IRELAND

4 days and 200 Euros later, I have returned from Ireland.

We arrived Thursday evening in Dublin and spent 1 night there. We met up with friends we had made at the hostel who live nearby and they took us out for a night on the town. Everything here is SO expensive compared to Edinburgh (and the US as well). I enjoyed my first pint of Guiness, which took me an hour or more to drink because it's so heavy. When we left the bar, which was in the Temple Bar area of town (where U2 got their start) we witnessed 2 heroine addicts getting arrested. The girl was kicking and spitting on the cop and calling him a wankey bastard. This is what they call street theater. We then went to a heavy metal club, this wasn't really my scene but an interesting experience nonetheless.

Friday morning we took a free 3 hour walking tour of Dublin. We crossed the Haypenny and O'Connell bridges. The O'Connell bridge is wider than it is long, and one of the few like this in the world. We saw the Dublin Castle, which looks more like a palace these days due to the original burning down. We saw viking remains, gardens, protesters.

Following the tour we got on a 3 1/2 hour bus ride headed for Galway. Our bus broke down 3 times a long the way, so it ended up being 4 1/2. Upon arrival we checked into Nimmos hostel. If you have ever seen the hostel scene during the credits of Eurotrip, that's exactly what this place was like. The little old man in charge was adorable, but had no records of reservations, how much you owed, or even how many beds were left in each room. The dorm rooms didn't lock, there was no hot water, and we are pretty sure the sheets hadn't been washed in a while either.
We went out to a few pubs but called it an early night so that we could make the most of Saturday.
Galway is what you most likely picture a seaside Irish town to look like. We made our own walking tour based on where the tour bus went. We saw a few smaller cathedrals, a local farmers market, the birth place of Claddagh (ring), and a mess of cute tourist shops.
Sunday we went on a day tour of the Burren, a huge limestone area, and the Cliffs of Moher. It was so beautiful on the Irish country side
We caught a midnight bus back to the Dublin airport, arriving a little after 3am, and sat around until our 6:25 flight back to Edinburgh.
It was a long, expensive weekend, but worth every bit of it!