Wow, hi all, so here goes thirty minutes of internet time!
It feels like ages already since we arrived in Ireland. I am pretty sure that we left for Ireland on Tuesday but with all the travelling that we have been doing lately I am not really sure. Dublin was our first stop and needless to say I think that we were a little ambitious because in our first day there we managed to accomplish the Dublin Writer's Museum (Mel and I were the only ones brave enough to risk this one along with mostly a gray haired crowd... I owed it to Swift and Prof Hales :)), the Guiness Storehouse (which included a complimentary pint!) the National Irish Museum (we pretty much had the place to ourselves... a little creepy with ancient mannequins (sp?)), napped on the grounds of the Christ Church Cathedral and walked past Trinity College. We thought that after such a day we would treat ourselves to a restaurant meal but were shocked at the prices, nine euros for MD's are you kidding me! We found a grocery store, or I guess I should say supermarket and ended up with the fixings for spaghetti, at about two euros a head, not bad...
Day two in Ireland we headed to Cork and stayed at Sheila's Inn, a little less cush than our last hostel but it was still nice and was perched on the top of probably the steepest hill in town, not a bad workout with our thirty pound packs after a long day... From Cork we took the advice from the Russian guy working at the hostel and headed to Kinsale, a beautiful seaside town on the Southern coast of Ireland. I think that this was by far our favorite spot so far, the pace of life was much slower, the weather was spectacular and the castle ruins and grassy knoles breathless. Ireland is beautiful! This morning when we woke up we kind of forgot that it was Saturday and that booking hostels might be more difficult and ended up in Belfast, somewhat by default. Our train passes have been fantastic out here and we haven't had to pay any reservation fees as of yet! We are now at the Linen House Hostel, Linen was a major export from Belfast and our hostel seems to have once been some type of linen factory and has a kind of industrial feel, the beds are pretty cramped but the people have been super helpful and friendly! Anyways, it is looking like we will be heading to Robin Mark's church tomorrow and spending the afternoon exploring Belfast.
Well, time is up for me, love you all!
Erin (Mel, Mo and Wanda)
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