After a very heartwarming ceremony and an all-nighter after party where we drank and danced 'til we dropped, the newlyweds surprised the gang with a sponsored three-day escapade to Connemara. They broke the news to us at brunch the day after the wedding, and led everyone cancelling the supposed itinerary for the next days. At first, akala namin binibiro lang kami. Medyo may hangover pa kasi kami and all at that so we couldn't seem to process things well. Hello? Jars of whiskey are no joke.
But as soon as things started to sink in, we all got sobered up in excitement.
We happily left Dublin that afternoon for an almost six-hour drive to Clifden, Connemara. Brent took care of everything ─ from our roadtrip car to our villa to our itinerary. What a great host!
The whiskey hangover and the land travel made us all tired, though. We just got dinner and some tea and then bagsak na kaming lahat. We needed energy for the next day's adventure din so we were good with how we ended the day.
We started our official first day here in Connemara with a hike to Diamond Hill in Connemara National Park. Yep, we braved the cold ─ almost 3˚C at that ─ for this activity. So kumusta naman ang thermal layers namin as we take the trek?
We decided to start the climb as early as sunrise so we could finish early. Hindi naman daw ganoon ka-intense yung hike according to our hotel's staff. Kaya naman daw. We only needed to survive the cold.
Kaso medyo natakot ako. I'm not really into this hiking stuff and I think my body's not prepared for this. Hindi naman ako na-inform na may ganitong ganap pala kami. Akala ko kasi rampa-rampa lang talaga, ganyan. Jusme! Pero syempre ayoko naman maging KJ sa group so sige, push fight na ito. Unlike me, the other guys liked hiking. Even Marco was so excited about this one.
This is gonna be difficult for me but okay, let's do this.
"You guys ready?" Rae asked with high energies and we all cheered in reply. "Let's do this."
And off we go to the summit.
***
An hour into this mountain and I realized that this is really not that hard. The locals may have been concerned about the hikers so they made an easy access pathway ─ which is very favorable to me. I approve.
"Brent sure is starting a tradition," Matt stated with a happy voice. I didn't know how it happened but in the middle of the hike, we suddenly found ourselves walking side by side. Masyadong engrossed yung boys kaya nauna na sila. We girls were all still staying closer to them as we could but, yeah, we were a few feet behind already. "The next ones to get married should be having this type of an after-party too. Awesome!" he shouted a little loud which got everyone glancing.
"The pressure is on you, Owen," Aldrin replied which got everyone cackling.
"I think I'd be spending more money on something like this instead of the wedding itself. Babe, 'yung travel natin to Australia on summer, i-cancel na natin so we could save up the money for the gang's post-wedding trip," Owen answered laughing.
"So give up na ako for the Bondi beach, Babe? Mag-Boracay nalang tayo? Parehas namang B ang start, okay na 'yun," Kriska replied and we cackled more.
"Mas pressure na ang post-wedding party," Al then commented shaking his head.
"Brent started this whole wedding thing with a notch! Slow clap," I remarked with a real slow clap.
"Really. Him getting married here in Ireland, which got us an instant week-long vacation is already a deal-breaker. And then, this. My cousin sure is doing things on a different level of swag," Matt said with a proud grin.
