Blogs from Ireland, Europe - page 367

With time to sleep in, we made sure we didn’t set the alarm till 8:30am this morning, and headed down to breakie just after nine. I love the little pork sausages here, and will miss them when we head out of the UK for a month and a bit. The full English/Irish/Scottish breakfast definitely sets you up for the day - if you can fit it all in! After breakie, we decided to walk to Trinity College - and were only disorientated for 10 minutes or so - we realised that we needed to cross the river in order to get to the college!! It was fun to walk down O’Connell street though, and get lost in Dublin City for a few minutes. Over the bridge, we got our bearings, and headed to the college. Luckily, ... read more

To make our trip to Kilkenny a little more interesting, Iz and I decided to stop off at a couple of sight-seeing points along the way. It wasn’t too long a drive to our final destination, so we could afford to take some time out from our fairly busy schedule. Our first stop was only 30-40 mins from Cork - the Mitchelstown Caves - one of Europe’s major show caves - according to their brochure. We were a little unsure of this when we rocked up - in a tiny car park in front of a dingy country house - and our opinion didn’t improve when we headed up the long drive and into a tiny shack to wait for our guide. First impression were definitely wrong - and as we entered the tiny dwarves door ... read more

hello hello. Today was a fairly nice day, I went to the park with my mate daniel(denmark), and then we went to the national gallery for a bit. Then i showered, made some pasta, chatted with some people. Oh! and earlier today i got to talking with a woman from louisiana at the hostel who teaches french. She is having severe back problems and is leaving tomorrow, and then after chatting for a while, i saw her later, and she offered me her straightener and blow dryer...! for free! I think its because she doesnt have much room left in her suitcase. Shes also selling a 7 trip train pass thats good for 2 more months for 50 euro!! she paid 600 usdollars when there were 15 trips on it... so im looking at a 300 ... read more

After a good night’s sleep in Westport, and a hearty Irish breakfast, minus the black and white pudding (been there, tried that) we managed to lose KB and Ryan on the first turn out of our B and B! In hindsight, we should have told them which way we would be turning, but as Kristelle waited at the top of the hill, we made our way to the bottom, realised our mistake, and backtracked, only to find they had already left. We did another quick sweep back into town, but gave up, and decided to head to Galway and meet there…at least that was the plan! We arrived in Galway at midday and commenced the search for the tourist information center - hopefully to meet up with KB and Ryan and to book the nights accommodation ... read more

Southward we went into the luxuriant Irish countryside. My mom was at the wheel of our little red rental car and Ken, my stepfather, was navigating from the passenger seat. I was in the back seat with my camera gear and all of the overflow baggage from the trunk - It was definitely a tight fit, but, compared with all of the mini-bus rides I had had in Africa, it was a comfortable and roomy ride. We were embarking on a week long journey through southern Ireland, from Dublin to Limerick. We were following a route that my parents originally dreamed up for themselves as they planned their yearly vacation. I was there as an afterthought and at times a moocher. Dublin’s busy streets quickly gave way to open highways and then to two lane country ... read more