Planes Trains and Automobiles

My last day in Ireland and both my first and last in London. I guess before any closing thoughts I'll just tell you what we got up to today. We got up early as usual and started driving towards Dublin airport to get to London with the hotel's super helpful directions. We soon found ourselves lost and 40 minutes off schedule. Luckily we woke up early so we had time to kill... just barely though. After dropping off Sally, (our rental car) we ran through the airport as fast as we could, and made it with 10 minutes to spare. It was fun, never doing that again...

But we made it so I can't complain I guess. The flight to London was short and uneventful and we made it through security to London no problem. My dad being the prepared guy that he is bought us train tickets online, so we took the train straight into London. We of course took a famous black taxi to our hotel where we dropped off our bags and went out again. I'm not in London for long so I have to make the best of it.

Dad took me to St. Paul's Cathedral where he and his dad had a talk when my dad was a boy. Trying to maintain tradition and such. But that conversation is between me and my dad. So I'll tell you about the rest of London instead, we only walked around it, but it was still a grand time. We saw the London eye, Big Ben, the Tower Bridge. The whole sh-bang.

I was unfortunately super tired after waking up early and staying up late so many times. So I made dad head back early. Like I said, tomorrow I return home. Which I'm honestly super psyched for.

Before I leave you just some finishing thoughts. Ireland is a place of amazing ancient beauty, both in historical landmarks and natural beauty. If you ever had a desire to go, please do so. Just make sure you have someone to plan it as well as my dad did.

Ireland has really progressed from where I'm told it was a few short years ago. It even has a green initiative and pride parades. It really feels like home, so I'm glad to have my citizenship. Like I said earlier I didn't sleep a lot last night so I'm nodding off here. I have to make the flight home tomorrow by waking up at 5... I'll try to talk dad into posting the pictures while I'm gone.

So home is where the heart is. Now I need to get home while my heart is still in Vancouver. Signing off for the last time.

-Matt

Last of Ireland

Last full day in Ireland, tomorrow we head off to London via the Dublin airport first thing in the morning. We left our overpriced hotel in London and checked out the political murals and peace wall. It was clear that although there has been a peace signed the wounds of the past are still healing. When you take a picture of yourself in front of something like those paintings its hard to know whether or not to smile. I'm not sure how to show my respect in that way.

After looking at the murals on both sides we headed down to Newtownards to meet some more family. Hetheringtons this time, so that's always nice. We were greeted at our Hotel by Molly (the one who the guy in Raphoe dated) and Lorna, who are my father's cousins. They graciously took us out for tea and muffins. They seem like great folk but every once and a while you could hear that we did not shared the same political views as each other. Of course I was never one to be concerned with politics and family is family after all.

They were also kind enough to take us to see some more graves of the family. This time the graveyard had no shortage of Hetheringtons. I'm not sure if that's heartening or frightening to be honest. My dad seemed to really find this all fascinating, so I put up with it for him. (Okay, it was kind of cool)

Molly and Lorna guided us back to our hotel where we were met by another Hetherington. Her name was Rita, she's my dad's cousins wife. She hopped in our car and guided us back to her place for dinner and an exchange of family stories. When we walked in the door, her husband Andrew Hetherington was waiting for us. Andrew stayed at home as he was recovering from cancer. From what I could tell he was doing really well, you would never be able to tell.

Even I enjoyed the stories and pictures of our family that they showed us before and after dinner. They had everything from old pictures to a knife that my grandfather claimed to have gotten off a dead German soldier, but in actual fact was a Mason knife.

Unfortunately as the night progressed I started to feel unwell (probably all these nights staying up late blogging to you folks catching up with me :P). So we headed back a little early and checked back into our hotel in Newtownards and began to pack for the flight to London/home. In fact, I am doing that as I blog to you now.

Alas, we're getting up early tomorrow so I must be on my way. I had a blast in Ireland, I'm sure my short time in London will be grand as well.

-Matt  

She is the $$$ of Belfast city

Carnside Guest House was really a great deal, very cheep, between the two main tourist attractions, a free breakfast and on top of it all a beautiful view. What could be better than that?

However we still decided to shuffle off early so we could take the coastal road to Belfast. Really a stunning view. Of course along the way dad and I had to stop by the very famous Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. Now somehow Dad and I managed to walk passed the place where we pay for the dang thing (honestly and accident) so we walked about 20 minutes to the bridge where we found ourselves without tickets to cross the bridge. Luckily the man who was checking let us through anyway.

The rope bridge really was cute and had an amazing view, but for the price we would have paid for it, definitely would have been a rip off. When it's free though, what an incredible experience. :P When we left we left a sizeable donation for being so generous.

From there on out we didn't stop for any more sights all the way down to Belfast. Not that we needed to with a view that amazing the whole drive. If you ever find yourself with the choice of the scenic route or the direct route in Ireland definitely take the scenic route. You'd be missing out on views you wont be able to find anywhere else in the world.

Dad and I being who we are were of course blasting music the whole drive down. But we had to turn it down on our arrival to Belfast because we reached another labyrinth of streets. Which I once again expertly navigated us through Belfast to bring us to Park Inn, our very expensive hotel for the night.

For the price we're paying for this hotel it should really be a lot better. It's more than double what we payed for many of our B&B and hostels yet we get much less bang for our buck. Maybe that's Belfast though. We have to pay extra for a breakfast in the morning, which has been included in every hostel and B&B so far. We have to pay for a parking lot that wasn't included in the doubled price that's down the road. And the kicker, we have to pay by the hour for wifi... Usually I don't complain about these things but for double the price I feel those should be included if not a little extra.

Intent on not letting this ruin Belfast I was open to my dad's suggestion of doing a bus tour, which was really fascinating. So I'm glad we did it. Easily worth the cost. The bus took us all around Belfast showing us all of the murals and architecture. Fun fact, Titanic was built here... Who knew? The bus tickets are good for 48 hours and you can hop on and off as you see fit. We might go down to check out the murals again tomorrow and take advantage of our tickets.

I later let dad talk me into checking out 2 pubs to soak up the city's ambiance. Guinness has a different brew here in Ireland and you can really taste the difference. Naturally, I'm taking advantage of having as much as I can before I leave.

Before checking back into out hotel dad and I went to a Mexican place called Boojum. So far it only exists in Ireland, but it's bloody good. Irish-Mexican food, welcome to the 21^st century I guess.

That about wraps up our time in Belfast, luckily I got all this in on one hour of internet. So I only have to pay 3 pounds for this little blog entry.

-Matt  

Giants and whiskey

As it turned out we slept in my second cousin's bed last night. I guess that's just the kind of thing you're supposed to do for families though. We of course stayed and talked to the Johnsons until 12, even though we woke up at 8 o'clock initially. Very hospitable people.

After a very hardy breakfast and a promise to stay connected we left the Winston's house with very clear directions for how to get to the Bushmills distillery, “right down the road for a bit, then make a left” Those are the directions to everything in Ireland, regardless of whether it's on the left or not...

However it's a big tourist attraction so it was on every map, and every second street sign as we got close to it. Gotta love Ireland, no clear signs until drinks are involved. We made it to Bushmills relatively easily of course. Now for those of you who don't know, Bushmills is an Irish whiskey which means it's distilled 3 times instead of 2, and is spelt with an “e”, whiskey. The tour was nice, short and sweet, straight to the point. You got to see the real factory at work. The Guinness tour was more well put together, but this tour is definitely worth a the price of admission. Seeing the real distillery instead of a replica was certainly a nice feature.

Of course we got to try a free sample at the end. Bushmills has 5 main bottles that you can buy all over the world at any time, however they have 2 that are what you might call “limited edition”. One which was made to celebrate their 400^th anniversary, it was made 4 years ago on a massive scale but when it they run out would be done forever. The other which could only be purchased at the distillery. Between the two of us we got a sample of each just to we could feel like we took advantage of the limited offer.

Carefully deliberating which we liked more, my dad bought me a bottle to open on the day I have my first kid. Which ideally is fairly far down the road in my life, but a nice gesture.

Fortunately enough the distillery is just down the road and to the left of our B&B that we're staying in tonight. Carnside Guest House (our B&B) is honestly just a stones throw away from Giant's Causeway. You see it's funny because-- I'll get back to that soon, just remember this!

Giants Causeway is a geological phenomenon on the north coast of Ireland. Do to some volcanic activity many years ago the rocks in this cove have formed to look like columns of rocks all stacked on top of each other. Irish legend says that Finn McCool (a giant) used to throw these stones across the water to Scotland, which you can see from the causeway, in an attempt to build a bridge. (See, a stones throw away, I'm so clever :P)

It's really a great experience. You can go for free, if you don't use their parking lot. Making the price right, however if you pay for parking then you get to visit the giftshop after. Thrilling, I know. However you also get a little blue box that looks like a cell phone. I can only assume that it gives information on the causeway that I wasn't privy to. It's truly a, as the locals would say, grand view. Worth the short drive up regardless of if you pay for parking or not.

I'll get some pictures of that up before I leave here, but I posted some earlier today so I feel like I don't have to post more quite yet.

Best of luck from our Northern-most sleeping location in Ireland.

-Matt  

More pictures as promised

 Our hostel in Galway

 View from Kinlay Hostel

 Lounge Kinlay Hostel

 Beach near Clifden

 Malin Beg

 Slieve League

Kellybegs 

 Roundstone music and dance show

 Malin Beg

 Glenveigh Castle Gardens

 Glenveigh Cstle

 Glenviegh Castle

 Kinlay Hostel

 Peace Bridge Derry

 Derry wall

 Derry Guild Hall

 Oscar Wilde Galway

 Spanish Gate Galway

 Cashel

 Galway

 Roundstone Wits End B&B background

 Beach near Clifden

 Clifden

 Cashel with car (Sally)

 Rounstone

 Roundstone

 View from B&B Roundstone

 Glenviegh Castel

 Peace Bridge Derry

 Guild Hall Derry

 On Derry Wall

 Glenviegh Castel

 Sligo B&B

 Slieve League

 Slieve League

 Slieve League

 Slieve League

 Slieve League

Slieve League

Blood and Mud

So dad absolutely hated the hostel, and got me up early to leave... Needless to say I was super psyched about that. But at least he let me stay and eat the free breakfast and meet some fellow travellers from Spain and France.

The second I had my last bite we shot out of there like a bat out of hell. Straight onto Raphoe, where my family name comes from, and where my granddad grew up. Raphoe has a Cathedral that dad and I walked around in the graveyard of until we found a Hetherington gravestone. We snapped a picture of that, I'll be uploading it shortly.

As we were leaving dad got talking to someone working at the church. As it turns out, he dated my great aunt back in the day... Raphoe is really a small town... Every time we said our name was Hetherington somebody had a story about our family. It was actually really fascinating learning about my family history in that way.

After talking to a few of the locals dad and I went off to find the place where my grandfather (Robert John McClean Hetherington) grew up. My dad had some instructions to tell us how to get there, but it's up an unmarked road that Google maps of course doesn't exactly streetview. So it was an adventure just to find the road.

Of course when while we were driving up we passed another car and my dad asked for directions for how to get to the old Hetherington house. They gave us the very helpful advise of “you'll never be able to find it yourself”. But they knew where a relative of ours lived and took us back down the road to meet David Johnson, who was in the middle of some housework by the looks of it. But when my dad asked him for better instructions to find the dang house, he got in his tractor and told us to follow him.

As we drove up the increasingly more muddy road, we figured out that David was my dad's cousin. And therefor my... Something... point is he's related. We pulled up at the end of the road (seems to be a theme for this trip) and David told us we had to walk from there, so we did.

If I had known we would be walking through the mud and grass I would have brought boots. I only had my runners, which usually worked fine right up until I stepped into a huge puddle. Which happened a few times, but I managed.

After passing through fields of heather and hoping fences. We finally got there. It was now just a big pile of rubble. You see, a few years back the farm went for sale and no one in the family bought it. But whoever did buy it bulldozed the old house into a pile and planted a huge forest of trees. It wasn't a let down though, I'm glad to have been there.

On the way back apparently word of our arrival had spread and we were greeted by David's dad Thomas Johnson at the car. (I guess that makes him my dad's uncle) They took us to see my granddad’s old school, which is still in use by the way. But the reunion doesn't end there, we drove up to Pauline Johnson's house, where aunts, uncles, grand aunts and uncles, cousins and first cousins once removed that we had never heard of were waiting to meet us. It was grand. My dad played old recordings that his dad had in archive, I was given a feast to eat... All good things.

I really found that I had a lot in common with everyone, which isn't that surprising I guess. But it sure did make the experience more fun. In fact we talked so long that it became dark before dad and I realized we didn't have a place to stay since we left the hostel. Of course my dad's cousin Winstin Johson promptly offered to let us sleep at his house.

Let me tell you this, it is particularly hard to decline Irish hospitality. So we drove to his house and hung out with his family. I met some more second cousins that were close to my age, and we did what all good Irishmen do. We drank.

Quickly 8 o'clock became 12 o'clock. Which usually is fine but if you remember my saying earlier, my sleep was cut short the night earlier. I stayed up as late as I could at my cousin's house but then I had to clock out. Meaning I didn't have the chance to write to you until just now. Nor post any pictures.

So if you're reading this and you cant see any pictures then they are currently being uploaded.

Having a grand old time with my newly found extended family.

-Matt

LegenDerry

Dad and I seem to be getting this whole “roadtrip” thing down. Moving from one location to another is starting to feel really natural. Not that there was anything particularly gripping about Malinbeg. So we left the edge of the world and headed out towards Derry, or Londonderry as it's called on this side of the border.

But on our way over we headed over to an old Castle with an amazing history. Glenveagh Castle was originally made as a hunting estate in the middle of nowhere. However, since then it's seen sieges, evictions, murder mysteries, and visits from all kinds of celebrities over the years. It's now a National Park with beautiful gardens that take statues and plants from all over the world to make it a very impressive display. The plan is to upload a lot of photos from our whole trip tomorrow so keep your eyes open for it.

After visiting Glenveagh Castle dad and I expertly navigated the streets of Ireland to Derry. (We got lost like 3 times... All because dad wouldn't listen to my directions. (Okay, so it was my fault once too)).

Arriving in Derry you can quickly feel the change from the republic of Ireland, to the U.K. controlled northern Ireland. They use pounds here for goodness sake. All over the wall there are murals saying “Free Derry” and many remembering the tragic events of Bloody Sunday.

We quickly checked into our very overpriced hostel. Which my dad wasn't too pleased of. In fact he wants to find a different place to stay tomorrow... Regardless of where we stay, it seems to be a modern town that has change a lot over the last 40 years.

For those of you who don't know, Derry is famous for being a walled city. Now from what I understand a long time ago (not sure what year exactly) the English came through Derry and demolished it. Then they thought that it would be a good place to settle... for some reason... So they moved people from London over to settle it, hence Londonderry. To defend the city they built huge walls around it, which took 5 years total. However they came in handy when the french tried and failed to siege the walls 6 times. In fact, these walls have never been breached, thereby giving the city the old fashioned name of “The Maiden City”.

If you ever plan on coming to Derry yourself I'm sure you'll be told to be careful about protestant vs catholic ideals, and although that history is far from lost. It's just that, history. It seems to me that the people of Derry have kept their faith but lost their hatred. Which a good sign towards development in any nation.

I started writing this entry watching the sun set on the walls of Derry, and now I'm ending it in the warmth of my expensive hostel.

Tomorrow dad and I have a lot planned, so hopefully it'll be a very full blogentry. But you'll also hopefully get the overload of pictures.

Goodbye from the U.K.

-Matt

End of the bloody road

Sorry to all our adoring readers, we got no wifi last night, so I didn't have the chance to update you all. Not to fear, I'm writing it day of still, so I can write if we hit a cafe with free wifi tomorrow.

If I told you that Sligo had nothing to do let me tell you now, I had no idea what I was talking about. Sligo at least had a bar or two. Here at Malinbeg there is literally nothing to do but look at sheep pass by my window...

But before I get back to that, let me touch on what we did today. Dad and I had to ask directions just to leave Sligo. It's really a confusing town... Once we made it to the highway dad and I blasted some tunes... Bonding I think. We made a quick stop for tea and coffee in a little village called Kellybegs. The whole town was as my dad would say “festoon” with green and yellow. Apparently Donegal would be playing Cork in a football match. However, when they said football they of course meant a mixture of Gaelic and Australian Rugby... Sounds safe, I know.

At our second stop we actually managed to make it to a tourist sight, something called Slieve League. The are the tallest cliffs in all of Europe, and they fall straight off into the ocean. You can do a long beautifully stunning hike up and across the whole ridge if you are more prepared than my dad and me. We just hiked long enough to be able to see the Ocean on the horizon, that we couldn't see anything else at see. The view is really beautiful all along the cliffs, dad and I sat and looked down at the water with some German students named Marvin and Lillith. Slieve League is definitely a sight worth seeing if you get the chance. They are almost the western most point of Europe... Almost...

If that honour goes to any inhabited place it's Malinbeg, where we are now. It's not quite the end of the world, but you can see it from here. There are sheep roaming free usually blocking the road, which is pretty cute actually. In addition, whole village smells like peat, and you can see it in the flowing brown streams all over the village. Oh, and the taps are a nice healthy yellowy-brown colour. Think beer colour. Leave it to Ireland right?

There is actually a very nice little beach here if you don't mind going up and down something like 200 stairs to get there. Of course it has little streams of pete colour water going into the ocean, so if you don't mind that, it's a very scenic beach.

For all of you who are curious whats on the farthest island off the coast of Ireland, so on the edge of the European world... It's a lighthouse. I don't know how to get there, but if I figure it out tomorrow I'll let you know.

That about sums up our day... Not super busy, but we're on vacation so that's fine.

I'll post this tomorrow hopefully. So you can all finally get off the edge of your seat from my last post. Just watched the sun set on the water for me. I guess that means it more or less just rose for you.

So good morning Vancouver, talk to you tomorrow.

-Matt

(we just got 20 minutes of wifi at a local starbucks)

3 More Counties Bite the Dust

Today has been such a relaxing day I can hardly believe it. I might even get to bed before too long if I keep the blog post short.

We left Wits End with a hardy Irish breakfast which was served by our very kind hostess. For those of you who don't know, an Irish breakfast essentially consists of meat and not much else. I really had to go and work out for a bit before we got back in the car because I felt so bloated. Don't get me wrong, the food was delicious, just made me feel like I couldn't spend the rest of the day in the car.

Today we mapped out our route to the next location, a little B&B called An Crusien Lan (it has like 3 weird accents too). We realized when we marked out our root that we'd be going through 3 different counties, Galway, Mayo, and now of course Sligo.

Although it was a long drive with plenty of unhelpful signs, it was a fairly straight shot to Sligo. But for me personally it was hard not to feel homesick passing through county Mayo for obvious reasons. I'll give you a hint if you haven't caught on already, it's not because of the Gaelic I see everywhere.

When we finally made it through all three counties we made it to the town of Sligo. Just a wee little town. But let me say again, the roads and maps here make no sense in relation to the other. We probably drove around for a half an hour before we found our accommodations, and then drove to 3 different parking lots before we figured out where we could park easily. Despite this setting us back by an hour, our host still didn't show up until 3 hours later. Mind you, we said we'd show up before 6, but who's keeping track of these things here? On the plus side, it gave us a chance to find a laundromat and do what was becoming much needed laundry for the two of us.

Sligo is a nice little town with a Yeats museum as a free tourist attraction. There was a reason it's free.

Nothing was particularly memorable there. They had stuff like his William's pipe, and some letters written by the two of them (2 Yeats by the way(father and son)). It was a cute little two rooms, but nothing to come in to see. It takes you 15 minutes if you really take your time.

Dad and I decided we didn't need to spend another night drinking so we looked for anything really interesting to do in Sligo. We actually found a local teen production of Westside Story, but it was all sold out. I guess the whole town had nothing to do as well. Eventually we just decided to head to the local cinema, checked out TED. Turns out they have all the same movies playing here as at home.

I won't give you a full review of TED, that's not why you're reading this blog. I'll just say it was cute, dad and I actually really enjoyed not having an Irish night, and just feeling like we were back home. Maybe that was just me who felt like that though.

After the movie, we headed home for an early night. So we came back to the B&B and I sat down to write this blog... That's basically it, I've brought you up to speed...

We'll be going farther north tomorrow. I don't know how much longer we'll have wifi up there. But I'll keep typing entries into documents and save them till I can post them. Don't fear, I wont have forgotten about you back home.

Going to try to take advantage of this early night and get some extra sleep.

Goodnight Vancouver... Or afternoon, I guess... Regardless, I'm going to go to sleep now.

-Matt  

Roundstone-Sligo

August 23: Travel Roundstone to Sligo. Today has been wet. We awoke to pouring rain and stayed with us most of the day, although it lessened to showers by evening. Felt like Vancouver! The drive was fun once we got onto a main road (much more room). We have not been reading our Ireland story telling book as there is always something else to do. Matt and are however having a great time listening to some of the rock and roll on my ipod and singing along. Sort of a musical legacy of my music taste. Stopped for coffee at Westport and when we got Sligo it took a while to find our B&B (An Cruisein Lan )(which was closed until 6) so we walked around in the rain killing time. We managed to take our clothes to a laundry. We also tried to get tix for a local production of Westside Story but it was sold out. Instead we went out for Chinese food (looking for vegies) and then went to see a cute little film called TED.

Sligo does not strike me as a fun and happening place but my opinion may be coloured by the rain, trouble parking and the lack of a funky tourist quarter. I know this sounds like we had a terrible day but all in all Matt and I had fun exploring and things turned out well in the end. It was good to have a little down time.

Tomorrow we plan to go to the west coast of Donegal and walk along some cliffs over looking the sea and they are predicting rain for the forseeable future, grrrr................ We will be in Derry the day after tomorrow and will make our way to Raphoe and the old family homestead from there.  

-Tom

Taste of a Local Band in Galway

I like the driving, hate the road

So my day worked out pretty well I'd say. We woke up and walked around in Galway. It's beautiful multicultural little town, but there is nothing to fricken do there. So we chose to leave a little early, really not a bad call.

Since I was in charge of the plan today I got to pick where we were staying. Our choices were another hostel or little B&B in Grafton, the next big town after Galway. Or we could stay at in a little place Called Wits End in a little town called Roundstone. For some reason, I chose there and we couldn't be happier. But before I get to that, let me rant about the roads here in Ireland.

I don't know which jerk designed the roads around here, but they make no sense. Dad kept almost driving off the side of the extremely narrow roads just to avoid oncoming traffic. As if that wasn't hard enough... The Maps... Alright, let me break her down for ya. The don't have all the roads, the roads they do have aren't necessarily labelled correctly or at all, and they are very often not to scale. But even if the road was wide the maps made sense, the street signs still wouldn't always be there to tell you when to turn. Or if you're very lucky, the locals would have spray painted over the English part of the sign, leaving only the Gaelic. Now I know what you're thinking, “Matt, why not just ask the locals?” Well I would, and have. Big mistake. All of them seem to know where you're going, but none of them can seem to agree on how to get there. Plus, they always give you a length of time that is about half the actual travel time if they're overestimating it. The only thing they can all agree on is don't trust the map. If that all wasn't hard enough, the rain. Oh, it puts us to shame back home... How did my dad so poetically put it? “You know my boy. When it rains around here, it sure doesn't f**k around.” My dad, always the poet.

But now onto better things. Once we got through the Irish hell known as driving we made it to Roundstone somehow. Wits End is a lovely B&B that overlooks Bertraghboy Bay, giving us a beautiful view on the third floor of the house. It is a small town, so we ended up driving down to visit Graftden in the end. There wasn't an awful lot there either. Just a bunch of stores and churches. Still was a great little place to walk around for a few hours, but I wouldn't recommend you stay too long, all the buildings take away from the locations natural oceanside beauty.

Our very kind and very talkative hostess told us that if we made in back to Roundstone before 8:30 we had to check out the big weekly event of the local Tuesday music Festival. We had nothing better to do, so why not?

As it turns out, it was actually a great little performance. With all the local traditional Irish performers it was hard not to enjoy it. By all the performers I mean everyone from young boys who just stamped their feet on the ground and called it dancing, to a teenagers doing very quick and impressive Irish dancing, to elderly folks dancing and singing to the best of their abilities.

Roundstone is really a lovely little town. But it's a long way from our next destination and it's getting late. So I best be heading off. I believe dad and I are heading to Slago or something tomorrow... All I know is that it's in the County Mayo so I will be feeling homesick more than usual tomorrow.

I'll let you know where the heck we end up tomorrow when I can, assuming we end up somewhere with wifi.

-Matt

Galway-Roundstone

August 22, Galway to Clifden/Roundstone: Left Kinlay Hostel this am. It was a basic but OK place however it was quite expensive for what it was. The upside was its younger atmosphere. After checking out we walked around Galway taking pictures etc. Matt got a nice movie of a busking group that he will post on the blog. Galway is a real musical town with lots of singing pubs, music in the streets etc.

Matt suggested a BB in Roundstone called the Wits End which we booked. The trip to Roundstone took us thru Conamara which is a pretty wild and tree less place (it was deforested to make ships and is has a certain stark beauty. We stopped at several places to take pictures and/or picnic. The back roads are a little scarey especially as I don't know the car. They are really 1 1/2 lanes wide, have plenty of blind cur. ves and frequently there isn't any center lines. If there are center lines frequently there is not enough room for the car between the line and the side of the road. The result being that either risk hitting on coming traffic or end up drifting into the roadside hedges etc. What usually happens therefore is that everytime there is on coming traffic you slow down and hug the shoulder and hope for the best.

The B&B at Roundstone is really nice. A basic room over looking the ocean on the main street. It is not a busy place and I doubt that I have seen a car drive by in the entire time I have been writing this blog entry. After checking into the B&B we followed a coastal road to Clifden. Great views etc., scarey road. Hung around Clifden for a while and headed back to Roundstone for dinner. Ended up having a wrap. At 830 there was an “Irish nite” at the local community center that Matt and I attended. Lots of local people, music and Irish dancing. It was nice to see a wide range of people in the audience and to see Irish culture being shared across generations.

It is now 11 pm and I have to sleep. G'nite, Tom

A few Picture's off of Matt's camera. More to come with Tom's

 Just a few images to show you what our "hostel" was like. We also had our own private room...

 Dad wanted to prove we went to Graftden...

 Here's a shot of a beautiful Irish beach I snapped real quick

 Newgrange

Galway (Tom)

August 22. Today we left Dublin for Newgrange and Galway. I managed to get the car alright but is strange being on the wrong side of road. The hardest part is judging distance on the left I hit more than one curb. Really scarey on narrow roads trees on the left big trucks on the right!

We eventually got the hang of things and drove into Galway listening to the Raisins (ipod broadcasted thru the radio).

Newgrange was cool. It was impressive to standing in a 6000 year old tomb from the later stone age. Quite a magical place.

Our hostel is OK but quite expensive for what it is. The place in Dublin (Maldron) was cheaper and had its own bath, big breakfast, TV, etc. The Kinlay Hostel, two beds in a meager room, common shower toilet, contental breakfast. The crowds are different however Kinlay young people; Maldron families.

Had a good nite out last nigth: Chinese food (we were both missing vegies) and a couple of pubs. Matt tells me that he has already said a word about “Tony” and our adventures so I won't recap. Today on to Clifden.

Last Day in Dublin (Tom)

August 21; Once again, can't sleep too well so have gone down to the lobby (cafe) at 5 am to write have a coffee and generally not bug Matt who is sleeping in the room. This time also provides an opportunity to update my part of the blog.

Yesterday was a good day. We walked down OConnel Street and then along the Liffy to the Guinness Brewery. The tour was OK and the highlight was the Guinness at the end. There is a bar on the top of the building with a great view of Dublin. The weather has been near perfect not too hot and no rain! After the tour we walked to the Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells. Poor Matt, I made him read (we read together a short piece from the book Ireland that dealt with Kells. It was good to have read the piece before seeing the book as it gave more context to the tour. The book of Kells was interesting and I was most impressed by seeing an “indulgence”and a copy of a Bible in German written in German by Martin Luther and printed one year after it was released that we saw in the Long Hall. I guess I linked these two documents in my mind and it spoke to me about the origins of Protestantism.

After the tour I was feeling quite tried so we sat on some steps near Westmoreland and the Oconnl bridge and then had a cofffee. During this period Matt and I just hung out and talked about things that are important in our lives. We then walked back to the Bruxelles pub and had a couple of beers/ciders and watched most of a football game on TV. After the walk home I was pretty tried and could only manage the essentials of my email (sorry Ingrid I was just too bushed to write more).

Today will be a busy day. Leave our hotel, get the rental car, travel to Newgrange and then across the country to Galway. Traveling with Matt is a real pleasure. He is such a laid back guy and we both seem to get along well.

Local Colour

Right as I was getting used to Dublin we decided to leave, but I guess that's what makes it a road trip. Dad went to pick up the car and when he returned I quickly found out we were in for an adventure. As we headed down the road we quickly found out that the car's stick was almost impossible to put into reverse. Not to mention my dads initial difficulty to drive on the right side of the car on the left side of the road. I have to constantly tell him when he drifts too far left. Of if I find him driving on the right side of the road.

Regardless, we found our way to our big tourist location for the day, Newgrange. If you don't already know Newgrange is a Celtic rock tomb that was dug up 300 years ago that dates back to before the Pyramids. Unlike the book of Kells, Newgrange was worth every euro of admission. The tour guides knew exactly what they were showing us, what to say about it and how long to keep us there. Not much is known about Celtic religion. But when I said that magic may still exist in Ireland, Newgrange is a wonderful testament to that theory.

From the outside, Newgrange appears to be nothing more than a wall of stones that look pretty from a distance. That being said, when the tour guide takes you around to the front there can be no question that it is much more than that. At the entrance there are carvings that are speculated to be in worship of the sun. As the tour goes on, you are brought inside the rock tomb and are taken into the centre of this big structure. Inside we were unable to take pictures but the walls were lined with ancient writings from the original creators and with graffiti from its original discoverers.

If you every find yourself near Newgrange, it is definitely a site I would recommend quickly. The ancient beauty and clear history are easily worth the price of admission.

Despite this, the real adventure for my dad and I was later. When we tried to make our way to Galway. As it turns out, maps in Ireland just aren't accurate. Either the roads aren't tabled, or more likely the map isn't. With my dad's great ability to remain calm in a crisis he really made me want to take up driving (sarcasm). Dad and I drove through wrong turns, down wrong highways and in a small lightning storm. To say that we got lost sometimes wouldn't be a large enough understatement. Evey map is either incomplete or inaccurate, which would be fine if anyone in Ireland could give decent directions. Somehow we still managed to enjoy the ride.

On the 2 and a half hour drive I noticed 2 things. 1) the Irish countryside is stunning, but so far repetitive. (similar to home, if we didn't have evergreen) The only thing prettier than the Irish countryside is the skyline. The clouds were so crisp and large that it was no wonder that ancient people believed the sky to have great power.

After 2 and a half hours we finally arrived in Galway. It feels like a nice small town, but still has plenty of tourists and even had a place to grab some Indian food for some much needed vegetables. After giving our bodies their desired nutrients, we did the only thing any sensible person would do. We checked out a few local pubs. The first pub was just a small little hole in the wall place. Wasn't the place for tourists, but my dad and I stayed anyways. I'm very glad we did. We were quickly approached by a very drunk unpatriotic Irish man who seemed keen on talking to us. And I have never seen anyone with so many bad things to say about their country. Most of which made literally no sense. However, he seemed to like us and he even bought me a second pint when he learned I was 18 and wouldn't be able to drink for another year back home. Tony, said “get drunk enough to last you to your birthday”. After covering that my dad only cared about money, that Matthew was a much better name than Matt and that I needed to be kicked onto the street to fend for myself Tony eventually talked himself out. So we bought him a drink and continued on our way.

After walking around Galway and getting another drink we headed back to our “hostel” emphasis on the “”. I only say that because the place I now write to you from is better quality than yesterday's hotel, and just as expensive. But I can already see, it is a much more happening place. Young people from all over the world are hanging in the lobby together.

Sorry if this entry seems a little rushed, or if I have missed any large gaps of information. But I've had a bit to drink and I'm tired, so this is all I have for today. I wanted to keep you guys posted as to what we're doing over here. Even if it's just briefly.

So I'll catch you guys tomorrow. For anyone checking the itinerary you will notice we have no plans as of yet for tomorrow... This can only end well...

-Matt

Leaving Dublin

Today was such a calm and relaxing day, I got up at 8 o'clock (Dad got up at 4, sucker :P) to go down for a complimentary breakfast in the lobby of our our hotel. Afterwards we collected our things and headed out to explore the city more and to slowly go towards the Guinness Storehouse. Of course on our way over I found something that I couldn't resist checking out, a comicshop.

I must admit, I was impressed. They had a large selection of both comics and memorabilia which were displayed in a fashion I could not have designed the place better myself. Don't worry, that's all I will bore you with of that, just thought I should tell you that I'm still me over here.

After stopping for a few pictures along the way we eventually made our way to the Guinness Storehouse. With me having the Student's rate, and my dad grabbing the Senior's we saved 6 dollars right off the bat. The storehouse takes you on a trip through Guinness's whole brewing cycle, which is actually very well designed if you are interested in the process. As interesting as the self-guided tour was, dad and I wanted to quickly make our way to the top where we got... You guessed it, free beer. From the top we could easily see all of Dublin, the tower's walls are made of glass on the top floor and Dublin is a pretty flat city. I actually had my first “we aren't in Kansas anymore” moment up there when it became clear to me that we couldn't see any mountains.

Not yet satisfied with a our Irish tourist experience we went to go see the Book of Kells which was on display at Trinity Collage. If you are really interested in the book I would recommend you research it online. The tour was fun in a museum-y kind of way, but for the vast mysterious and exciting kind of history this book has it was a bit of a let down. It was interesting enough but you were given very little information on the book itself and only saw the one page of the book. However on your way out of the room the book is in you are taken through a room called the Long Room. I wish I was allowed to take pictures of this place, it was breathtaking. Cases upon cases of books and historical artifacts lined the walls in a way that just reminded me of the library in Hogwarts. There were also a solid 15 busts lining the aptly named “long” halls of famous writers from all over Historic Europe. If I understood the french woman speaking into the News camera it was the Library they based the Jedi Library off of.

Finishing this we decided we needed another drink, so we slowly made our way back to the Rock n' Roll bar Bruxelle's for another drink. Unfortunately on the way over I walked past a music store that was having a closing out sale. So naturally I had to take a step inside to see what was up. Apparently they just weren't selling the same amount they used to (they blamed pirating). So, not has much is different over here on that front as well. Luckily Bruxelle's was the perfect place to fix the blues. With more Rock n' Roll playing followed by a soccer game. The rest of our night was just a nice way to finish our short time in Dublin.

Tomorrow we're leaving Dublin to go to some small hostel somewhere, not sure where and I'm too lazy to wake dad to ask him (check the itinerary if you're super curious). I'm excited to start the road trip portion of our trip regardless.

My mind seems to always be drifting back home, thinking of you guys a lot. I'll keep you posted when I can.

-Matt

First few shots of Ireland

Matt and James Joyce, wonder what they're looking at?

 Dad enjoying a beer at Bruxelle's

Matt at his first pub with his dad

Here's the first pub we visited in Dublin

 A shot of dad at the Temple Bar district

 A toast to the people at home

Matt clearly enjoying the cute hard death metal pub