My friend Amy over at her beautiful nature blog wrote about wild blackberries today. Reading her post brought back a flood of emotions and memories of our dream trip to Ireland in September last year. I remember how our dear friends from Belfast took us hiking in the Mourne Mountains (awesome! totally magical!) – not…
With all those reports of the Irish economy suffering so badly, I felt obligated to purchase a pound of Kerry Gold Butter at the local supermarket, despite the extortionate cost (over R30.00 for 500g!). But that’s because it really is my FAVOURITE butter. Soft and creamy. Yumm…
As I said in a previous post, Dublin is bisected by the River Liffey. As a result, there are a LOT of bridges. The oldest seems to be the Queen Maeve Bridge (also known as the Mellows Bridge), which was completed in 1768. It is named after Queen Maeve of Connaught, that most temperamental and…
Our first exploration of Dublin’s city centre led us north from Trinity College towards the banks of the River Liffey. The Liffey is the river that bisects the city of Dublin, broadly dividing it into the northside and the southside. Historically, the northside was a more working class area, whereas the southside was the more…
… against New Zealand. 22-3 was the final score of the rugby match between the All Blacks and Ireland at Croke Park tonight, which was broadcast live on MNET (thank you, MNET!). I was particularly pleased that the commentary came directly from Ireland, because it allowed me to imbibe almost two hours of Irish accent.…
Not so long ago, going on a trip meant that we gave the car a quick once-over, topped up petrol, oil and water, pumped up the tyres, stuffed some clothes into a suitcase, filled up a thermos flask with tea, packed a couple of sandwiches for the road, picked up a route map at the…
Throughout both north and south, we were amazed at how friendly and polite other drivers were, letting other cars into the flow of traffic etc. Maybe it was just a fluke of nature, or synchronicity in action, or perhaps we were sending out a strong forcefield of “we’re really ecstatic to be here” vibes, which…
Driving around Ireland is fairly straightforward for South Africans, as I’d speculatively written about in a previous post. As part of the heritage of British Imperialism, we also drive on the left. In addition, most of the hire cars appear to be manuals (stick-shifts, as the Yanks like to call’em), which we’re used to. Regardless…
This is a kind of Table of Contents on-the-go of our 3-week trip around Ireland, so that you don’t miss out on any posts relating to it. Photo album on Picasa: Photos of Ireland Before we left: Cartwheels of Joy (11 March 2008) Driving on the left or the right? (19 March 208) Learning a…
To give you an idea of the size of the island of Ireland (that’s including Northern Ireland AND the Republic of Ireland), I consulted the route planner of the helpful Automobile Association of Ireland: If you were to drive from the almost northernmost point (Malin Head) to the almost southernmost point (Mizen Head) (see here…
After recovering from the little episode of the squeaking suitcase wheels with a little naplet, we were eager to explore Dublin. We emerged into rush hour traffic. Hm… not so good. Slightly shell-shocked by the number of sirens*, we found our way to the brandnew Science Gallery Cafe, where we had our very first Irish…
From Dublin Airport, we took the Aircoach* (forking out a stomach-churning E7.00 per person for the privilege – that’s like ZAR170.00, ouch! Gotta stop converting to Rands!) into Central Dublin. At last, we arrived at College Green (which is not a ‘Green’ at all anymore, but probably one of the busiest intersections in the city…
In case you don’t know it, Ireland has two official languages: English and Irish Gaelic. In the last few months I’d been trying to learn a wee bit of Gaelic in the (as it turns out rather pointless) hope of nattering away with the locals in their home language. Not that I’d achieved ANY level…
The moment I had dreamed about for years had come at last. The green-and-white Aer Lingus plane was crossing the Irish Sea, which was hidden under a layer of white clouds so impenetrably solid I could imagine walking across it. My popping ears signalled that we were descending. And suddenly we were in the middle…
Our long-awaited trip to Ireland took us anti-clockwise around the entire island, North and South. We landed in Dublin, where we stayed at Trinity College for three nights, before heading north to Belfast, where we stayed with really nice friends for another three nights. From there we drove around the Glens of Antrim and the…
Grains of Sand 
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