Update 11/10/2006

---

Hello hello,
Well it's now Wednesday morning and I've been in Ireland for over a week now. We arrived in Dublin last Tuesday. We had a look around the Dublin streets which was really nice. There were 5 of us at that point so of course one of the first things we did was walk into an Irish pub for a pint of Guiness. We then found a pretty cheap and nice hostel, followed by a meal at a pub. We were going to find another location for a few quite drinks but we were told that there was a pre-med uni party at the place we had just eaten. Naturally we stayed in there and within 1 hour the place was full. It was an awesome first night. The following day a couple of us did a tour of Dublin which was nice followed by a bit of shopping and another Irish stew which I have had several times now. We stayed back and watched some Irish dancing which was good to watch.

After Dublin we decided to head South to Cork. It's a lot smaller but very nice also. On the first night we met an Irish couple (about out age) out who told us that their parents were away and that the 4 of us should go back to their house (MANSION!!) for some food and drink. We ended up doing this and it was probably one of the most memorable nights of my trip!! They fed us, gave us drinks and to top it off gave us probably the comfiest bed I have had since being away!! The house was massive! We also played badmitton in their back yard at around 2am in the morning. It's this and several other things that make think that the Irish are probably the nicest people that I have met! The following day I did a tour of the old Cork jail which I found interesting. The most interesting thing for me was that it seems like the main crime commited by the prisoners was being born into a poor family. The crimes were petty but punishments were farily harsh. The following day I went and saw the Blaney castle and kissed the 'Blaney stone'. Now, I don't know much about this but apparently it's very popular so I'll have to look that up soon!

After Cork, 3 had moved on (2 to Scotland and one home) so there was only myself and Matty (mate from contiki). We asked the hostel owner what he recommended and he suggested a place called Adrigole. It's a small town in the very Sth West Ireland. We arrived late and it was a little weird. The hostel looked empty and it was dead quite around. We then found the key (at the pub next door of course) and checked in. We had one room and it seemed like the house was ours which was nice. We went to the pub for a Guiness and a few locals asked us why we'd come there. They told us that there was a pub, a hostel and a church which noone had gone to! We spent 2 days there which was very relaxing and much needed after the way the past month and a half have been.

We wanted to head straight to Galway after that but found out we would need to back track to Cork. We decided to stop at another country town called Bantry. It was probably the nicest town we have seen around Cork, however the accomodation was possibly the worst I have stayed in. We checked in and the lady told us we could have 2 beds, but '2 lads had stayed there the night before so she hadn't got round to cleaning the beds!' We took other beds, went out for the day and came back to realise how bad the hostel was. The beds were yuck, the kitchen was messy and there were 2 'very' old people walking around the hostel. Matty and I had a laugh about it on the bus this morning and we think that it may have been a commission flat or some shelter for the homeless type place! (haha maybe not quite that bad)

Anyway that's about it from me. Galway is next on the hitlist, then Matty and I will go our own way. I'll be meeting relatives in the next couple of days and then will probably continue my trip up towards Northern Ireland. Then I might have to look for some temp work. 😞

Well keep in touch and I hope I haven't bored you all too much again. Missing you all lots still

Luke

---