Reunited with big sis!

25 - 4 - 2019

I'm approximately at the half way point of my Irish adventure now and I have to admit that there are few moments where I wake up in the morning feeling a tad homesick. 

It is because of that feeling that I'm even more excited for what's to come this upcoming week. 

I wake up early in the morning, pack my backpack and walk towards the city centre to catch the Dublin coach. 3 hours later I arrive at the airport and I'm finally reunited with my big sister! After a big hug we walk towards the car rental desk to get our keys and after we figured out how the car works and where all the buttons are placed we are on our way!

Although it is quite stressfull to get out of Dublin, since we have to manage to stay on the left hand side of the road and getting used to drive an automatic, it merely takes us 20 minutes before we reach the countryside.

For the upcoming week the only thing we have planned are the hostels where we are gonna spend the night, but furthermore there is nothing else than open road ahead of us with loads of tourist attractions and beautifull nature to be discovered.

We are heading towards Galway where I have booked us a hostel for tonight, but since neither of us have eaten anything in a couple of hours we decide to leave the motorway for now and find a diner to get some lunch. We sit down in a small diner on the side of road in a small town and this is where we catch up on both of our recent adventures. We also discuss what our plan for the rest of the day is. For now we decided to just hop back in the car and drive till we find something in the area that sparks both of our interests.

30 minutes later and I come across a small place called Birr on Google Maps. Never heard of it before, but according to Google Birr is home to Birr Castle and it's enormous gardens. So we set our navigation towards Birr and about an hour later we park the car and head into the ticket office. We are lucky because we only have about an hour left before they close.

The castle itself is not accessible for it is still in use by the Earl of Rosse. However there's enough to be seen within the gardens itself. Because we only have an hour to see everything we rush ourselves from one sighting to the other. One of the most interesting pieces the gardens is home to is The Great Telescope of Birr. In the early 1840’s, the Third Earl of Rosse designed and built the largest telescope in the world. With this telescope, he discovered the spiral nature of some of the galaxies. This Reflecting telescope remained the largest in the world for over 70 years and is arguably the largest historic scientific instrument still working today. This ‘leviathan’ as it is named, remains in the centre of the Demesne as Ireland’s greatest scientific wonder.

After the telescope we rush to see the rest of the gardens and at 6 we have to leave the premises. We get back in the car and continue our journey to Galway where we arrive at our hostel a mere 2 hours later.
We settle ourselves down and after we rested our legs for a bit, we walk towards the city centre to grab a bite. After dinner we walk towards a pub called The Skeff. Two ciders later we both agree that we hardly have any energy left and decide to head back to the hostel to catch some sleep.

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26 - 4 - 2019 

The next day we wake up at around 9 and head back into the city centre to find ourselves a place to have some breakfast. I suggest going to the same place where I've eaten 3 months ago during RAG week with Zaief. During breakfast we discuss our plans for the rest of the day. We both agree that since we have access to a car that it would be more worthwhile to drive around and see more of the countryside than walk in Galway city all day long. But before we do that we walk around Galway for a bit so I can show Kirsten the cozy shopping streets and the impressive Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas just outside the city centre. 

Ireland is home to something called the "wild atlantic way". This is a route that stretches all the way along the westcoast. We don't have time to go all the way up North and drive along the entire route, but from Galway we can perfectly do a small bit of it. We head out west and have set "Coral Strand" as our endpoint. The views on Galway bay are beautifull and every time we see a sign that says there's a viewpoint or a tourist attraction ahead we make a turn and this is how we ended up exploring the most deserted places and witnessing the utter most beautifull views of the ocean. 

1.5 hour later we arrive at Coral Strand. So far we've been lucky with the weather, the sun has been out and regarding wind there hasn't been a strong one. Sadly enough as we arrive at "Coral Strand" the wind is picking up. However this is not stopping us from getting out of the car and take a stroll along the small piece of strand.

The coral sand is in fact detached red calcified seaweed, maërl or otherwise known as coralline algae which forms the beach and feels like fine gravel underfoot. These are known as “coral strands” and are found at several places along the Connemara coast. As we walk on the beach we find all kinds of different sized coral fragments and a huge assortment of seashells of which we decide to take a few with us.

We get back in the car and make our way back to Galway along the coast. Since we've seen every viewpoint along the oute already we drive back in one go, however we do make one stop for lunch at a really cozy lunchroom with a view at the Galway bay. 

As we arrive at the hostel we recharge for a bit and in the evening we go out for dinner. After we have refilled our bellies we agree that The Skeff was really entertaining yesterday, so we want to see if the live music tonight will be just as good as last night. The performing band does a great job at livening up the audience and after a couple of pints we head back to the hostel. 

Galway has been great but it's time to get back on the road tomorrow. Next stop is Limerick, but not before we pay a visit to county Clare and the Cliffs of Moher. 

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27 - 4 - 2019 

09.00 and we check out at our hostel. We get back in the car and are on our way to County Clare. 

Luckily enough Kirsten and I are pretty much on the same page when it comes to traveling, so Kirsten takes the first possible exit on the motorway and we are back on the Wild Atlantic Way route. 

Sadly enough the weather is not nearly as good today as it has been in the past couple of days. The wind is quite strong and when looking at the clouds, it could start to rain every minute. But the weather doesn't have any effect on neither of our moods.

I've been to county Clare a couple of weeks ago with the Paddywagon tour, but I can promise you, it's ten times more beautiful when you are driving through it by yourself allowing yourself to stop whenever you want. So with every opportunity that arises, we stop, take pictures and soak in the amazing sceneries. 

We arrive at the Cliffs of Moher and just as we get out of the car the sky turns as black as the night. We didn't even have the time to put on our coats properly and it seems like every single raindrop in the clouds is being released on top of this particular part of Ireland. We hurry ourselves back in the car and wait for the rainfall to stop. We are lucky enough that it's only a temporary  downpour, so after 5 minutes the sky clears up and we feel like it's safe to go outside.

Although the wind is still really strong, it's perfect to walk around the Cliffs now. Even though I've been here before the views from the Cliffs don't fail to impress me. It still blows me away that Nature can create such a beautiful landscape.

We walk around for a bit, take quite some pictures and after 45 minutes we think that we've seen enough so we head back to the car and continue on our way to Limerick. When we arrive at Cratloe Wood student village we decide to take it easy for a bit.

Later in the day, after dinner and some chats with my roommates, we put on our coats and are headed to Thomond Stadium. 
Earlier today Callum secured 2 tickets for me and Kirsten to see the Munster vs Connacht rugby match.

As I've explained in one of my previous blogs, Ireland is home to a number of different counties. But next to the counties, Ireland also has 4 different Provinces (Ulster, Leinster, Munster and Connacht). Limerick lies within the Munster province.

We meet Callum just outside the stadium and he walks us to the rest of his friends (Aine, Orla and Vanessa). Approximately 10 minutes later Robert Jordan, Emma and Estela join us as well. We have standing places right behind the Tryline. 

80 minutes of playing time later and we see the Munster team win 27 - 14. So in order to celebrate all of us head over to Aine's house and buy some pints on the way. After pre-drinks Kirsten, Emma, Estela and I head home real quick to change in some nicer looking clothes and an hour later we meet up with the rest of the gang at Costello's. 

After an amazing spontaneous night out we head back home and jump into bed. Not really caring at the moment what tomorrow will bring.

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28 - 4 - 2019

There's not really much to be told about this sunday to be honest. 

Kirsten and I agreed that since we've already been doing so many things since she has arrived that we deserved an easy day doing nothing. And, full disclosure, the hangover wasn't really helping either!

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29 - 4 - 2019 

Limerick has treated us well, but again, it's time for us to move on! But not before I show Kirsten where I've been to college for the last couple of months. 
Although college is finished already here in Ireland, LIT is still open. I show Kirsten the main hall, the library and the cafetaria and after the tour we get in the car and continue our drive to County Kerry. 

We have booked a hostel in the small town of Killarney for tonight. But before we get there we are going to drive around the Ring of Kerry. The Ring of Kerry (or Iveragh Peninsula to give it its correct name) is the Kerry tourist trail and part of the mystical & unspoilt region of Ireland.

We are lucky enough to be driving around the Ring of Kerry at the same time as a Paddywagon tour, so whenever the bus stops we know that it has to be a great spot for taking pictures of the amazing scenery county Kerry provides. Although we just as well choose our own route and whenever we see something along the route that sparks our interest we head of the trail.

Due to its location facing the the mighty Atlantic Ocean, the Ring of Kerry has some of the Europe's finest beaches that provide beautiful sandy strands and all the facilities for a traditional seaside holiday. This is how we ended up on one of the most beautiful places along the route. As a result of an sudden bathroom break by me, we came across a deserted beach only reachable by a tricky forrest trail. The only way you would be able to see this hidden gem is if you walk towards the edge of the small parking space where we stopped for my number 1.

After our photoshoot on the beach and when we were done enjoying the lovely serenity we got back in the car and continued our journey.

Right before we arrived at Killarney we made a quick stop at Killarney National Park in order to see the Torc Waterfall. After which we headed straight to the Hostel in Killarney and since we've been sitting in the car all day we agreed that we deserved a nice meal and some pints afterwards. 

Although we absolutely loved the cozy atmosphere that Killarney provides we have only spent one night in Killarney.

Tomorrow we will keep on going southbound towards Cork.

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30 - 4 - 2019 

After breakfast we take one last stroll through Killarney's city centre and then we are off again. 

We've been driving on the N22 for a solid 45 minutes when all of the sudden Kirsten spots a sign that says "Toy soldier factory - free entrance - 10 minutes."
At first I'm not that enthusiastic to see it, but Kirsten insists on paying a visit, mostly because the sign says "free entrance".

We take the first exit and end up in a small town called Macroon. The Toy Soldier factory is nothing more than a warehouse and fails to impress us at first, but we go in anyways thinking it won't hurt us to see what's inside.

When we enter the warehouse we are greeted by a lovely lady telling us that we are welcome to walk around the workshop without having to pay any entrance fee. Sadly the workers at the factory are on their break so we can't see them at work. But the lady in the front is willing to show us what it takes to cast a toy soldier. We learn that this factory is the only still active toy soldier factory in the world where all the toy soldiers are casted with tin by hand. 

Next to that the warehouse is also home to the biggest recreation of the Battle of Waterloo in the world. Although the factory is free of charge it does cost 6 euro to see this exhibition, but we are more than interested in seeing it. 

We walk in and are amazed by the great scale of the recreation in front of us. The huge diorama measures 26×13 feet or 8×4 meters in dimensions and contains 15,000 hand cast and painted 25mm scale metal figuries casted solely by Andre Rudolph from Germany. It took him eight passionate years to cast, paint and complete his creation. After a short informational video about the battle itself we take one final gaze at the diorama and head back to the car. 
For anyone planning on paying a visit to Ireland in the future, this working factory is an absolute hidden gem and 10/10 would recommend taking a look at the way those toy soldiers are casted and take a look at the exhibition while you still can.

But for now we are back on the road and driving towards Cork. Not really having planned anything yet we try to find some interesting tourist attractions while driving. And as we keep driving we find ourselves being only a 100 meters away from Cork City Gaol (jail). So we park the car and head into the Gaol turned museum.

After an interesting hour long tour through the museum we get back in the car and drive to our second to last hostel for the week in the small harbor town of Kinsale. 

We drop our bags in our room and since we both feel like we haven't really seen all too much yet today we get in the car to see what Kinsale has to offer. We learn that Kinsale is home to two historical forts, and adventurous as we are we decide to pay a visit to both. 

One of the two forts is in ruins but interesting nonetheless. Sadly enough there aren't many signs to provide us with more information about the fort so we decide to drive up to the second fort laying on the other side of the river. A mere 10 minutes later and we enter the second, obviously more modern fort. Here we learn that this fort has been built as a replacement of the other one, mostly because this location used to be more strategic since it has a better view on the bay where in the past enemy ships could enter Ireland.

After the forts we head back into town for dinner. But instead of grabbing a pint in the local club we head back to the hostel after dinner and feel like we should take some rest before we drive up to Dublin tomorrow. It's the last stint of our journey but it's also going to be the longest one. 

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1 - 5 - 2019

We wake up around 9.30 and start packing our bags. After that we head into town to grab some breakfast and discuss what our plans for the day will be. 

We have a hostel booked in Dublin for the next 2 nights in the middle of Temple Bar square. But before we get there we have a 3.5 hour drive ahead of us to Dublin Airport. 

When we finally arrive at Dublin Airport we have to say goodbye to our lovely car and we take the bus into the city centre. We are pretty nackered when we arrive at our hostel, but we grab a pint in the pub downstairs nonetheless. However neither of us can really keep our eyes open so we get into bed a tad early today.

We have a route planned for tomorrow in order to see everything that Dublin has to offer. 

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2 - 5 - 2019 

Our day starts of with a lovely breakfast at our hostel. After we are recharged and ready for the day we head over to Trinity College to pay a visit to the book of Kells and the Long Room. 

The weather is absolutely lovely today with the sun shining bright on our faces. So after we have walked through Trinity College campus we continue to walk to Merrion Square park to have a look at the Oscar Wilde monument. Oscar Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. 

After Merrion Square Park we cross the street and enter the National Gallery of Ireland. It's really interesting to see all the painting by Irish and international (including a few Dutch) masters. But since neither Kirsten nor I can really stay interested in paintings all day we leave the National Gallery and find ourselves a place to grab a cup of coffee to recharge. 

Our next stop was "Dublinia", an interactive museum aimed to inform its public about Dublin in Viking and medieval times. After our inner children were satisfied (especially mine since I got the chance to carry old Viking swords and armor) we were feeling quite hungry so we kept on walking untill we found a lovely place to have lunch.

Across from the river was another National Museum. This time we payed a visit to the National Museum of Ireland - Decorative Arts and History. The interesting thing about this museum is that its placed in the old barracks of Dublin. However, Kirsten and I were starting to feel quite tired due to all the walking. After all we were already walking around the town for a solid 6 hours now. So we headed back to the hostel in order to relax a bit.

Since this was our last evening before Kirsten had to go home again we wanted a proper ending diner. And what else than a Celtic nights diner show in order to do just that. A 3 course diner with a night full of Irish traditional music and Traditional Irish dancers. Especially for Kirsten this was dream come true. She had wanted something like this from the moment she booked her tickets to come and see me. 

After diner we make our way back to the hostel, no pints for us tonight. Our alarm will ring around 05.00 am in order for Kirsten to get to the airport in time.

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3 - 5 - 2019 

We wake up at 05.30 and quitely check out in the hostel. We walk towards the busstop around the corner and approximately 10 minutes later Kirsten's bus arrives that will take her to the airport. 

I give her a big hug and tell her that I'll see her again in two months. I'm not joining her on the bus because I'm taking the Dublin coach back to Limerick myself half an hour later. 

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This week with Kirsten has been truly amazing. I'm forever grateful that she and I share such a great friendship.
And although we obviously still bicker about the smallest possible things, like every brother and sister, I'm happy that we can go on holidays together like this past week without killing each other.

I also feel like I have to thank you Kirsten. Because of you I have been able to see so much more of this beautiful country. Thanks for driving us around safely all week long

Lots of love
Your "big" little bro