Auburn Lodge Kilkenny

... black pudding is the same with the addition of blood. It is the Irish version of blood sausage, variants of which can be seen throughout Asia and Europe. They are both delicious, and are integral the traditional Irish breakfast. Our breaky this morning is a hefty one, consisting of bacon, sausage, pudding, eggs, tomatoes, bread and hash browns, all of which are considered integral to the traditional breakfast with the exception of the hash browns. I find this a ...

... low enough, you will never be disappointed" certainly does not apply to airline food. They really can't get anything right. Even the bread is sub-standard. I would be curious to know how it compares to prison food.

Michelle was a star and drove all the way to Dublin to pick me up. It was a 5 hour return trip for her, but I was greeted with genuine enthusiasm. The drive back was ...

It was really exciting to be able to spend my 20th birthday in Ireland. It started off with an interesting surprise on Monday night before my birthday. I was at Irish dance and they informed the instructor that it was my birthday. So of course I got a cake and sung to be everyone at Irish dance which by the way it is us Americans and then all ederly people. Then they sat me in the stool in the middle of the room and because of irish tradition ...

... she was invaluable to us.. but sometimes she did seem to falter just when we needed her the most!! Right in the middle of town! lol.

We stopped off in Kilkenny, oh and can I mention when you ask the GPS to take you to a place it will take you right to its centre.. Kilkenny was my first taste of a small street Irish city, with buses and lorries etc.. oh no... The other thing I did notice about driving in Ireland, don't expect to see too much of the ...

... where many ancient chieftains are buried, then went over to the shore of the lake.

Autumn is slowly making its way into Ireland. The leaves are beginning to turn, some are falling, and the daylight hours are becoming shorter. The heather that just a week ago was bright is now fading into dullness. Still, the grass is green, and the country remains beautiful.

We left Glendalough via the Braveheart Drive which is also St. Kevin’s Way and traveled about an hour to ...

... the Waterford Crystal Factory, however, we didn't realize that it had been sold off to an American company and the tours were no longer being held.
Once we had gotten into Waterford, it had started to drizzle. We were pretty tired so we checked into the hotel. I was almost more like a bed and breakfast, but it was cute. The room was warm because there was no A/C, but we were too tired to care.

... and we had to catch a rickety old country bus to take us there. We were dropped off in the middle of a field and walked toward a tower in the distance which we assumed to be it (it was!) Now, from previous journies, I had learned that Irish roads weren't the safest mediums of travel, but we chanced it anyway. We were way out in the country, surrounded by rolling hills and empty sheep pastures. The castle was a small defense castle, but ...

... rather then not knowing where I will be working tommorrow. I've basically done some photocoping, shredding, typing of documents and some basic data entry, nothing too strenuous. I'm not supposed to use the internet but they don't have anything else for me to do at the moment so here I am! I'm covering here for a women who has cancer. She is in treatment and might come in a few times a week but thats about it. I haven't met her yet but she might come ...

... I had never before imagined Ireland as the place to go for a beach holiday, but at that moment all I wanted to do was wade through the water and explore the small cliffs further out towards a grassy headland. It was just a pity that I hadn’t even given a thought to packing my bathers.

We got back in the car and headed inland to Waterford and got some lunch from a supermarket, then hunted around for some time for a picnic area, park or ...

... stayed at O'Laughlin's Hotel. All rooms have their own bathroom, television, and phone. While the rooms were comfortable, the part of the building we were in was one of the weirdest places in which I've stayed. It had recently been added on to the rest of the complex. The construction techniques used to build it showed that it had been hastily added. Not only was the hallway leading to the rooms at a downward angle (leaving one to think it was going to fall ...