There's a Weeeeeee Leprochaun in my Back Garden....

The conclusion to a very long February was a "quaint as &#!@" long weekend on the Emerald Isle. You can thank Bruce for that quote - the epitomy of eloquence that lad, I tell you... So yeah! Arrived on the friday evening, rented a trio of Ford Fiestas to be driven by myself, Steve P. and Olivia. Began with only minor setbacks. First, my handbrake was stuck and second, Steve P and the others in the gray car got lost - took the wrong turn off a roundabout. The other two cars made it Galway 3 hours later without any incident. Radio contact was maintained as we had cleverly elected to invest in some radios. This led to some very funny conversations over the course of the trip.

Friday night was relatively uneventful. After finding parking and checking in to our hostel we went looking for food. Tried to find a pub but they'd all stopped serving food so ended up getting a 4 person deal at Domino's. After this we went to the pub below our hostel and indulged in a few Guinnesses (many of which were courtesy of Bruce and Chris) as well as some well selected music.

Saturday we elected to get out of the metropolitan chaos of Galway and drive along the coast toward Doolin. This took us through some breathtaking scenery and we made a few stops along the way to take pictures and walk around. Car trips are great that way! We first stopped at an old castle, then somewhere in the middle of the burren - a giant slab of rock something like 250 square km? - then at an old jetty, then at the coast of the burren. We accidentally drove past our hostel on our way to the cliffs of Moher so we stopped in there quickly before continuing. We went down the street to one of 3 pubs in the tiny town of 500 and had a good lunch. We then drove to the cliffs, looked around (spectacular views) and took pictures. After this everyone was pretty knackered so we drove back to the hostel and parked the cars. We took a brief walk around Doolin and out to a ruined church for more photo ops. Afterwards, most of us were pretty done for and we took a nap. Upon waking, we were treated to a brief slideshow by the hostel owner giving us a good visual history of most of Ireland. We then set out to find dinner. The pubs were tooo full to accomodate 11 of us (Sondy was under the weather) so we got takeaway from the towns one italian restaurant. That was a big mistake. Disappointment with the food made us want to drink so we went to the pub and had a few drinks and talked to the locals. There were some characters haha.

On Sunday we began the long drive back to Dublin. Breakfast wouldn't be served in Doolin till too late so we took to the road and ended up getting breakfast rolls from a Spar in some town on the highway. Imagine if you will a foot-long bread roll filled with sausages, blood pudding, eggs, bacon and ketchup. And I mean filled. So good. Anyway, after 'refueling' we continued on and evenutally came to Bunratty castle. We got a nice tour from a quintessentially irish fella and had a genuinely nice time there. We hit the road again and by around 4:30, returned the cars and headed to our hostel in Dublin.

Nakul was kind enough to show me and some others a really nice restaurant and showed us some places worth checking out and where he goes to school. We then headed back to the hostel and watched Canada set a nice record on the TV.

Monday we got up early and took a stroll around Dublin. We saw a few sights, Trinity College and St. Stephen's Green being the best known, and then stopped for coffee and breakfast before taking a taxi to the airport.

One of the best trips thus far!