Blogs from Ireland, Europe - page 364

i just finished a short field trip in ireland - trained up to galway for a day, then down to killarney for two days where i did some hiking in the national park and food shopping in tesco. i'd advise against training anywhere in ireland - not quite as efficient as other EU countries. to get from galway to killarney, which is approximately 1.5 hours driving, took an amazing 8 hours on the train and 4 train changes. no matter where you are and want to go, dublin is the hub, but the travel was free as i still had my eurail pass. killarney was beautiful - a large national park at the city limits, i hiked to ross castle and a copper mine that was used in 2000 BC. the forest was very tropical and ... read more

No, not hurling. Hurling! (And those are links, so click on them. In order!) How could I say I had been to Ireland without exploring Dublin? Especially since I flew in and out of there. I got up and packed up my things and headed out, but not before having a full Irish breakfast. It seemed to be very similar to the full English breakfast, except for the presence of black pudding (known in other languages as "blood pudding" - 'nuf said) and something else unidentifiable. I ate the egg, toast with jam, beans, and tomato and avoided the black pudding. (Been there, done that, don't feel the need to try it again.) I hesitantly took a bite of the other round, tan, breaded patty. Hmmm... not bad. So I asked my waiter: "What is this?" ... read more

Labor Day weekend found me in Ireland. A few weeks before, I was moseying around the Ryan Air website, just out of curiousity, and the next thing I knew, I had a ticket. The return trip cost 1 p. Convert that to American dollars, and that makes it a whopping two cents. I have no idea how these airlines stay in business! They get you on the taxes, but still. I had paid for it almost even before checking to see if I was free that weekend. (Like my grandmother who had laying hens and still bought eggs at the store because they were on sale. Hey, you can't fight genetics!) The ticket to get there was a slightly more expensive 12 pounds 99 pence. So either England really wanted me back, or Ireland really wanted ... read more

Geo: 53.0163, -7.14741... read more

Green, Gaelic & Guinness…Ireland Our first day in Ireland felt like a truly international day. After flying from Liverpool, England to Dublin, Ireland, we had to take a detour to the Chinese embassy. En route, we passed Irish pubs, Polish markets and Ghanaian restaurants. Once there, we presented our visa applications to the Chinese clerk - all in order so that we’d be able to traverse Russia, Mongolia and China later in our travels! Trivia: What is the second most spoken language in Ireland? Answer: Chinese! As expected, we found Ireland to be a very charming place. In fact, we’re not alone. It’s said that Ireland has more tourists per year than actual residents! We started our Irish adventure in Dublin and did a big counterclockwise loop passing through Northern Ireland, along the northern coast and ... read more