Blogs from Ireland, Europe - page 337

After a short plane flight from Edinburgh we arrived in Dublin. Getting directions from the airport to the city centre proved interesting as we were given 3 different sets of directions and two were from bus drivers standing next to each other. We eventually made it to town and found our hostel without too much hassle. As with previous cities we did the sightseeing tour to get an idea of what to see and do in the city. The following day we headed to the Guinness Brewery in search of free Guinness. The tour itself was interesting but not quite what i had expected. We did get to sample a new flavour of guinness part way through which wasn't too bad. Once we got to the top we were able to enjoy our free pint while ... read more

I'm in Cork now, flew over from Cardiff eight days ago, which means I'm on day 5 of 7 here. So far I have learnt and forgotten some Gaelic (aka Irish). The government people in Ireland are trying to reintroduce it as a widely spoken language (as if that's going to work) so they've put the Irish translations onto road signs etc, and in some places everything's in Irish (which is very confusing when you're looking for the toilets but walk straight into the staff office!). Anyway, I can't think of anything else to write, except Iva, if you're reading this, thanks for being great! (by the way Iva is the person who's spare room I'm renting for the week that I'm here). Maya xx... read more

Hello from Ireland. We have been touring around the Emerald Island for the last couple of weeks, knocking a bit of rust off our van Bert (due to the very bumpy roads). We dropped in on some more of Sandra's relations Hugh, Peter and Clodagh for some welcome home cooking before sailing out of Holyhead, north Wales. We landed staight into rush hour traffic in Dublin, and immediately got very lost and rather frustrated with the traffic queues (especially as we had arrived without a map). Thank god for Jonny White, our cellphone and his map, who in 20 minutes had talked us to his front doorstep :) Jonny took very good care of us over the following couple of days, giving us the run of his apartment, entertaining us in the evening, and letting us ... read more

As you can see, this place is renowned for drinking. So Dave has been making the most of that while we've been here. You'll see him sampling many of the different beers available on tap and there's been plenty of occasions where we've forgotten the camera so this is only a short selection of the many drinking sessions. (That's why everyone has the dreaded Dublin beer belly over here). Cheers! P.S. Dave's going shopping for a new t-shirt as soon as we've finished these blogs. Ha!... read more

Hey folks, thanks for your interest. I got to Ireland, Friday 4.18.08 and left Sunday 4.27.08 (yesterday), rented a car and basically went 3 different places: First Galway town in the west (including the rural Connemara area to the northwest of there), then heading eastward I happened to stop in a town called Bundoran, in County Donegal, where there was decent surf and nice folks. The last part of my trip was briefly passing through Belfast and Dublin. Initially I came to Ireland in hopes to see Bruce Molsky play - a favorite musician of mine (amazing at fiddle, banjo and guitar), and just being in the UK, I was close. Never did make it to see Molsky - couldn't find the place outside of Galway, and was quite tired of driving/traveling at the time, which ... read more