Blogs from County Galway, Ireland, Europe - page 38

A drunkard peeing against a tree in the park was the last image London had left to me. I was on a bus. By night. Twelve hours later, I arrived in Dublin welcomed by a not too dissimilar scene. Outside the bus station a homeless man tightly buttoned in his wasted beige trench, with a massive cervical hump forcing him into a totally unnatural position, he was waiting for the opening of the station bathrooms to shave himself. It was only 6 in the morning and already the metropolitan desperation of those who have nothing merged with the indifference of those leaving or arriving. I hadn’t come to Ireland to visit Dublin. Everyone talks wonders about it and perhaps they’re right, but all cities seem to me all too similar and only in remote and quiet ... read more

Well the big day has finally arrived - what was I thinking giving six and a half weeks notice - those weeks have gone by soooo slowly. Lots of nights out, big lunches, even bigger dinners, copious amounts of wine and bulmers (oh I'll miss my bulmers!) and hugs goodbye. Today is not really goodbye to work colleagues either as coming back next Thursday for my leaving party - no getting rid of me I'm sure they are thinking! I'm also really annoying as I'm bouncing about the place like Tigger! Am pretty organised - have 70% of the packing done, have "broken in" my hiking boots, iPod loaded up, all the vaccinations.... And the passport finally arrived yesterday - whew! Was touch and go with that! Everyone is being so nice - will miss them ... read more

August 2005 We were looking for somewhere easy and price competitive from EMA for a spontaneous trip at August Bank Holiday. The best option was direct to Shannon on board the penny fight champions without a particular plan of action thereafter. The most obvious destination was Limerick. However a quick read of certain travel guides, seems to focus on a place with unemployment, crime and general neglect at worst and a place where the visitor might still have to dig a little to appreciate it’s charm. We landed at Shannon and turned towards Ennis. Ennis held enough charm without digging for a Saturday night out. A typical Irish market town with a ruined friary, painted shop fronts and enough establishments selling the black stuff to make the night out entertaining. Ennis was our first experience of ... read more

it's been a while since i've written a proper blog (and this one won't be too long either)...my apologies on that...i've been a bit busy trying to squeeze the most out of the eurail pass that marc and i got. we did a WHILRWIND tour of scandinavia - if we were't sleeping or on a boat or hiking we were on a train, there was no downtime at all. norway was spectacularly beautiful. took a fjord cruise down the longest and deepest fjord in the world. cliffs that went straight up into the sky and straight down to the water. train rides through mountain passes and valleys...ferry rides through tiny islands to even tinier villages. our plan to get to the UK was to take a ferry from stavanger norway to newcastle or up through the ... read more

So we have arrived at the hotel Meyrick in Galway in one piece. The flight wasn't too bad... some crying babies here and there and my chair was broken though. It wouldn't lock so it just kinda went back when it felt like it. We had an engineer who overheard our convorsation try to fix it... unsuccessfully. We had to drive in our rental car about an hour from Shannon Airport to Galway. It was loads of fun watching mom figuring out how to drive on the left side. She keeps repeating the mantra "stay to the left, steering wheel to the center lines". Unfortunatly she overcompensates to the left sometimes and we end up nearly on the sidewalk. Anyway, I don't even know if anyone besides Dave is reading this, but I figured i'd update ... read more