Ireland ... Where to start... think back to a night out, where you have found yourself in an irish pub dancing jiggs with traveling irishpeople (yes.. we have all done it ) and then imagine a whole town filled with those people... I LOVE THE IRISH!! and dublin has millions of them ... funny enough! I flew into dublin and on my bus ride into the city i noticed a whole bunch of what looked liked 'irish pubs' only to realise that they were actually just shops and that 'our' irish pubs are moulded off them.. very sudden realisation that i WAS actually in Ireland!! I have been wanting to come here for such a long time and believe me Ireland has been no disapointment. I spent 6 days in dublin all up seeing the sights and doing what the irish do so well ... drinking guinness while listening to sessions in small cosy pubs... sessions - just to clarify.. do not include activities of inhaling illegal substance while listening to bob marley .. if you get what i mean ... but rather an informal/impromptue gathering of irish musicians in a pub who sit around in the corner of a pub with their instruments ranging from flutes to guitars, fiddles and even saw a double bass chello last week. They sit around often with their backs to the rest of the pub playing real's and jiggs (traditional music) One musician will casually start playing a tune and the others will join in when they like, you never really know what you are going to hear and certainly will never hear the same tune twice because if a musician doesnt know the tune but wants to play ... they will just pick the key the rest are playing in and join in ... absoultley amazing !!! I met some great other backpackers mainly from auzzie who kept me company with nights out and easily got yarning to some of the locals too ... who knows an irishperson who doesnt like to talk?? Visited the Guinness Brewery.. got to make my own brew (really only got to push a button.. but sounded cool and i did have my name next that batch brewed.. see photos) Most amazing fact about Guinness i came across was that Arthur Guinness (founder) was so sure of his product that he signed a 9000 year lease on the Brewery grounds.. sure ... or maybe drunk.. that's insane!! ??? Ireland has an amazing history and took advantage of noseing around. Saw Trinity college (beautiful old university) and the Book of Kells.... the 4 books of the New testement .. Mathew, Mark, Luke and John handwritten by a monestry in Kells hundreads of years ago. The monestry in Kells was attacked and burnt down about 12 times in the course of history and yet they kept re-building it ... think i may have given up after attempt number 5...?? Went and visited their old Goal.. felt like walking into shaw shank redemption.. which i am pretty much sure it was ... as the guide said it had been used in over a 100 films... and of course spent more than a few hours in the Temple Bar Area... an infamous area for really getting involved in your guinness. Went on a traditional irish music pubcrawl (the title says it all!) and saw the still evident bulletholes in the general post office from the 1916 rising of indepence. After all that ... still dont really feel like i have done dublin justice ... so only real thing to do is go back... would only be rude not too ...! Headed out to west ireland to visit an irish friend from NZ but that is for another time.... running out the door to apply for my irish visa!