Tea Time in Ireland

Dress c/o SheIn

Hope you had a great July 4! It certainly was hard to return to the real world today, especially since I’ve been out of it for about two weeks. Steve and I just arrived home from our trip through Ireland, Positano, Italy, and London. It was the longest I’ve taken off work since starting work fulltime. So, this trip felt very momentous for me and for us as a couple. I’m looking forward to sharing with you everything we did in the three areas we visited. Those blog posts will definitely come (and hopefully sooner rather than later), but today I wanted to start with just one of my favorite activities in the first leg of the trip. While we were in Ireland, Steve’s parents arranged for us to go to Irish tea at a castle – yes, a real castle!

Before a few months ago I’ve been a very American tea drinker. I’ve drank tea since elementary school, it was a special tradition for my mom, sister and I to have tea, a small candy and watch HGTV after school. I’ve grown to love tea so much, I dedicated a small part of my college essay to it and how the caffeine boost helps me get my creative juices flowing! (I wish I still had that essay. It was much more eloquent than it sounds, I swear.) So anyway until last spring the tea I was used to was in bags and seeped in boiling water. Then, I went to a friend’s baby shower at a tea room ran by a British woman in Indianapolis, and my eyes were opened to the wonder of a proper tea! I couldn’t wait to do it again in Ireland.

When planning my outfits for the two week trip, I took several things into account: the weather and our activities. For Ireland, I packed a lot of outfits that were more casual and could be worn for travel and outdoor adventures as well as indoor activities. However, I packed this one dress because I wanted something special to wear to the Irish tea. It’s airy and flowy, but also not too light that I would be chilly should the day overcast. I thought a maxi would be a good compromise for summer in Ireland, I even bought a jean jacket to layer with the dress but the weather was unexpectedly warm and dry our whole trip. What luck!

Tea at the Ballynahinch Castle was a relaxing but regal experience. The actual tea and finger foods were delicious! We got three different flavors of tea to try, and I was happy to find my choice (peppermint) tasted the best to me.

The sandwiches were so tasty that they converted Steve to enjoying egg and chicken salads – something he’d never even try before! By the time dessert came we were full, but couldn’t say no to trying a bite every scrumptious sweet. It was such a nice afternoon, and even more special that it happened in such a beautiful castle.