DAY 46 I finally arrived at my hostel at 7pm without managing to get lost even with my complicated directions! I was quiet pleased with myself, maybe my sense of direction was improving………………….. After settling into my hostel I headed down to the common room to cook my self some dinner to find myself face to face with one of the girls I had met back in Barcelona at the Pringles machine the night before last. Her name is Katherine and she was travelling with her friend Emily. It was fantastic to see a familiar face. They ended moving into the same dorm room as me as well as their new roommate was creeping them out just a little bit. I think it took me about ½ hour to cook my pasta in the microwave as ... read more

DAYS 37 & 38 This Saturday after Ryan left at an unearthly hour I spent with Sylvia, mum's friend from school. She took me around the twon showing me thier old school, mum and das old house they shared with Shive and Jack, mum's house she grew up in (which has been changed so much I hardly recongnised it) and we also went to a Church fate. The afternoon bought a visit to Shive's aunt Evelyn and St Naih's Church were my granparents are burried. That night we went to Lyn and Pat's for a barby but Pat was the only one of us game enough to brave the cold! We were also greated by a bashful Mark who had had a little incident with a highlighting kit. His hair was a nasty shad of ... read more

DAYS 29-31 Friday I spoke to my Uncle Alan who asked if I wanted to go to Wexford with them for the weekend which I did. Amy (my little cousin) didn't know I was coming so you should have heard the shrieks at the school gate when we picked her up. That night we played on the near by play equipment and realised that maybe I was a little too big to be playing on it! After a lovely dinner cooked by Uncle Alan it was movie time in Amy’s room we watched Cadet Kellie. This was done in semi darkness as the power had diminished leaving us with very dim lighting and only the little TV we were using working. After the movie was finished all the power went out and we were left with ... read more

DAY 26 Today dawned bright and sunny for St Patrick’s Day. Today I went into the city with my cousin Ryan and 2 of his friends to watch the parade. In there we met my other cousin Ian, his wife and their son Daniel. We waited for over an hour for the parade to start and it was fantastic. There was so much colour and so many nationalities all taking part in the event. Some of the entries though were a little odd and I wasn't sure how they fitted in. But they all looked amazing including Kin Kong, a flying pig and giant insects. Ryan and his friend's decided to leave before the end of the parade to go to the carnival but I decided to stay seeing as I had already waited so long ... read more

DAY 17 It was my second day in Ireland today and I went to my Aunt and Uncle’s local Church, St Doulough’s. It is the oldest church in Ireland with over 600 years of continuous weekly use. The Church also contains one section with the original stone roof. As the church was completely stone and the heaters so high up everyone in the church remained rugged up for the whole service. It didn’t help that it was only 2 degrees outside!!! After Church we proceeded to Malahide Castle where we had morning tea of hot chocolate and cake. There were children out on the ovals next to the Castle playing soccer in the cold weather, I felt so cold for them! In the afternoon my Uncle Alan, Aunty Jill and my little cousin Amy came over ... read more