Chasing Leprachauns

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Adam and I have recently discovered being a commuter couple again does have the occasional luxury attached-being so far apart, we have every reason now to spoil ourselves in the time we actually do get to have together! So, our first treat to ourselves has been a road trip around southern Ireland. Adam got his taste of the jetsetter lifestyle, flying into Dublin late Friday night, where I picked him up and away we went. Crashed for the night in Dublin, stopping only long enough to wander along the very crowded streets of Temple Bar and enjoy the amusing scenes created by late night revellers, before making an early start west to Galway. The city of Galway is very quaint, offering true Irish hospitality at every turn. Heading to a local pub, we sat down to a huge traditional breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, mushrooms and of course black pudding! We spent a few hours here taking in the sites and wandering through the local markets, picking up some fabulous cheese and bread to munch on during the days ahead (yes, all things food related were a huge factor in the weekend adventure).

We drove south of Galway to the famous Cliffs of Moher in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the weather had taken a turn for the worst by this time with huge clouds and fog drifting in along the entire coastline. Against my better judgement, we decided to jump on a small local ferry offering a cruise along the coastline, thinking it would be lovely to take in the enormity of the coastline cliffs from sea level. I had at this point conveniently forgotten the small, insignificant fact, that I am very prone to motion sickness and immediately upon heading out on our cruise, began to feel queasy. Needless to say I spent the better part of the journey trying to hold onto the contents of my stomach as we rolled forwards, backwards and side to side on rolling seas. Adam absolutely loved every minute however, standing at the bow and grinning like a chesire cat at the misfortunes of my stomach! As a consequence, we spent a quiet night in Limerick, heading to the local pub and enjoying dinner surrounded by a throng of wedding guests who seemed to lack access to any form of bar in their private function room and hence did most of their celebrating in the public bar area.

One of the most amusing, yet treacherous, characteristics one discovers whilst driving through Ireland, is how narrow and winding the roads can be. As we were about to discover during our day of driving through the Dingle Pennisula and the Ring of Kerry, the signposted speeds of 100km/h are uniform on roads throughout country areas, with the only indication as to the severity of any curvatures provided by signs saying 'slow, slower' and very occasionally, 'yield!' We drove through some of the most amazing scenery one could ever hope to see on what turned out to be a gloriously clear and sunny day. However, there were certainly a few hair-raising moments along the way with bends taken at far too high a speed and my narrow escape from serious damage whilst driving past a long line of rock face at the side of the road (I do confess, I got scarily close to the rockface whilst driving and only narrowly avoided doing some serious damage to our rental car. At a wider point in the road, we saw two cars who had indeed suffered this misfortune with huge scratches and dents all along the passenger side of the vehicle!)

We visited the city of Cork and the nearby famous Blarney Castle, kissed the Blarney Stone and felt quite chuffed, considering ourselves truly blessed with the gift of the gab for at least the rest of the day. We drank Guiness of course, with Adam swearing the rumours are true-we really only get the crap stuff exported to Aus! We listened to Irish folk music at the local pub and ate traditional Irish stew...so good!!! We were even lucky enough to catch up with one of our lovely friends Rach from Aus over a dinner date in Dublin! All in all, it was a fantastic weekend road trip. Whilst we failed to spot any leprachauns along our journey, we certainly discovered the charm of Ireland and its people. It really is an amazingly beautiful country.

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