I'm Off To Spain

At the moment I'm sitting in the Dublin airport waiting to board a plane to Madrid, completely random!!! Originally I was going to save Spain for a future trip but on a whim I booked a flight and 3 nights in a hostel, so here goes nothing!

Justus is currently on his way back to the States, so it's just me now :) We had a blast in Ireland, Dublin was a little big for our liking but Galway was incredible. We took a 3hr train ride to Galway and wandered around there for about 4 days. It's small town on the west coast of Ireland. By far the friendliest individuals I've met in Ireland and quite possibly the best hostel I've stayed at... Kinlay House. We took a ferry out to the Aran Islands, rented bikes and spent the day riding around the island, it was absolutely gorgeous!!! We had bright blue skies and even got a little sunburn (go figure, 2 Texans getting sunburn in Ireland). And while my bike came a part and we had to hitch a ride back into town, it was by far my favorite day in Ireland!!!

Given we had had pretty good weather since we got in, it was time for the traditional Irish weather to kick in... windy, rainy and cold. The next day we decided to go to the Cliffs of Moher, we were told is was a beautiful sight by the locals, unfortunately all we saw was fog.
After Galway we went back to Dublin and spent one of the days in the small coastal town of Dun Laoghaire. The weather wasn't great but we spent the day walking along the coast checking out what Ireland had to offer :)

While parks are limited in Dublin, it's been great to grab lunch from a Spar (small food stores) and walk to a park to eat. I have learned that there are NO picnic tables and a very limited number of benches in the parks. Apparently parks are just for looking at. Playing sports, laying in the grass, and grilling are "strictly forbidden." We did spend a lot of time at St. Stephen's Green in Dublin (a larger sized park near the city centre), it actually had a few park benches and a few areas where you are allowed to lay in the grass.
Looks like my flight's about to board.

Cheers for now! (as they say here in Ireland)