Ireland!!!

Ireland will be one of our longest stops on our trip. We each chose a place that we really wanted to see and Amanda's top pick was Ireland and Kyle's was Spain. We flew into Dublin late after we went to the queen's celebration. Once we arrived we took a short bus ride and then a 2 minute walk to our hostel. The hostel staff was extremely nice and helped us with anything we needed. Our roommates turned out to be a good match for us. A couple was from Brazil but studying in London. The other two roommates were two guys from Spain. Kyle had a good using his spanish skills and talking to all of them. So we couldnt have asked for better roommates. We ended up only walking around the first night kinda getting use to where things were.

The second day we woke up and made our way to another NewEuroTour. Our tour guide was very nice and gave us the complete history of Ireland and Dublin. We got to walk around and see: Dublin Castle,Dubh Linn, Dublin’s Medieval Walls, Viking Remains (she explained that they didnt wear the cool head gear and that from as far as they know they werent as tall as we think,below average size for a male today), Christ Church Cathedral, Adam and Eve Church, The National Library, Famous Writers, Temple Bar, Ha’Penny Bridge, Spire of Dublin (created for the millenium celebration and cost a bunch of money for a sphere), City Hall, Trinity College, Leinster House, Chester Beatty Library, St. Stephen’s Green, 1916 Easter Rising. On our way to the Guinness factory we walked through an outdoor shopping area, we stopped for probably 10 minutes to see these two male high school guys juggle the ball for money on the street. It was amazing they called it freestyle and said that they are on youtube under ireland freestyle. After we watched them for a bit they stopped for a break and we went up to talk to them. They said they both dont play soccer and that they saw a freestyle video 15 months ago and thought it was cool so they picked it up. They said that they can make more money performing in an hour or two then they would at a job and they love it.they showed us their backpack with the money from the day and it was completely full!

After the tour we planned to walk to the Guinness storehouse but by the time we got there it had just closed. After our week in ireland we will be returning to Dublin to fly out and plan to see it then.

The next day we walked to picked our rental car and then slowly but surely made our way to Galway. Its located on the West coast of Ireland, kinda a straight shot over from Dublin. We decided its in the best interest of our lives to let Kyle drive while we are in Ireland. The reasoning behind that is you drive on the right side, speed limits are funky, roundabouts instead of stoplights, and Amanda can be spacey :) Kyle did a great job driving over to Galway and when we arrived we found out that the week we were there the town will be hosting a music festival at local pubs. The town is perfect for walking so we parked our cute little ford fiesta (ha) and walked to the center and got some traditonal Irish food; kyle had a bunch of breakfast food stuffed on one plate, including black and white sausage which is one regular sausage and one sausage sauteed in blood. Amanda had traditional Irish stew that was delicious and very large. After dinner we walked to a pub and listened to live music all night. The performers were very good, they played a lot of oldies and some irish music. Everyone has been very friendly that we have met, they ask where we are from and then offer suggestions right away so its been great.

The second day we got up and drove an hour to the Cliffs of Moher. Its one of those breath taking sites that I hope everyone gets a chance to see. Its cliffs that range from 400 ft to 700ft above the ocean. In the distance we could see the Aran Islands where we will be going tomorrow. We walked along the cliffs and took countless pictures (sorry there are alot!). We crossed the Private Property sign and the Do not proceed sign to get a closer look....the good thing was no one else was paying attention to the sign either. We walked all the way to the end of one of the cliffs and were some of the only ones to keep going to the end. The walk one way way probably 3 miles along the edge of the cliffs and cow pastures. At the end was a old watchtower or lighthouse (not really sure). It had no roof but it was still pretty well intact! It started to rain on us when we were just getting to the end so on the way back we had a damp walk along the coast. At points we crossed into the cow pasture because the trail along the cliffs was too close to the edge and the wind was blowing too hard to chance anything.

By the time we got back we were pretty spent from the rain and walking so we drove home and are about to go out to eat. There are some more bands playing tongiht so we might check them out but we have an early day tomorrow so we arent sure. Tomorrow AM we are getting on a Ferry to the Aran Islands (another spectacular place to see scenry). We have till the 22ndin Ireland and then we are off to France. So far the trip has been awesome we are both so weird that we fully entertain each other everyday.

We will take some pictures of the hostels so that you all can see what its like to be on the road!

Goodnight!

Here are the links to the last of England and up to date Ireland pictures. We will put captions on them later to make them less confusing.

England

Ireland Part One