Shamrocks, little bearded men and some expensive food.

So I went to Dublin. It is a brilliant city. Just beautiful. I had to get up bloody early to hit my flight but I made it. It's hard to believe. I'm actually back amongst English speakers! Well, more or less. I can't understand a bloody word mostly, but the signs are english.

I met up with my friend Rachel whom i met in Prague, and was off to the hostel. It was a quieter and more reserved place which was the perfect thing to have to be able to sit and chill out for a few days. It really is a beautiful city. Walking through the temple bar area is so cool. We went to a pub or dinner and got 10€ burgers. Not the way to make budget at all. The pub made up for it in good beers though. They had a selection of really good beers from all over the world. It's kinda not cool that Canada was represented by moosehead. I enjoy moosehead don't get me wrong, but it's not really the Canadian juggernaut of a beer is it? To my delight they did have some fantastic beers I had tried in bruges. Westmoller, duvel and chimay blue. I didn't try them. Too expensive.

We ended up doing a tour through the Irish countryside. We went to glendelach and Kilkenny. It was absolutely beautiful. I can't describe it. Just really pretty countryside and stuff.


Our bus driver was great too. How can he not be if he does a rendition of "I want it that way" over the microphone. Really. He also played "she thinks my tractors sexy" which I found very enjoyable.

Kilkenny Castle

Rachel (Australian's don't get fall) loving the leaves.

On a walk through Dublin I literally ran into a friend of mine, Shannon. How random is that? Just standing there on a corner in Dublin. We had met over 2 months ago in Paris and there we were again. Random.

Made a dinner that night which was really nice, pork and leek sausage over steamed and then creamed leeks with a carrot and parsnip mash. Also had sauteed bananas with melted chocolate and whip cream. Yumm.

Another note. I FOUND TIMMY HO's IN DUBLIN!!!! Seriously! Tim Hortons in the convenience store!!! I made Rachel try it. She was convinced i was nuts.

We also went to do the one thing you HAVE to do in Dublin. Checking out the Guinness factory. It was awesome, we got to our our own pints. I'm now a certified pro.

After Dublin it was off to Belfast. The beautiful weather that had held through Dublin quit hard in Belfast and we got rather wet.

Ps. Know this entry is lacking a little but I'm currently on a train to London and I dot have a seat, so it's a trick to stand, shake and type.

Anyhow. Belfast was nice too. Really neat place and not at all what I thought it would be. We had planned on going to the giants causeway which is a huge rock formation that's supposed to be really cool. Didn't wake up for it though so no luck there.

The last night in Belfast we met up with a friend of mine from Budapest. So amazing to see people way after you meet them. Damien came up on the train and we went for some pints. Really good to catch up with him.



The next stop on my trip was Newcastle. And I had an 830 flight.

Now, looking back on my last flight, the one with chuck Norris swimming in my head, (11am) I should have thought that maybe 830 might be tougher to get to. Maybe ease off the booze? Fuck no.

Turns out that running a kilometer with a 13kg (30lb or so) bag on your back at 6am is not the way to get rid of drunkenness (not even a hangover by this point) I'd suggest not trying it.