Ashdene Country Home Avoca

... was really nice. Asked if I knew his ex-girlfriend from UCD. I laughed (there are 30,000 students here) and said I'd only been here a week and that I didn't know much of anyone. So we get off the bus and make the trek back to our rooms, basking in the glory of not having 20+ people in our group and not having to carry arm fulls of other people's groceries after their paper bags broke from the rain [that's what happened at the last ...

... and he did! It was the strangest thing! We chatted briefly, I told him where I was from and he said he was from Russia but had been here for ages (he had an Irish accent so it's been a LONG time). HE said he was coming from the gym and was starving. Then that was it. He walked off. Such a strange encounter and yet it made me smile. Then I went to the Jameson Distillery. I did a tour and was surprised to find myself actually interested. I never knew the ...

... nd Archeology *nd the N*tion*l Portr*it G*llery. Now, Dublin isn't known *s * museum town *nd while it m*y not h*ve the weight of import*nce th*n other towns do, it h*s one m*jor f*ctor going for it - most of the museums *re free. Bingo! The History *nd Archeology Museum is * digestible size *nd is very open, no museum cl*ustrophobi* here. The well l*id-out exhibits told the story of Irel*nd from prehistoric to mediev*l time. And yes, we s ...

... government to explore land off the NW coast of Ireland. Shell found deposits of natural gas and, being the corporation that they are, then made motions to harness the resource. However, to do so will mean potentially dire consequences not only for the environment but the people of Rossport and the surrounding area. What Shell is attempting to do has NEVER been done before: they want to run an extremely high pressure pipeline from the gas pocket to a ...

... so I didn't get to gaze at it for long unfortunately. The main hall full of really old books in the library was also a worthy of a visit. After Trinity College, it was time to line up again, this time for entrance to The Guinness Storehouse. Guinness, of course, that black stuff so synonymous with Dublin, is made in that very precinct. The storehouse is basically a big visitors centre, as the public are not allowed into the brewery itself. I liken the Guinness storehouse to Willa Wonkas ...

... buried is down a little, muddy alleyway, hidden away from the main road. Let me tell you, where he is buried is not easy to find. It took determination and strong will (especially since we walked all the way there from the city center and it was a good 2-3 mile trek), but I made it there. The church is quite small and old looking, and the cemetery is old, with graves scattered about. There was a little sign pointing to where he was buried. I paid my ...

... over an hour (the bus is supposed to run every 15 mins). I jumpled in at this point and said we will share the cab, and the costs. Lucky thing we did, cause it cost us the same amount as the bus, and we got a fantastic driver who was very helpful with directions for driving around ireland, and general info. Finally got to the airport and discovered that tourists in Dublin, push in line very badly - to the point where I pushed back!! (Well I just stepped in front of the rude man and ...

We toured our first castle today - The Rock Of Cashel. We have traveled the majority of this country by now and have seen loads of castles, forts, round towers and the like, but today we take our first proper tour of one. OK. I've built it up a little too much. It was just a tour of a really old stone place that was inhabited, worshiped in and then destroyed by invaders and ...

Today we took a rail tour out to the Irish countryside. We visited the tiny village of Avoca, which was at the base of the Wicklow Mountains. The village was beautiful, and of course, we stopped in a famous pub (Fitzgeralds) for a Guinness. Then we moved on to the ancient monastic settlement of Glendalough. We took a mile hike from the upper lake to the lower lake (thank you, Risa, for making me pack my ...