Irel-AND Us

After deciding not to make the move over to the Emerald Isle last year, we at least wanted to visit the country of Susanna’s ancestors. We also wanted to catch up with some friends from Waikato Uni days, Kat and Matt, who now live in Dublin. With this in mind, we took the train from London to Holyhead, spent a few sleepless hours in the ferry port, and then on to the ferry that took us to Dublin City early Good Friday morning. Although a lot of things were closed, Matt and Kat did a great job as tour guides and we walked down from their apartment in Christ Church past the Castle, down through Temple Bar, along Custom House Quay (see below for a pic of “Famine,” a bronze sculpture installed outside Custom House by Rowan Gillespie, a second cousin of Susanna’s), and through Trinity College and Stephen’s Green. For once (we were told) it wasn’t raining! In fact we had great weather the whole time we were in Ireland and even got sunburned. We really enjoyed noseying around the city, and, in the evening we went to the Good Friday at Matt and Kat’s church, which was hosted by the Church’s deaf community... a very different experience, but very interesting.
The next day, we picked up our hire car and all drove west to County Claire, the Cliffs of Moher (definitely recognizable as the Cliffs of Insanity from the movie, “The Princess Bride”) and the rocky landscape of the Burren. We stayed in a hostel in Lisdoonvarna, a wee town famous for its annual match-making festival, held every September! In the evening we went down to the local for a hearty evening meal and then on to a small local close to the hostel full of good craic and great music. We woke up to yet another fine day and took the boat from Doolin to the Aran Island, Inish Or (East Island), where we rambled around, got a bit lost, got found, and had a great time altogether. Sunday night saw us driving back to Dublin.
On the last day in Dublin we enjoyed the views from the top of the largest building in Dublin. We then had to make a mad dash back to the ferry port to catch the boat and train back to London.