Ireland 3 June - 22 June 2007

The country that has 40 shades of green and 'To be to be sure' we saw them all, in our 3 week Irish adventure.

We flew into Dublin and in true Irish style arrived to drizzle and a nice temp of 14 degrees, but that didn't dampen our spirits. It was off to the pub for some irsih stew to warm us up and a Guinness to wash it down.

The next day it was Lee's birthday (in fact, it was the reason we were in ireland - for his "tirty-tird" birthday) so we drove south to spend the night in the picturesque village of Kilkenny. In true Hulsman arsey-ness, the weather turned for the better. After a birthday meal in the swankiest restaurant we could find, we set off in search of leprechauns but settled for some traditional diddley-dee music.

Not before a quick stop to kiss the Blarney Stone (who would of thought that for 8 hours a day, people would line up to to kiss the exact same spot on a STONE) we spent few more days exploring the south coast and seeing some more of the quaint Irish villiages. We next did the infamous 'Ring Of Kerry'. This was one of our highlights. We cranked up the volume on our newly acquired diddley-dee music, filled up the car, and cruised through some of Irelands best scenery.

After the "Ring" we went and visted some friends that we met on our travels last time, Ruan and Zara. Who we hadn't seen in 3 years and have a baby girl Leilani welcomed us into there home cooked us up a barbie irish style and gave us some good wine.

On our first full day with them we went to 'The Cliffs Of Moher' where it is normally so cold and rainy they have a video tour of the cliffs on a sunny day........however as luck would have it, t'was the hottest day Ireland had seen this year. The cliffs were truly spectacular and blew both of us away. It was such a hot day we all went to the beach for a swim and had a barby and some vino to wash it down.

After Ruan and Zara's we headed to Northern Ireland to see Derry. It was a really interesting place to vist and we learnt more about the trials and tribulations that the city had been through. Not mention some of the friendliest people we met in ireland.

After Derry we braved the 10 degree weather (you thought Melbourne's weather could change fast) and went to 'Giants Causway'. Basically, some cool rock formations that legend has a giant made to climb over to fight his nemisis... blah blah.

We stayed in Belfast and did a black cab tour and learnt so much about what the Northern Irish people have been though. and saw the most bombed hotel in europe - we chose not stay here.

We did a medival castle banquet in the country near Limerick. We ate like kings and queens, got serinaded by a beautiful choir and got pissed as farts on honey wine. special thanks to ruan for taxing 2 drunk aussies around.

After some easy persuasion we went back to spend a bit more time with Ruan and Zara (and little Leilani).

In the last few days Lee managed to even fit in a surf (although he did complain of ice-cream headaches). Then after the farewells we caught our plane (the right one this time) and headed for Germany!!!!

Until next time

Lee and Brooke