Blogs from Westport, County Mayo, Ireland, Europe - page 2

A great big suprise in Knock! We all made our way to Stanstead early in the morning to suprise Kyle on his 30th Birthday. Once arriving at our desitination in Knock we were hit with a problem, one of our friends Roland from Namibia was not allowed to enter Ireland on his visa. So we got told to sit our in the airport waiting room to find out if he was alowed to enter into Ireland. Two hours later we managed to hire a 7 seater car and Kyle went and made a sign with Rolands name on it. One second later to our amazment Roland came though the door into Ireland. We all cheered! (if that wasnt the "Secret" we dont know what is). We then had the task of fitting 9 people into the ... read more

KONICHIWAAAAAAA!!! That's Pikachu, a.k.a. The Cosmic Inferno, screaming into a microphone. She's the guest singer of Acid Mothers Temple, the reclusive Japanese psychedelic band that lives communally on the slopes of Mt Fuji. They look like monks and take their music (and acid) very seriously. Except Pikachu. She looks like Pris, the berserk android from Blade Runner. The Pale refers to the tiny patch of territory around Dublin that the English first controlled. Beyond that patch, beyond the Pale, as our expression goes, lurked mad Celts hiding in deep forests. My own plan to go beyond the Pale failed to reach escape velocity due to the fact that last May I checked "July 3" instead of "August 3" on the car rental reservation form. When the clerk pointed this out to me I began to sputter ... read more

Driving around Ireland certainly isn’t as bad as driving in Australia - there is a lot more to see for starters! But today, we had a bit of a boring drive - through Sligo and onto Westport. We didn’t stop much along the way, and after a quick visit to the Tourist Info Centre to book our accommodation, we split up and went our separate ways. Ryan and KB wanted to check out the coastal sights, while Iz and I were more than happy to take the more direct route, straight into Westport. This is a charming town with flowering hanging baskets galore, a cute little river running through the town and quaint buildings to boot. It was a hot, sunny, afternoon, so we made the most of the weather, and strolled through the town’s streets ... read more

Waking up at 5am we packed a bit more had quick showers and were off! The fog was intense barley able to see more than a car or 2 in front of us, but all in all much better than being at work! We filled up at the exorbitant Christmas diesel rate of 1.02 a liter(usually 0.92), and drove through the classic British Christmas scene white frost covered grounds and trees looking a lot like snow, it was really beautiful almost worth waking up so early=p I tried to get some pic’s but I’m not sure if they came out. Using the software Conor “sourced”(net) we were able to find our way through all the twists and turns magnificently, it has all the roads and maps for most of Europe so getting lost should be a ... read more

Achill Island Interesting name for a tiny, picturesque island off the west coast of Ireland. It might be tiny in size, but it holds the record as "biggest" island off the coast of Ireland ! Great place to spend a weekend off to escape the stresses of the urban life. I love driving around the country side and I happen to discover this place by chance as I was driving around the beautiful and tranquil Connemera coast. As of all Ireland, Achill is no exception - needs the sun to be out and about to shine its magnificent beauty of the landscape and coast line. During the west coast Atlantic sunsets - the islands, sky blue waters shimmers with golden hue on the reddish brown sand of the beech with ever so greenish background of the ... read more