Galway and Connemara

We arrived in Galway late in the afternoon and attempted to find our backpackers. Attempted is the key word here…we have discovered that while the Irish are good at a whole lot of things, they’re not so good with street signs. We did eventually find our hostel and as a reward, treated ourselves to pizza in the park.

The next morning we boarded a coach tour that took us to Connemara. Connemara is a national park in the West of the country that can be described as rugged, barren and tough. Our bus driver summed it up best by saying ‘there is nothing shiny out here’. With that said, it is one of the most spectacular and beautiful places we have ever seen. Mountains, lakes, sheep, ancient stone fences and cottages speckled throughout the countryside. Words and photos don’t really do the place justice.

The bus dropped us off in Connemara at a hostel pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It was so remote that we had to bring in our own food. The tour bus picked us up again the next day and we continued on for the second half of the trip. The overwhelming highlight of part 2 was Kylemore Abbey. The Abbey was built by some rich dude back in 1867 for his wife as a wedding present, all because she was ‘rather taken’ by the area whilst on their honeymoon. And as if a mansion/castle thing wasn’t enough, he then proceeded to craft a Victoria Walled Garden out of a bog where others could barely grown potatoes, and then built a mini-gothic Cathedral and Mausoleum in her memory after she passed away prematurely.

Daniel is now feeling some pressure, as Monique would quite like her very own castle and Victorian garden to be built in Collingwood upon our return!

Dublin

From the warm, hospitable family home of the Bradshaw’s, we jumped on a train and headed to Dublin for our first youth hostel experience…and yes, it was quite an experience. At first, we were thrilled to be put in room 33 on the 3^rd floor (go on…say it in an Irish accent…tirty tree and a tird). To our dismay, we were forced to move to room 19 the next morning when we discovered that one of our room mates had one too many pints of Guinness and forgot how to aim when doing number twos. Hopefully this is our first and last hostel horror story.

On a brighter note, Dublin is all about Guinness.  Guinness Guinness Guinness. It’s on every street corner, tourist t-shirt and in the hand of every punter. Daniel even got to pour his own on the tour of the Guinness storehouse. If you ask Monique, it’s all highly overrated – tastes like rubbish and stinks out the whole city. Refer to the beer blog for Daniel’s perspective on this debate.

Aside from Guinness, there was the 500-year-old Trinity College that featured the Book of Kells, and the most spectacular old library. Then there was the music scene. Every pub had live music featuring some sweet banjo, fiddle and guitar, creating an amazing atmosphere of heart racing, hand clapping and foot-stomping Irish folk.

We got to see where our favourite movie Once was filmed in Grafton Street, visit Kilmainham Gaol first built in 1796 and see St. Patricks Cathedral, which dates back to 1192.

It was a busy couple of days and we walked our feet off. We loved seeing flowers overflowing from what seemed like every windowsill in the city.

Next we’re heading to the west coast city of Galway

The garden at Ardgillan Castle - Skerries

The best way to recover from 37 hours transit

After arriving in Dublin, we were thrilled to be greeted at the airport by Linda Bradshaw – an Irish friend from work who is home on annual leave. To see a familiar face and know that we were going to a home, rather than a hostel was brilliant.

It was no more than 10 minutes before we were off the freeway and making our way through some classic meandering Irish country roads on our way to Linda’s family home in the small fishing village of Skerries, just north of Dublin. We loved:

• The Bradshaw’s hospitality – it was warm and welcoming
• Having a shower
• Visiting our first castle
• Traditional Irish food homemade by Linda’s mum, including Coddle, Steak and Mushroom pie, and sampling Black Pudding
• A pint of Guinness at the local

Staying with the Bradshaw’s was an incredible way to start our journey, and the perfect way to recover from 37 hours of travel. 

We're on our way!

Hi everyone! Welcome to our blog.

We have started our big adventure with great excitement and much trepidation. It was very hard leaving family and friends, but we know the next 12 months is going to be an amazing time.

After much planning and preparation, we left Yarra Glen at 11am on Sunday 21^st August and finally arrived in Dublin 37 hours later. Needless to say….we were both pretty tired and in desperate need of soap, shampoo and warm running water…shower-in-a-can just wasn’t cutting it. A few key points from our journey…

•      Daniel made the most of the rare opportunity to watch action movies
•      Being lucky enough to score a window seat doesn’t necessarily equal a window
•      There is a rainforest in the middle of Kuala Lumpur departures terminal
•      Monique got patted down by a creepy Heathrow customs officer
•      Sitting on a plane for 22 hours is an effective hair straightening tool

First stop, Skerries - a fishing village just north of Dublin...