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Published: April 4th 2011
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Part two of our Ireland adventure has included more travel, more eating and drinking and more eye openers. Since we arrived here we have tried to cover as much of the country as we can and boy have we given Kelly Senior’s car a good work out! Having completed the south west we have now covered pretty much most of the island in the north.
Having recovered from the five day haul around the south we took a couple of days off in our base of Athlone and restocked ready for the adventure to the north-west. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Ireland is actually a small country compared to Australia, where we are used to popping out and getting anything we want in one of Australia’s big cities, town life in Ireland is slightly more limited. But limited doesn’t mean less fun! The town of Athlone boasts many hotels, a historic castle and the ‘oldest’ pub in the country (must check the Guinness Book of Records?) so we haven’t been restricted in any way.
First mini road trip was travelling west then north with Letterkenny in County Donegal as our destination. Letterkenny was to be our base to
visit the northern most point of Ireland at Malin Head, Derry in Northern Island and also a flying visit to Sligo – of WB Yeats fame. The country side along the way was just as stunning but in a much more softer way, more green, more fields and more rolling hills compared to the rugged south west. A highlight was definitely the visit to Malin Head, we visited on a glorious sunny day and all the villages dotted along the way were taken straight out of the thousands of postcards you find in tourist shops. Perhaps the lowlight was Derry, not to say it wasn’t interesting but it was definitely rougher round the edges.
Next was back to Athlone for what seemed like two minutes before we were getting ready for our next adventure. We were to pick up a good friend from Melbourne before spending a couple of days in Dublin and then a trip to the Giant’s Causeway on the northern most coast via Belfast.
After much gossiping and catching up with Jim at our Hogwart’s like hotel (although would easily recommend the Hazelbrook House hotel!) we spent two packed days discovering the capital. It is
and isn’t what I would have imagined. It is impressively historical and has so many wonderful tales to tell, but it definitely has an unsavoury taste in terms of obvious poorer side of society.
Day one we completed the obligatory tour of the Guinness storehouse, it was impressive and did have the best view of the city in the bar at the top but it didn’t beat the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam. For 15 euros it was worth doing and did give us a free pint! Day two I had discovered a free city tour with Sandeman’s and despite being a group of around 40 people the guide was great and yes, we did learn a lot. Fact one – did you know Dublin comes from the word Dubh Linn (pronounced dove linn) meaning black pool? Fact two – did you know Courtney Love was expelled from Trinity College for selling LSD? Nope bet you didn’t. Overall it’s a great city but I wouldn’t wander around the city centre anytime past…well…7pm?! Too many drunks, druggies and danger, having witnessed at least 5 fights I would say be careful!
Our ‘Melbourne Reunited Adventure’ continued with a whistle stop tour
up north. We stopped in Belfast and found it a much quieter city than Dublin but with a huge amount of charm, we admired the many old Victorian buildings as well as the famous murals down the Shankill road. There is no evidence of the bitter fighting that happened between the republic and northern part, even along the motorway there is no sign saying ‘welcome to Great Britain’ but driving through the political hotbeds of suburban Belfast, it’s hard to forget how much anger was involved.
It was literally a whistle stop in Belfast, but enough for us to get confused over the difference between euros and pounds, before we carried on up north to spend the night in Ballycastle a picturesque little town which was to be our base to visiting the world famous Giant’s Causeway. Ever since I had seen photos of the hexagonal shaped rocks I have been desperate to see them, and we were not disappointed. Although slightly smaller than I thought the whole coast itself was awe inspiring – in fact the whole northern coast line was lovely and a definite must do.
Unfortunately our time with Jim came to an end at
it was time to deliver him back to the airport but we have had a blast, lot’s of gossiping, sorting out the world’s issues and perfecting the art being grumpy old women sitting in the corner criticizing everyone else’s dress sense. Till the next time Jim!
Our time in Ireland is rapidly coming to an end, in five days time we head off to England and in less the two weeks we start our mega overland trip. Level of freaking out, 8 out of 10.
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Emily
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I can't get over the hexagonal rocks.... I've never seen anything like it!