Shamrocking our way around Ireland!

Okay... I finally have time to take a breath and write what's been going on for the last week.  It's all been go-go-go!  We arrived in Dublin on Wednesday the 6th August.  On the thursday morning Justin and I got up early and walked all overDublin.  We walked along the River Liffey and along side the GuinnessBrewery.  Then we made our way down to the Irish Museum of Modern Art,but it was closed so we had a wander around the gardens.  There's aphoto below of a sculpture in the gardens of an elephant doingacrobatics.  Pretty cool.  After all this walking we were a littlethirsty so we went to the Guinness Storehouse which is a bit of amuseum but also sows how Guinness is brewed.  We had our free pint atthe top of the Storehouse, which is shaped like a pint glass.








We had booked two tours with Shamrocker, the Southern Rocker andthe Northern Rocker and today we just finished them back-to-back.  Sowe've been on the road for six days and we're a little tired.  An earlynight tonight.  On our first day we travelled from Dublin to Doolin onthe west coast via a whiskey distillery, ruined monastery, a portaldolman, faery cirle (no shit, I reckon this is true) and the Cliffs ofMoher.  Very beautiful countryside and a great day.  That night westayed in the sleepy little town of Doolin where we went to a packedpub to drink Guinness and listen to some Irish music played by realIrish people! ;-]  Our next day we travelled from Doolin to Killarneyand stopped at some more awesome places.  Another night of a few drinksmade for sore heads on our final day.  We overnighted in Dublin beforeheading off again.










The Norther Rocker tour went to Northern Ireland and we saw some beautiful scenery and heard some truly horrific stories of the troubles.  We did a walking tour of Derry/Londonderry (I prefer Legend-Derry) with a man called Martin McCrossan.  The tour of Derry was fantastic.  We walked the city walls and learned the history of the city.  Then we went to an area of Derry called Bogside where the events of Bloody Sunday happened.  We saw both Protestant and Catholic parts of the city and Martin was a wonderful guide.  The next day we headed off to Belfast via the Giants Causeway and Carrick-A-Rede suspension bridge.  Two really beautiful and awe-inspiring places.  Belfast is quite a big, bustling city and our group made the most of it by going out on the piss last night.  Justin was a little bit wobbly and half way through the night took the wrong door on the way to the loo and locked himself in the hallway in his jocks!  Pretty funny.  He's lucky I heard him knocking and let him back in.  Needless to say we had sore heads this morning and were a little quiet.  This morning we did a black cab tour of Belfast which was another great tour and very informative. 

We arrived back in Dublin this afternoon  and have just been doing laundry and sorting our stuff out really.  It's been a great week and very hectic but fun.  We leave Ireland tomorrow for London where we overnight before heading off on a Topdeck tour of Europe.  First stop Paris!

Cheers
Melanie
X X O O