Ireland

On Sunday morning, Halloween, Jen and I flew from London to Dublin but remained in Dublin long enough to take a 3 hour bus ride to Galway, which is a little town on the west coast of Ireland. The bus driver told me "how to save a few Bobs" by showing my student i.d. The Irish accent is just precious. After arriving in Galway, we navigated through the cobble stone streets until we found our bed and breakfast. The Lynburgh B&B has been owned by an older couple since 1987. They fixed us a wonderful breakfast the following morning and told us to make ourselves at home. For dinner we walked back to the city center for fish & chips at Mc Donagh's. The restaurant is a popular place in Galway with great food.

On Monday we woke up and walked around Galway. The coast was extremely windy, so we headed to town to walk in the little shops. We found a place called Griffin's Bakery, which reminded us of our program director, John Griffin. We had to take a few pictures and eat something from the bakery in honor of him. Around 2 o'clock, Jen and I took the bus back to Dublin and checked into Jacob's Inn for the next 3 nights.

Tuesday brought another free walking tour of Dublin. Our tour guide, Peter, explained much of the Irish history including the Vikings, wars with Great Britain, St. Patrick, O'Connell the liberator, the potato famine, and Trinity College. The tour ended at St. Stephen's Green and Peter suggested O'Nealls for lunch. Jen and I each got the Irish beef stew. The platter had mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, beef, broccoli, and carrots. The stew tasted wonderful and we were so full. To walk off the hearty lunch, we walked the streets of Dublin, going in and out of little shops. I noticed that in Ireland most places are mom and pop stores or restaurants with few chain stores.

On Wednesday Jen and I bought tickets for an all day tour of the Glendalough valley, Wicklow Gap, Brownshill Dolmen, and the medieval town of Kilkenny. We had one hour and thirty minutes to hike around the trails of Glendalough. Glendalough had the most beautiful scenery of trees, waterfalls, and old ruins from a monastic city. Ireland and England are amazing to see during the fall when all of the leaves are changing colors. Before loading back on the bus, Jen and I got a coffee and scone snack from the hotel in Glendalough. The driver was Irish and provided us with stories, opinions, and history all throughout the day. He was quite a character. Unfortunately, the weather was foggy to see much in Wicklow Gap, but I enjoyed Brownshill Dolmen, which is an old portal tomb weighing about 100 tons. The last stop of the tour was in Kilkenny. We took a tour of the medieval castle built by the Butler family. We wandered around the old medieval town and stopped for lunch at an Irish pub. At 3:30 we were back on the bus for a two hour drive back to Dublin. I enjoyed seeing Ireland from coast to coast, especially in the fall.