Good Irish Times

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Hi Everyone,

So I've been a bit bad with posting, but I have a good excuse, which is that I've been too busy having an awesome time! I think my last post was from Glasgow, so to bring you all up to date, I've since been to Edinburgh, Belfast, and Rathdrum, and now we're in Cork. Everything's been really great so far. There are five of us - Laura, Heather, Nina, Sophie, and myself - and this is the third leg of our Tour de Ireland.

We took a bus on Sunday from Belfast to Dublin, then connected with a bus from there to a small town called Rathdrum (don't worry, we're not skipping Dublin, we're just saving it for the end). Rathdrum's your quintessential Irish small town, with one main street, a disproportionate number of pubs, and uncommonly friendly people - the cashier at the grocery store calls everyone by their name. It's kind of bizarre for anyone coming from the city to wrap their head around. Anyway, we decided on Tuesday that we'd bike to Glendaloch, which is supposed to be a gorgeous and doesn't even count as a town. Glendaloch literally means, "Valley of the Two Lakes" and that pretty much somes up what you need to know about it. Now, being 5 people, we couldn't get that many bikes, so instead we decided to walk 14km. No, I'm not kidding. 14km walking on the skinny Irish road (no sidewalk). I don't think I've ever seen my life flash before my eyes so many times. Anyway, it was totally gorgeous and completely worth it. We'll see if I can get the photos uploaded, because it was really special.

Yesterday we bussed to Cork, which was slightly annoying. Even though Rathdrum and Cork aren't that far from each other, there's no bus that goes directly between them. So we had to get a bus back to Dublin, then a five-hour bus to Cork from there. The bonus is that it's a wonderful way to take in the Irish country side. We got to Cork yesterday evening and spent today walking around getting to know the city. Apparently it's got a big rivalry with Dublin because the locals here believe that Cork is the "real capital" of Ireland. I don't know about that, but it's neat here anyway. We'll be using it as a base for 5 nights to take in Blarney, Kinsale and Clonakilty as daytrips. Should be good!

Hopefully more to follow soon 😊

Cheers,
Carly

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Photos

Me at the Giant's Causeway
I like black and white. We did a northcoast tour and amazingly our last day in Northern Ireland was GORGEOUS!

Me at the Giant's Causeway
Yup, this one's self-taken.

Making friends on the road to Rathdrum
I swear, we stopped and talked to every horse we saw on that walk.

Ancient village at Glendalough
Me, Laura, Nina and Sophie.

Nina at Glendalough
Doing her best Tarzan-impersonation.

Glendalough valley and Upperlake.
It kind of reminded me of Lake Louise, except with more green.

Nina and I in the Upper Lake at Glendalough
After walking more than 14km, it feels sooooooo good to dip your feet in the lake, even if it's ICE COLD!