Ireland

Well my last few days here in Ireland have been quite nice. Galway is larger than I had thought, but it is a great small city. I have been lucky with the weather, no real rain, and in fact today I even got a little bit sun burnt as I was sitting on the beach. I didn't brave the cold Atlantic waters, but lots of people were enjoying the water.

I have been staying at a huge hostel, the largest one I have stayed at, easily this place holds 200 people. I have been in a 6 Bed Dorm, so it hasn't been to bad, although the first 2 nights I was in a room with 3 Italians who snored very loudly. Even my ear plugs didn't block out all the noise. Tonight however I get to spend the night with 5 girls. Most of them are just here until they find a place to stay in town, as they will be starting University here next week. But I have met some great people here.

Tuesday I went on a 8 hour bus tour of the lands near Galway. Including Connemara, and Kylemore Abbey, along with others. Went with a German and an Australian Girl. We had a great guide, he had great stories to tell, and was rather amusing. Somehow I think Irish are just naturally funny. Ireland really is as green as they say, truly a lovely country. Not sure if I could handle living here with all the rain, clouds and wind though. But there is so much history, and great scenery.

Then a large group of us from the hostel went out for an Irish dinner. I had some Irish Stew, which came with 3 kinds of potatoes, they love there spuds here!. Then it was off to a couple Irish pubs. Heard some great local Irish music, and had a few more pints of Guinness. Nightlife in this small city is quite alive, even on a Tuesday night the streets were packed! Lots of street entertainers.

Had some great Muscles for dinner tonight, Muscles are shipped from here all over the world, including Barcelona, which used to be famous for there muscles, until they fished them all.

I wish I had more than a week to see Ireland, as I didn't really do it justice, but Friday I am flying out to Portugal for 4 nights in Lisbon with my friend Tan. Then I will head south to the beach resort town of Lagos for almost a week, where I plan on doing very very little, other than just relaxing on the beach. From there I will head back north to Scotland, and then back to Prague to meet up with my friend Robert and one of his friends for another fun weekend in that great city. Then it's off to Germany, where I will try to get to Oktoberfest in Munich, I am having problems locating accommodation that isn't insanely expensive. I think this is the farthest out I have planned anything.

Posted by Jason Willock

Well the weekend here in Dublin has flown by, and suprisingly I managed to remain pretty much sober for the majority of it. I still had fun though.

I got to my hotel, it was a budget hotel, as I couldn't find a single bed in a hostel that sounded appealing. The hotel was a fair bit out of the city centre, but right on a tram line, and it actually turned out to be quite a great place, with a great view of some nice Irish Hills. The hotel was overbooked, so they put me up in one of there apartments. A sweet 2 bedroom fully furnished place with leather couches, and a plasma tv. And washer/dryer which is always nice to be able to do some laundry!

Not to mention the hotel was right next to a large pub, and night club, which were frequented by locals as it is one of the larger ones in this party of the city. So I got to have a few pints and talk to some locals. Which got harder as the night went on, as they got harder and harder to understand, so I smiled and nodded a fair bit. I think the problem was I wasn't keeping up to there rapid pint consumption! It's strange to see so many binge drinking adverts on the tv. I guess there is a slight problem here with that.

Anyhow the weather wasn't overly great this weekend, although it is just starting to clear up this evening. Wet and cold, so that put a damper on my sight seeing. However I did get to see a good chunk of the city. The highlight of course was a tour of the Guinness Brewery, where I think I had my first full pint of Guinness, I don't recall ever trying more than a sip of it. Over the last few months of travelling I have become much more open to beer, and quite enjoy it now. So I can appreciate a good pint more now. I also tried something else new here, I downloaded a couple walking tours on my ipod. One was a walking tour of part of the city leading up to the brewery, it was very well done, and gave great insight into the city and how it is fully intertwined with the Guinness Family. These walking tours are available for most cities in Europe, and I think I will try a couple more. I don't really enjoy walking around with earphones though, as it makes it less likely to strike up a conversation.

Another site I saw was St. Patrick's Cathedral, this made me tear up a bit, as my fathers name was Patrick, and it made me reminisce and remind me that I miss him. It certainly is one of the oldest Cathedral's I have been to, originally building started in 1191! However little remains of the original building, but none the less it still amazes me to see things so old, it just reminds me how young Canada really is!

Tomorrow I am off to the west coast of Ireland to a town called Galway, which I am looking forward to being in a small town again, and enjoying the country side. Hopefully the weather holds up for my week here in Ireland.

Posted by Jason Willock