Ireland Travel Blogs | Travelogues | Travel Journals

The county of Cork is just south of my home-county,Limerick, but we still had a 2 and 1/2 hour drive to were we headed: Youghal. Youghal (pronounced Yawl) is said to have been largely influenced by the vikings. Arriving in the 9th century they used it as a base to raid nearby wealthy monastic sites such as Ardmore, Lismore and Molana. It seems the Vikings conquered every place they went until they got to Ireland, conquered it, and were never heard from again? ; ). The town is supposed ...

Going to dublin from cork, it's hard not to notice the castle atop the hill, we were wondering how to get there, it took us another trip to get the glimpse of the name:The Rock of Cashel.     Standing on the limestone rock, the castle's presence dominates the whole town .The Rock of Cashel is apparently the site that St.Patrick converted the king of Munster. Unfortunately the saint accidentally stabbed the king in the foot with his crosier. The king, thinking it was part of ...

 I was so excited to be going back to Ireland, I had a 3 day trip as I was doing 2 flights out of Dublin on the A300 (<3 my twin aisle planes) to the Canary Islands! Iv been checking my roster online everyday as crewing usually switch round where you fly to and sometimes take you off things and I was scared they were going to take me off my trip, i needed the money too bad!! For doing Dublin we get £80 cash in hand a day :) There were 6 of us going and 2 flight crew, we positioned ou...

Im going to put the description of the Shamrocker tour i went on and then just put comments here and there... enjoy!actually this day wasnt the beginning of our tour.. it was our first day in dublin.. we arrived around 1 ish.. took the bus to woodquay and walked to find our hostel.  amy was being grumpy as usual (its true amy and you know it) so she was being a pain especially when we couldnt find the hostel.. we found it eventually and checked in and then decided to find some food and a...

Well this has nothing to do with travel but i would like to share with you some pictures of my two animals. These two beautiful creatures entered our lives in the summer of 2006 and have thrilled and exasperated us in equal measure.  They each have a unique personality particular to themselves. Rommel is a right aul slob whose bum wags (rottweilers tails are always removed after birth) enthusiasticaly at pretty much anything, which on occasion gives the impression that, rather tha...

Tá beirt dearthaireacha agam. Pól agus Stíofán is ainm do. Tá inin amháin le Pól, Megan is ainm dí. Tá inin amháin freisín le Stíofán, Emma is ainm dí. Tá deirfuir amháin agam freisín. Adrienne is ainm dí. Tá me in a conai le mo mhathair.   Basically what all that means is that I have two brothers, Paul & Stephen. They each have a daughter now as well. I also have one younger sister. Her name is Adrienne. I live at home with my mother. Haha ch...

Sept. 5, 2007:  Day 1 in Ireland – Exploring Dublin with Minimal Sleep and Jetlag               The plane landed at Dublin International Airport at 5am (12am Eastern Standard Time).  I had slept maybe two hours during the night.  As I departed the aircraft I knew it would was going to be a day that tested my endurance.             As I waited for the 6am bus t...

And from Glendalough, we played Hangman for the rest of the duration of the bus (I was the STAR!) until we reached Dublin. We were to reach Dublin at 6pm but we were well ahead...reaching by 4pm. This caused frustration amongst  many people as the real reason we reached this early was because Pike had to fly back to Manchester. Goodbye's done, I headed towards my hostel. My room was booked at Barnacles, great to be back only this time I had to make do with a higher floor (yawn!). I...

We arrived in Dublin and checked into our hostel. We walked into the common room of Litton Lane Hostel to see what was going on and encountered a handful of Spainards all entranced by the glowing of their laptops. They barely looked up to register our presence. Didn't look like it was going to be too crazy of a party hostel - who travels just to sit on a laptop in a common room? The receptionist of the hostel was also a bit sketchy. We heard that there was a Gaelic Football Championship game ...

We ended the day back in Dublin, I introduced Joanna and Magda to Bruxelles.  Don’t let the pictures fool you, that’s actually Smithwicks in my pint glass, despite the word “Guinness” on the glass.  I decided to give some other Irish beers a chance, both Killkenny and Smithwicks are good, but never get their 15 minutes of fame as they are living in their brother’s shadow. :D

The exact origins of most of these proverbs are now unknown, but the insights they contain remain timeless and universal.   IRISH PROVERBS   DEATH Death does not take a bribe.   Death is a poor man’s best physician.   Many a day we shall rest in the clay.   There is many a person with a high head today who will be lying lowly tomorrow.   Three is hope from the mouth of the sea but none from the mouth of the grave.   CUNNING Cunning is bett...

Other than the diverted trip to Manchester, everything went smooth on both flights. I couldn't sleep on them though. I got to Dublin. It was cold and windy. Halfway through my bus ride to Rory's house (my first couch surfing host) I looked up and realized we are driving on the wrong side of the road. Of course I know this is normal in the UK, but to have forgotten and look up while in motion!? Later I was walking down the street and saw a woman sitting at the light sitting on the ot...

Round Towers are unique Christian architectural features in Ireland, probably derived from visits to Europe and seeing the great bell towers. At Glendelough in County Wicklow near St. Kevin's Church is the Round Tower. At over 110 feet, it is one of the largest in the country. They were built between the 10th - 12th centuries and are believed to have been used as places of refuge and storage for valuables. The doorway was usually 12 feet above ground and reached by a removable ladder, as were...

I slept briefly in transit on the larges boat I had ever ridden.  At 8:15, we got off the ferry and went to the local hostel.  There were 108 concrete steps up a steep hill between the harbor and Rosslare Youth Hostel.  Hauling my 22kg backpack, the climb started to get tough after about the 75th stair.  Our hostel was a pretty, white house with chocolate brown details and a dark roof.  We each checked in and found our rooms through the open courtyard.   After ...

A group of friends set off from the Dún Luiche (Dunlewey) side of Errigal Mountain (751 Metres) Donegal's highest mountain, and headed due north guided by the peak of Aghla Mór, a mountain to the east of Errigal. After a steep initial section we topped the ridge and saw the rest of the mountain range through the haze, running east, northeast, for the first time. A further hour over land (mainly soft grass, mountain grazing and rather wet bogland) we reached the crest of the last ridge ...