Admiral's Rest Ballyvaughan

... 30th.<br><br>Next I'll spend 3 weeks in New Zealand, mostly on the South Island, and fly from Auckland to LA on May 22nd. <br><br>After a final 3 weeks in America I will fly from New York to London on June 17th.<br><br>I have bought and scrounged everything I need to take, and I have typed up more notes than I can handle. I'm very excited to finally be so close to going, after years of planning and hoping!! <br><br>My next post will be from India!!!<br>

... visited Trinity College and experienced an actual college campus. It was great to see another college campus and imagine what it would be like to go to school in a foreign country. We then stayed in a hotel where we had far less beds than people and I played a game of musical beds all night. Gratefully, our room stayed up late talking so that the lack of sleep was easier to comprehend because I didn't have any space on a bed. <br>

... at 10, when they needed to check out. It was an interesting morning. After breakfast, we decided that we really had nothing we needed to do before going to the airport, so we headed out to go walk around, and shop. Nothing too exciting. It rained....because it just wouldn't have been Ireland without a little rain before we left. We got subs on the way back, and caught the bus to the airport at 2. Everything ended up going smoothly in ...

... up was the castle, we only had a quick photo op and didnt get to really venture inside. I was kind of dissapointed by this because I really love castles and wanted to explore, but the show must go on, so we all climed back into the bus and set off the the Aillwee caves. This cave was formed by glacial melt waters from an early ice age period, but the river that created it has since dissapeared and left "Ireland's premier showcave". A man named Jack ...

A journey underground - another cave journey. Apparently, bears also used to hibernate here. And it has been a very long time since bears actually lived in Ireland.<br><br>Had a pretty interesting waterfall inside. This was also an interesting tour. They actually turned the lights out while we were in there. Total darkness is an interesting thing.<br>

... over to the bike rental place so the we would be able to ride around the Island and get to see everything we wanted to. There was no bike tour so we happily headed out on our own to explore the island and what it had to offer. The first place we stopped was a very odd looking pub. We were not hungry yet felt a need to pause for it was the strangest pub I had ever seen. It was painted bright yellow and had chickens roaming around in front of it. I of ...

... from the night before and mighty Galway was empty of al souls making it deadly quiet. But then just like always, better late than never, the luck of the Irish came through and the sun came out. The snow ceased and the heat warmed me up the first time since I had been in Ireland. In a way it made me happy to get a little sun and finally I said farewell to the Emerald Isle and to my ancestors who had been born in generations before.

It was time for a quiet day at home to do laundry (the dryer here is wonderful), work on deleting and organizing photos, and relax. We walked the two blocks into our one street tiny town of Ballyvaughan to the Internet café and caught up on our travelpod entries, checked out the pretty Catholic church, shopped and found several ...

... before, and with a line up consisting of people from Oman, the US, South Africa, France and *****ia, to name but a few, it was bound to be fun. The streets w**e packed with jackets dodging the rain. We walked along the High Street, reading the menus of the potential gastronomic delights, asking each pub wheth** they had a live music session happening lat** that night. And then we dived into an Italian bistro, having compromised on a menu that ev**yone could enjoy ...

... frequently - from sunny to cloudy to rainy. Only a couple of the ruins on the island were worth seeing...the others were just piles of rocks. Some of the roads were rocky and made for very bumpy riding. Needless to say, I'm very sore and will probably need some Aleve before bed. here's me on a cliff at the Aran Islands Tomorrow I go back to Dublin and leave on my tour of the south on Saturday.