James had another day off, another trip. We went west again but this time to Kerry, and went to Killarney National Park. We rented bikes for the day, there are lots of trails to ride around on. First we went to Ross Castle, part of the trail was completely flooded but we managed to find an alternate route. We went on to Muckross Abbey which is a 15th century abbey. Then on to Muckross House, Queen Victoria stayed there. It was nice, lots of deer heads on the walls. We finally saw some red deer on our way to Muckross, and [View Full Entry]

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James is enjoying his job at Smyth's Toys, but he doesn't get two days off in a row, so we decided to try and do a few more day trips on our days off. We went to the west of Cork to a town called Clonakilty. They make black pudding there, which is kind of like sausage, and like a hot dog you really don't want to know what's in it. Clonakilty is along the coast so we went for a walk to Inchydony beach which is a really nice sandy beach just outside of town. We had a great time [View Full Entry]

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James just got a job at Smyths Toys for Christmas so we took a weekend trip to Galway and the Aran Islands because we won't have much time once he starts working. On Friday in Galway it poured all day, we walked around the city for a bit, but our feet were soaked so we went to a movie. The next morning we caught the ferry to Inis Mor the largest of the Aran Islands, 14km long. The weather was sunny and pretty warm. We rented bikes and rode around the island, along the coast, and then up to the highest [View Full Entry]

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We did a wee trip to Scotland last week. Took a plane from Cork into Prestwick, and then went to Glasgow for the night. Glasgow is alright, the city centre has some really nice buildings. We walked around the City of the Dead which has some huge Victorian graves that were so elaborate. The next day we went to Edinburgh, definitely one of our favorite cities. We stayed in the Old Town and walked along the Royal Mile, between Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace. We did a tour of Holyrood, where the Queen stays in Edinburgh, and where Mary Queen of [View Full Entry]

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This weekend we went out to a small fishing village called Portmagee that is off the Ring of Kerry. We wanted to see some puffins, they will be leaving the first week of August so we got lucky that we were able to find a place to stay and get on the boat to the island on the long weekend. We took the bus to a town called Caherciveen and then a taxi to Portmagee. Our B&B was overlooking the cliffs and the ocean. On Friday and Saturday we had beautiful weather, we both got a sunburn. The boat ride out [View Full Entry]

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We are now living in Cork city. We found a really nice apartment that overlooks the city and the river valley. Most of our time has been spent looking for jobs and trying to get our place set up. Unfortunately there is a recession going on and there aren't many jobs but we are hoping we can tough it out. Our place is in an area called Sunday's Well. There is an old prison down the road from us as well as a huge church. We also have a pub right across the road from us, we will go there to [View Full Entry]

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We got to see how cheese is made and we bought some clogs in Amsterdam. They are very comfortable. Everyone rides the old fashioned "Granny Bikes" We got to ride around the village of Edam. We went to Anne Frank's House, the Van Gough Museum and had a canal cruise. I wanted to try the pickled herring but it looked a bit too raw for me. We were in Lucerne before this and had some fondue and watched a football game, the Swiss lost, and it really just isn't the same as hockey. It was a beautiful city though. Now we [View Full Entry]

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We are having a great time in Germany! We went to a beerhall in Munich with huge 1 litre steins, we had about 3 each, the beer is so much better than at home, it's organic and has no preservatives. We had lots of sausage. We were in Lucerne for a few days, it is a beautiful city. We could live there, lots of clocks that go off on the hour. They lost the soccer match, but they were still very happy and celebrating. Now we are in the Rhine Valley, lots of castles and vinyards. We're off to a wine [View Full Entry]

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Gross Gott! We drove from Greece into Albania and spent one night in Tirana but didn't do any sightseeing. Albania is beautiful but the poorist country in Europe. People were staring and waving at the coach a lot. We got to spend a day in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It is a fortified city with lots of nice stores and great ocean views. We did a cruise to some of the small islands around it and went swimming! Today we spent the day in Vienna. Very beautiful city. We saw the natural history museum which had some important anthropological artifacts. We also saw [View Full Entry]

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Now we are cruising around the Greek islands, it is HOT. Yesterday we arrived in Mykonos but we didn't get much time to wander around. We had some Gyros which were really tasty and then said hello to Petros the pelican, he's their mascot, and he's a little grumpy. Today we went to Kasadasi Turkey and walked around a castle they have there. We didn't do any bartering for some "Genuine Fake" designer bags. Now we are on Patmos, a small town, we are going to settle down on the beach for a few hours. It's Greek night on the ship [View Full Entry]

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