unfortunately we didn't get to do this, we thought it would be nice to save our trip to the top of the mountain for when it's snowing in the years to come anyway. Instead we headed up the chairlifts in Kościelisko where you have the most amazing views and photo opportunities of the mountains themselves. 

After that we headed off to do a little more sight seeing. Some things that are a nearby drive from the mountains:

15th century castle // Niedzica Castle is an old, 15th century castle by the lake which is a mini museum inside. I loved looking at everything, though it seems more catered for younger kids rather than adults.

The dam // Right by the Niedzica Castle, you can walk across the Lake Czorsztynskie Dam that you can see Slovakia from. 

Kościuszko mound // Back towards the city of Kraków, you can pay 10zł per person to go up a man made mountain/hill to get a great view of Kraków from above. I love going to lookouts to see a city from a different perspective. It's fun trying to point out and figure out all the places you went to from a different view. This doesn't take long to do, we probably spent about 10 minutes walking to the top. 

I also have some exciting news because I've started sharing more fashion shoot behind the scenes videos + Lightroom & Photoshop Tutorials on my YouTube Channel! Be sure to subscribe as I upload 2 new videos every week x

all photos edited with my new Gdansk Lightroom Preset.

gdansk photo diary + guide

With heavy hearts, Dan and I left Yosemite National Park and drove back to San Francisco with our eyes set on new adventures that were coming our way very soon. We boarded our flight in San Francisco and left the US behind, landing in Frankfurt for a connecting flight to Gdansk. 

The first and last time I visited Gdansk, Dan and I had only a few fleeting days to spend there after a work trip. This time we were coming back with a few months to spend exploring and with his family. We couldn’t be more excited about it. When we land in Gdansk and walk out of the arrivals gate, it was the loveliest feeling seeing an old familiar face and a sense of deja vu receiving another big bear hug from Dan’s uncle. He drove us home, making a stop at the local bakery first to buy some blueberry filled pastries. I remember so vividly that drive from the airport to home, my eyes were glued to the car window watching all the spanning fields of wildflowers as we drove past, a permanent smile on my face regardless of the jet lag I felt.

Three years ago, it was the first time I visited Poland and I wrote “we were in poland for three days, and i couldn't thank dan's family enough for making it the most memorable three days ever. dan and i are longing to go to poland again soon, it would be so lovely to be able to spend a longer amount of time with his wonderful family exploring, hanging out and taking pictures.” and we finally got to do just that. These two and a half months we spent in Gdansk and traveling around Europe were one of the most memorable. I will never forget all the new friends I made, all the time I got to spent with family, all the places I explored and all the little moments in between. 

Here’s a collection of images and stories from our two and a half months in Poland. If you scroll down to the bottom of the blog post, I have put together my personal travel guide for Gdansk, Poland. If you are every planning on traveling here I hope you find it helpful! I have so many more pictures to share with you from all our travels around Europe which are coming soon!

I also have some exciting news because I've started sharing more fashion shoot behind the scenes videos + Lightroom & Photoshop Tutorials on my YouTube Channel! Be sure to subscribe as I upload 2 new videos every week x 

Picking cherries from the garden to eat everyday.

Dan's aunty working in the garden. All of the meals we ate at home, most of the ingredients come from here.

The family cat Kicha & the dog, Enyo.

Visiting Westerplatte, the location of the first battle in the invasion of Poland, marking the start of World War II.

Exploring the local forests.

Driving through Gdansk at night.

Spending the weekend on Dan's cousin's yacht, where we sailed from Gdansk to Hel.

Watching the sunset on one of the beaches in Hel. 

Exploring the local forest.

Visiting the Gdansk zoo.

A whole isle in the supermarket filled with vodka. We definitely don't have this much variety and quantity in Australia!

Visiting Malbork Castle, where it was so hot that day we were hit by a storm in the afternoon and spent the rest of day walking around in the rain.

Pawel watching the rain.

Dan's 96 year old grandma knitting me crochet patterns which I now have hanging in my room.

Our day spent in Oliwa Park.

Visiting the sand dunes at Slowinski National Park.

Photos from our last day in Gdansk. We wanted to go back to the city one more time, the day before we flew back to Australia to say goodbye. It was bittersweet seeing the Gdansk Eye being pulled down since it was the last day of summer.

Isaiah, Dan & Karol. The adventure squad (missing Pawel).

The extremely hard task of packing, knowing we were flying back in a few hours.

Driving across the country with Karol and Pawel to Woodstock festival.

The view from the Gdansk Eye.

Here you can find my personal Gdansk travel guide!

What to do

Gdnask old town // If you’re travelling to Poland and decide to venture out of the main cities of Warsaw and Krakow to see something different, Gdansk is a beautiful city by the Baltic Sea. Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot are the three cities that make up the tri city area. For us, Gdansk was home for two months so we got to explore all the restaurants and bars that make up the main road in the old city. We were in Gdansk during the summer months, where Main street and Long street are busy morning to night with market stalls and the Gdansk Eye was in motion, giving you 360 views of the entire city - which we highly recommend doing at sunset!

Gdynia // Gydnia is the next city in the North of Poland, also by the water and popular for its night life amongst locals. Just like Gdansk, there are countless places to shop and eat as well as markets in the summer which are fun to walk through. One of my most memorable moments in Gdynia was exploring the Orłowski cliffs and visiting the nearby Orłowie pier. To find the cliffs, you walk up Zaciszna, a steep road and past an abandoned building into a beautiful forest which we managed to get to just in time for sunset. From here you continue walking along the path until you get the edge of the cliff for an amazing view from which you can see Gdansk. 

Sopot // Sopot is a marina-inspired town, once again nestled by the sea. In the middle of the beach stretch, you can find and make your way along the longest wooden pier in Europe at over half a kilometre long. It costs 25zł to get onto the pier and the views are beautiful especially if you go at sunset/dusk.

Oliwa // Oliwa is a quaint town near the Gdnask city centre with plenty to do. Here you can find the Gdansk Zoo which is nestled in the forest and makes for a lovely day of walking around. A short walk from the zoo, you can also find a lookout spot called Pachołek where you can walk up a few flights of stairs to get to the top of a tower higher than the treetops to see a 360 view of your surroundings. Park Oliwski is another must go to place. If you explore the park grounds, you will come across a green house, mini waterfalls, lakes and so many  beautiful areas to wander around and take pictures in. A couple of other places you can visit while in this town are the Oliwa church and spending your time wandering the streets in the town and surrounding suburbs. 

There are also a few places further out of Gdansk that I included photos of in this blog post that I wanted to mention: 

Hel // Be prepared to incidentally make a lot of hell puns when you're on your way to and while you're in Hel! We took a yacht ride into Hel, Dan's cousin owns a sail boat and took us out onto the water. It took us about 5 hours to get there but we had a great time listening to music, talking, having a drink and just looking out into the ocean. It only took us 3 hours to get back to Gdansk as we were traveling with the wind, letting us ride faster. You can also get to Hel via car, it would take about 2 hours to drive there from Gdansk. Hel is quite a touristy town, so be prepared for everything to be a lot more expensive here that in other parts of Poland. Everything has a nautical and pirate theme and it's a gorgeous town. We spent most of our time at the beach. I would recommend to go for a swim at the north side of the beach, where the sand is white and the ocean calm. And as the day comes to an end to go for a walk around the edge of Hel so you are walking at the furthest point in Poland to see the sun setting into the Baltic Sea from the south side. 

Malbork Castle // You can make a day trip from Gdansk to visit Malbork Castle, a medieval castle built in the 1400s. It takes just over an hour to make your way to Malbork from the Gdansk city centre either by car or train. Entry into the castle is 40zł per person in the summer. Once you enter the castle, you are free to roam the grounds with markets and a few places to eat in the outside sections and a museum within most of the rooms inside the castle.

Słowinski National Park // This was by far one of the highlights of my trip to Poland. I’ve always wanted to see the forest meet the sand dunes and I finally got the chance to on the second last day before we were heading home. Słowinski National Park, known to the locals as Łeba, is just over a 2 hour drive from Gdansk through forests and fields. When you arrive to the National Park, you need to pay an entry fee of about 5zł per person. From here, you can either walk around 8km to the beach or you can opt to pay to take the ferry, hire a bike or take the electric car straight to the beach. We chose to take the ferry halfway there and walk the rest of the way through the amazing forest to the beach. On our way back it was quickly getting dark so we decided to take the electric car as it was the fastest option. Once you arrive at the beach, you are free to explore as much as you like! The way the forest starts to intertwine with the sand dunes is definitely an incredible sight. 

Getting around

Getting around the tri-cities is extremely easy whether you are driving or taking public transport. When we were taking day trips to further away locations such as Malbork Castle or Slowinksi National Park, we decided to drive there for the convenience of having our own car. However public transport is usually just as quick. In fact, on Google maps it mentions it will take an hour and ten minutes to drive from Gdansk to Malbork, however taking the train would only be a 47 minute long trip.

To get around the old city in Gdansk, we normally walked everywhere as most things are a short distance away from each other. If we needed to travel a little bit further or travel between the tri-cities, working out which bus or tram to take was super easy, inexpensive and a new tram or bus usually arrives within a few minutes of each other. 

all photos edited with my new Gdansk Lightroom Preset.