The Riverbank House Hotel Wexford

87 year old Jimmy welcomed me into his house from his chair by the blazing fire. 'Play a tune for me,' he ordered, and he sat back in his woolly jumper with his crooked old finger indicating the fiddle case in my hand. I duly sat and opened the case. Having tightened the bow and checked the strings were in tune, I perched upright on the edge of the chair and placed the fiddle under my chin. Jimmy cocked his nearest ear (complete ...

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 ...

... English throughout the years, but this was the biggest in terms of number of people who died).

We also did some hiking (including Mount Leinster, which gave way to 365 degree views, once the fog cleared), and went on some nice walks. We have actually done a fair amount of hiking, but I will not bore you with descriptions of these. Suffice to say, we have been through a lot of different terrain, and have seen some amazing views.

Sean

... 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.

... along our journey, but in general I will miss... German manners Italian charm London ...

Saturday - Our trek to Ireland began at 8 am as we journeyed in a race against time from Glasgow to Stranraer to catch the ferry. We got there with 10 minutes to spare and amazingly they let us on. We drove through Belfast and got out of there as soon as possible (it was quite ugly) and headed for Dublin. In Dublin we went straight to the Guiness factory, getting pretty lost in the process (even turning the wrong way down a one way street). Nonetheless, we found our way there ...

... again. In a fantastic email of the decade rant, my email crashed and I lost it. You know, when you're in the middle of a good *****, the last thing you want is to have it grasped from under you. How do you go back and begin the rant again? Once you vent, it's off the shoulders. One day I'll learn how to get the mad back. Wicklow Mountains...my trigger words. So this is why I loved Wexford. 1. The lady at the TIC who called me mad 2. The wonderful man ...

... been to and Amber and I had no interest in visiting, we then swiftly moved further inland and on to Kilkenny.

After finding a B&B there for the night what we really needed was a local to take us under their wing and show us some Kilkenny craic for the evening, and that was where Shauna came in to the equation. I had met her while travelling in New Zealand nearly three years earlier, and after meeting her outside Kilkenny Castle she took ...

(Originally published at http://www.troysgonewalkabout.com)
< br>Despite being planned for months, when it came to the crunch I really hadn’t had any time to get ready for my trip to Ireland, what with all the normal last minute pressures of getting work done and dusted before going on two weeks leave. But then with our late afternoon flight to Dublin delayed by an hour, the complimentary ticket handed to ...