Dublin & Northern Ireland 11/11 - 11/23

It was refreshing to enter a new city & country and see the face of my good friend Charlie...especially in Dublin, Ireland.  We dominated Dublin and the northern part of Ireland for about 11 days of non stop fun.  We started off in Dublin with 3 nights and 2 full days, where we got a good snap shot of the city and the people that live in and around it.  We were lucky enough to have made friends with the bartender, Grace, at a great bar called "The Palace Bar."  The Palace Bar has some deep roots in the Irish literary scene.  Grace was gracious (haha) enough to show us around Dublin the following night which was a fantastic tour of Dublin and of course some great Irish pubs.  

Following Dublin, we boarded a train to Belfast where good family friends of Charlie's, Tom & Marie, picked us up and showed us around Belfast.  Belfast is known to most for the ongoing Roman Catholic vs. Protestant conflicts, but is also the place where the Titanic was built.  After Belfast, we then headed farther north to Tom & Marie's house in Derry, which was our home for the next 3 nights.  Tom gave us a wonderful tour of Derry as well as County Donegal over the next two days.  We had some beautiful weather, which lets us get some spectacular views of the northern most tip of Ireland.

From Derry, Me and Charlie boarded a bus to Galway, where Charlie got his first experience of staying in a hostel.  Galway is a great little town that is very rich in Irish tradition.  It is also a place where it can be sunny and blue skies one minute then pour down rain the next.  Off the coast of Galway are the Aran Islands, where we decided to visit for one day and night before the sideways rain drove us off the Island.  It was also on the island where I sought medical advice for my black tongue, which the doctor jokingly told me it was from drinking too much Guiness (actually from taking Pepto Bismal before I went to bed.  I was treated for a stomach virus.)  We rounded out our trip in Northern Ireland by returning to Dublin for a few more days mixed with history and fun.  Traditional Irish music can be heard seven days a week no matter what part of the country you are in and the style of music will vary every time as well.  This makes for a very addicting night life scene, but bring your wallet if you like to drink.  Just because Guiness and Jamison are produced locally does not mean that they are cheap.  The average pint of Guiness goodness will cost you about 5 euro, which is about $7.50 and a shot of Jamison is not far behind.  I cannot put a price on the memories though, but I can always make more money!  

I got pretty tired of the wind and rain, so I decided to book a flight to Malaga, the south of Spain where I started my trek around the Andalucia region of Spain in the sun! 

The three pics that are side by side from left to right are:  The rocky land of Inishmore Island, the largest of the Aran Islands.  The middle is the northern tip of County Donegal.  The right pic is where "Bloody Sunday" took place in Derry.  

The last pic on the bottom is of Charlie and I drinking a pint in the back room at the Palace Bar, I won't tell you what time it was!