After our wonderful stay in Galway, our next stop was the town of Kilkenny to see my friends, Amy and Colm, who used to work at James Hobans back in DC.  We decided to take advantage of having a car to swing down south first to see the Cliffs of Moher, and then head over to Kilkenny.  We set out on yet another beautiful crystal clear day, and unlike the monotonous highway from Dublin to Galway this drive stretched over Irelands back roads.  I was so focused, and had so much fun driving our manual car on the twisting, winding roads that I barely had time to gaze at the gorgeous countryside flying by.  Mary was though, and taking amazing pictures along the way.  Castle after castle (Colm was ridiculing Americans how when they come into ... read more

The Desota House: Our home away from home in Galway I felt I had to pay special tribute to our B and B, seeing that it was offered us such comfort and refuge from the shared hostel rooms, and it was just SO adorable! Our B and B was called the Desota House, and was located on Newcastle Road, near the cathedral. It was an easy walk to what was explained to me as being the "local side of the bridge", and a little farther was the main street, Quay Street.  It was managed by a man and woman, and Jon and I couldn't quite figure out their relationship, but nevertheless they were both so welcoming and hospitable.  The B and B itself looked pretty average from the outside, but once inside it had the quaintest ... read more

So we survived our first day in Dublin! Arriving at what felt like 4 am, we checked out the city and did some exploring until we were allowed to check in to our hostel. There were about 50 pubs throughout the cobblestone streets of Temple Bar, so the decision of where to get our first Guinness was very difficult. We finally decided on "Peter's Pub" to pay homage to our great friend, and enjoyed our first real Guinness while trying to trick our bodies into not feeling like it was the crack of dawn. After eating some lunch, which included a really weird version of a tunafish sandwich, we checked into 'The Times Hostel' and took the most wonderful nap ever! The hostel is awesome, the people are SO friendly, and everything is surprisingly very clean! ... read more