Geo: 53.2789, -9.06619Up early as we had to load the bus by 8:20. Lots of banging during the night and still slightly damp underthings this morning. The wind was still strong and it had just stopped pouring when we left Dingle.Declan started off talking about a local guy named Tom Crean (after whom the beer we had at dinner last night was named) who went on Antarctic expeditions in the early 20th century. He was one of the men who went to retrieve Scott's body, and Scott's grateful widow made a gift of 100 pounds to Crean. He then went on expedition with Ernest Shackleton. It was a horrible, awful expedition that lasted a helluva lot longer than it should have, but all the men from the party returned safely to Europe. Shackleton asked Crean to ... read more

Geo: 52.1433, -10.2687I was awakened this morning by a strange banging sound. I didn't know what time it was but figured someone had forgotten their key and was just coming back from the pub, so was banging on the front door of the hotel (which is more or less below my window). But it kept happening, and there's very obviously a doorbell down there, so that's not what it was. It wasn't rhythmic, and there would be longish stretches with no sound at all, but it went on for long enough that I finally looked at my clock: 5:50. So not spectacularly early, but still early enough to be annoying. I got up at one point and looked out my window but couldn't see anything. Still it went on. I couldn't really place if it was ... read more

Geo: 51.7064, -8.5233Woke up once last night, but at least it wasn't 2:00 a.m. It's so quiet here, and my room was really dark too, so I slept very well. Decent water pressure in the shower this morning, but only about a minute's worth of hot water. It's really amazing how cold cold water can be; it's not invigorating either: it's shocking!There were plenty of choices for breakfast, including scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs with cheese, scrambled eggs with fish, and several fish dishes. I opted for the buffet and just got soda bread, cheese and a rolled up crepe thingy that had ham in it. Tasty.We all met at 9:00 to go on our walking tour of the town with Don Herlihy. We walked essentially the same route we walked last night with Declan, mainly because ... read more

Geo: 53.3331, -6.2489The time change finally caught up with me last night. I turned out my light at 10:00 and then woke up thinking it was probably 3:00 in the morning. Nope. It was 11:30. I managed to get back to sleep, but then woke up again at 2:00 and just could not get back to sleep. I was completely wide awake. I'm sure I was still up at 4:00 if not later, and my alarm went at 7:00. So I was already feeling rather fragile, and then there was a spider in my shower, which pretty much had me hyperventilating. All in all, not the most auspicious start to the day.I had the same thing for breakfast today as I did yesterday (poached eggs, bacon and toast), but today the eggs tasted like vinegar. They ... read more

Geo: 53.3331, -6.2489Because I chose to fly on the Friday before Labor Day weekend, John decided we should leave for SeaTac early because of the likelihood of godawful traffic. So we left the house at 2:55 for my 6:45 flight. Less than an hour later, I was walking past the Starbucks after the security check. Of course, if we hadn't left early, we would've gotten stuck in traffic and I would have been frantic.So John dropped me off, I went to the ticket desk to ask a question, and then promptly gave myself a paper cut, which will probably annoy me for the entire trip. This was the first time I had to go through the new scanners at security, and the TSA guy told me to plant my feet and give him jazz hands. I ... read more