Roadtripping

Julia and I had an amazing week road tripping the South of Ireland and we very blessed with the most beautiful weather Ireland has seen in April in a long time. First official stop was Galway one of the best little cities i've ever come across.
We met up with Elaine and Jenny, who I met in Darwin last year, for a bit of on-the-fly 'diddly-dee' music and Irish singing.
Galway's infamous prom, the longest in Europe.

After 2 nights in Galway we headed South past the Cliffs of Mohr...

and landed in Ballyferriter, a tiny town right on the West coast, it was so beautiful... and some proof I went into the sea... it was cold enough to keep me out the rest of the trip.


Leaving Balleyferriter we found the ruins of an ancient Monastic settlement from the 6th century, the day was perfect for it, this is the kind of stuff Ireland just oozes.
Early versions of the Celtic cross.

We then kept driving, around the Ring of Kerry, Ireland's most renowed coastal drive.
Daily stops were made to soak the dreadies in saltwater... they were in what I called a 'moody adolescent stage' and have since blossomed into young adulthood, I think the saltwater did the trick.


and came across Staigue Fort, early AD, built simply by piling up rocks and wedging in smaller ones. It was a about 2 miles in from the coastal road and surrounded by sheep.

Oo I just had to take a few pictures of the old Celtic crosses, so many old graveyards and church ruins... so much history.

We spent our other nights sleeping in out of the way little towns, once with family friends of Julia and the other haggling our way into a B&B down by Cork.
Our second to last day was spent exploring Kilkenny and we spent our last night sleeping in this castle-turned-hostel. It was an amazing building surrounded by proper castle walls where we sat inside at night and had a campfire. Not too shabby!
The morning of our last day we explored the Dunsmore Caves, the biggest and best caves in Ireland just North of Kilkenny. The village people had used this cave for protection from weather and Vikings. The history of the place was amazing.

After the caves we returned to Belfast via Dublin to see my friends Denise and Gary again and arrived home Sunday evening. I'm at Julia's until tomorrow night (Wednesday) when I fly back to England. 10 days till the Roberts reunite in Greece!