Ireland

We have returned from the land of the Irish. We had a great time and amazing weather. However is sounds like the weather back home was better than it was here, at least warmer. We arrived in Galway after a 2 hour ferry ride and 4 hour bus ride from Dublin on Saturday and just checked out he local nightlife that night. Sunday we went to the Aran islands for the day. It was good no rain and it was sunny. We rented bikes for the day and traveled the island. The island was formed by volcanic activity and it created some large cliffs that we went to check out. We didn't do much that night in anticipation for the big St. Patrick's Day activities. On St. Patrick's Day we started off with a small walking tour of a cathedral and the river. After this we watched the parade. It wasn't quite up to par with a Tulip Time parade but it was better than nothing. They didn't have any floats or anything mainly just people representing different activities, organizations and tribes of the city. The tribes are the main 14 or so families that dominated the city political, commercial, and social life of Galway between the 13th and 19th centuries ( you can thank wikipedia for that side note). Anyway after the parade we just toured and rested for the afternoon before we went out for the night. We went out and had a good time, some of the group was a little worse off than others. Everyone managed to make it back in one piece thanks to several of us. Before leaving Galway the next morning we went to visit the Galway and Waterford crystal store. Again after a four hour bus ride we were in Dublin and had a short walking tour. We walked through the Temple Bar area and just checked things out. That night we went and listened to some traditional Irish Music in a bar. On Wednesday we had a walking tour of Dublin, the Millennium Spire, Museums, a statue of Oscar Wilde, the book of Kells and Trinity College, St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Guinness Brewery. The only two cathedrals in Dublin are in fact Protestant despite the overwhelming majority of the Irish being Catholic, this is because they were under British rule. The Guinness Brewery was alright, I liked the Budweiser Brewery tour better because there you actually get to go through the brewery itself here it is more like a museum. I still don't like the taste of Guinness even though it was at the factory. Later that night Anna and I went out for some mussels. They weren't too expensive considering Dublin is one of the most expensive cities in Europe even given the exchange rate. We rocked out after that to American Classic Rock at the Hard Rock Cafe with a band that dressed like Kiss but didn't play any Kiss music. The next morning before we left Anna and I booked it out to the old Kilmainham Jail of Dublin which is a good 45 min. walk that we made into 30 mins. We got there two minutes before the next tour started which is Lucky because they only start on the hour. It was a very historical tour about the political history of Ireland. On the way back we walked through Dublin Castle. One the ferry ride back we slept most of the time. Anna was able to sleep through the wailing and screaming of a small child for about 2o minutes straight. Its alright though I got enough sleep. While we were in Dublin we cooked most of our meals in the hostels and then just store food from the breakfast for lunch. We returned home and are now going to be spending a week with my dad in Wales, London and the Netherlands. Finally to spoil a few myths, St. Patrick's Day is more of an American Holiday it is celebrated more in the USA than it is in Ireland. They don't have green beer in Ireland and they don't have to wear green on St. Patrick's Day either, sorry to ruin the fun.