DEC 13 - DUBLIN

We somehow make it off the plane and decide on hiring a car. I'd like to say that we were not at all swayed in our decision by which counter had the most attractive staff… I really would like to say that… Hahaha

With our new trusty (HOT) Honda Civic we head off into town where we promptly get lost in our quest for Dame St. See, Ireland has this amazing penchant for having 3 names for the exact same street, even when the street is 500m long…

We park the car at St Stephen's shopping centre, and have a look around and have some lunch before deciding to try and navigate our way to town, and finding a place to stay. We make it to Barnacles (an awesome hostel!) and then head off for a walk leaving the car where it is for the time being.

We walked around Dublin and saw the main attractions (not sure why but there's a really big tall pole that apparently you have to see…) and saw lots of JEDWARD merchandise (some annoying Irish twins from X-Factor - a singing contest). After enjoying the Christmas decorations we headed back to move the car, and stumbled on a cute pub nearby. We had a really tasty dinner (once we found a place that was reasonable and still serving food!!!) and listened to some live music as we planned our upcoming journey. Cat and I stopped off for a glass of mulled wine, as Clare headed back to the hostel to fall asleep. Cat's eyes started to droop as I was talking to her, so I took her back to the hostel (it's now 9:30pm) before I headed onto the internet. Now, earlier Cat had been having some issues with the shower leaking which I thought I could 'assist' with, which resulted in me being showered in cold water as I turned the tap the wrong way… VERY helpful if I do say so myself!

DEC 14 - DUBLIN, KILKENNY, CORK

An early start was called for as we had a lot of ground to cover. We managed to get out of bed at 7:30am, and set off for the Guiness factory. After some inventive driving on my part (maybe driving the wrong way up a one way street…) we made it into the car park, and inside the factory. By far and large the coolest part was the 9000 year lease which was signed for 45 quid per annum. If that's not a bargain then I don't know what is!!! We went up to the top of the building and had a drink from the roof top bar before heading back down to learn how to pour a Guiness! Now, pouring a Guiness was easier and more complicated than I thought. Easier cause I'd never pulled a beer, so didn't know what I was doing, and more complicated cause of all the rules about the temperature of the glass, tilt of it, duration of letting the Guiness set etc… Anyways, we all did it ok as we got the certificate at the end! Poor Cat ended up downing about 1 litre of the stuff, as I was driving so couldn't drink mine…

Of course, there was always going to be a repercussion for drinking so much beer… suddenly in the middle of nowhere Cat HAD to use the bathroom… and of course, nowhere that we stopped had facilities… we drove around desparately seeking somewhere for her to go, and eventually detoured to a shopping centre which became her savior. Seeing as we were stopped already we took the opportunity to stock up and had a mini car picinic. We set off again for Kilkenny Castle, which was very pretty when we eventually found it.

After stopping to get directions in MacDonald's (which consisted of no road names but rather landmarks like children's crossing, bridge and intersection) we managed to make it into Cork. Parking in Cork was a nightmare, but thankfully we found a good place to stay and they had parking there… it was still a challenge and reminded me of the Athen's mindset of - park anywhere and hope your car doesn't get scratched, as we made our way through tiny one way streets with cars parked on both sides.

Checking into our hostel was nice ( we managed to get a 6 bed dorm to ourselves), but once again Cat had issues with the shower (this happened in every hostel!!!) and couldn't figure out how to turn the water on… Hahaha. We had a great night out in Cork heading out for dinner at a small place called Bully's. This was the point where we realized that our eating habits were greatly out of wake with everyone else… somehow we got into the habit of eating around the 9pm mark, which did not leave many options in the way of places still serving food! Bully's was great though, and from there we headed to a few really nice (Bodega - where I had my first full Guiness with blackcurrant), student (Old Oak) and random (Captain Morgan's!) pubs. We met a really cool bar tender at our last stop for the night who gave us some tips on where to go, and the places we had to see before we headed home.

On the way back, all a little light headed, Cat started to freak out as she saw a 'crazy window man' watching us walk into our room… funnily enough, we all had no issues sleeping, and were shortly dead to the world.

DEC 15 - MIDLETOWN, KINSALE, KILARNEY

Another early start and we headed off to Midletown to get to the Jamieson factory early as advised by our friendly bartender from the night before. We saw it opened at 9am, so went into a café to wait for the opening time. Sadly when we went back we were told a tour wouldn't be for another 2 hours, so we skipped it and went to Kinsale for lunch. Once again parking in Kinsale was interesting, and we finally managed. Walking through the town we checked out a couple of places to eat whilst looking for Ascot House which had been recommended by our bartender. We finally found the right street (the same naming conventions as Dublin!) and stumbled upon a tiny farmers market on the way. We all stoked up on baked treats, mulled wine and some other bits and pieces before stopping for our yummy lunch!

After lunch we set off for Blarney. Now really, the only thing anyone thinks of with Blarney is the castle and the stone… and of course that's all we were intending on really seeing. The gardens and the areas of Blarney were just gorgeous, and as some of Cat's crazy video diaries revealed there was a lot of history there as we stumbled into dungeons (unknowingly!) and through faerie gardens. It was all very beautiful and scenic (and of course cold!!). None of us chose to kiss the blarney stone - to be honest I already talk more than most people care to listen to, and I have no wish to be hung upside down by my feet to kiss a freaking stone!

We planned to stay that night in Killarney and managed to get lost not just on the way there, but within there too. The hostel we'd decided to stay at was nowhere near where it should have been, and we only managed to find it by accident! We finally found Neptune's hostel, and once again loved our private room! We elected to leave the car on the street for the night as we had another early start the next day. We found a cute little pub to serve us dinner, and had an early night. We got pretty excited though as we kept getting stopped by the Irish asking for directions, so we must have looked somewhat local. We were surprised to say the least that there was only 1 atm in the whole town, but the gorgeous street decorations made up for the fact that we had to keep wandering through them to get there. At this point in the trip the euro coin swapping began, as the exchange of 95 cents (all in small coins) was initiated by Cat (who I think might have been the one to end up with them in the end!!

DEC 16 - KERRY, ADARE, GALWAY

We set off on the Ring of Kerry really early and hit the road by 7am. A brilliant idea, only we couldn't really see anything so had to stop the car to wait for the sun to come up. It was a really beautiful drive, somewhat like the Great Ocean Road back home once we got onto the main part. When it was NOT the major road however it was HORRIBLE. Tiny one way streets with no street lights, that were clearly intended for horses (not even a cart would fit behind them I'm sure!!!) where we all held our breath and prayed that nothing would come towards us, and when they did we'd crawl along or stop with horrified looks, praying that they wouldn't scratch the car. One of the funniest part was the street signing warning of the 'narrow' bridge which was double the size of many of the roads we'd driven to get there!

We looked at all of the 'attractions' on the route and picked which ones we thought we'd like to see, but to be honest, most of them we photographed from the car, or didn't even bother stopping at, as we'd already seen more impressive things! We went searching for barracks and forts, and then decided that we'd seen enough of those once we realized what they were! We stopped at the tiny town of Kenmare for lunch where we realized the general phenomenon of FREEZING toilets in Ireland. They don't bother to heat them at all, so we had to put our coats on before going in!!! Hahaha

We eventually made it through the Ring of Kerry with many gorgeous photos and started the drive up to Adare Manor. At this point we decided it was about time that Cat get some practice driving a manual car, so off we set with a few stalls and bunny hops. We made it into Adare, and into the manor, and the lovely boomgate operator was very lovely with being so patient with us after a few false starts at the gate. We drove up to the club house, after falling in love with the Manor, and had scones and tea. We knew we were somewhere special when, not only did they have heated toilets, but the toilet paper stacks had little flowers in them. Awwww, bless!

After a long day of driving we finally made it into Galway where we once again had trouble with the street signs and couldn't find one of the sections of town. Somehow we made it, and even more amazingly got a park not more than 2 minutes walk from the hostel. It seriously must have been the parking gods finally taking pity on us! We found a great little place opposite us to have dinner, where we had THE BEST mulled wine we had ever had!!!! We got most of the details out of the lady, but she wouldn't reveal her secret ingredient (it wasn't love, we checked!!). Hahaha

DEC 17 - GALWAY, CLIFFS OF MOHER

This day can best be summed up by - LOST. Once again we found the route that we wanted to take that would lead us past the most ruins, and show us the most things. By this stage we were pretty much over the ruins, so we took to slowing down rather than actually stopping at them to take photos. I'd become somewhat more used to driving the crazy narrow streets, but none of us was expecting the crazy dog we encountered. We took a wrong turn on a poorly signed road, and ended up in someone's drive way. As we went to turn around their dog tried to 'round up' the car and started to do laps. Now normally I know that if you just drive the dog will get out of the way, but this dog was crazy, and seemed hell bent on death. He was actually running in to the car, so after a few failed attempts, when I saw he was around the back we took off so I didn't accidentally run him over!

We made it to the Cliffs of Moher, and after much debate paid the entry fee. The Cliffs were gorgeous, and almost like the 12 Apostles! (Kind of funny we could have just gone down to Lorne…) and despite the freezing wind, we had a great time.

We hightailed it back to Galway (once again down major highways which looked like driveways!) and planned a big night out! First stop for me was to a hairdresser to get my hair washed and blow-dried, a treat for the loads of driving I'd been doing! We went into a pumping Busker Browne's for dinner (next door to Kirby's!!) where I had my second full glass of Guiness (again with blackcurrant!). We then stopped back for the most amazing mulled wine (at Druid's across the street from us) and then started bar hopping.

We got asked if we were Kiwis and British, danced by fireplaces, and got asked where our coats were as we mad dashed between pubs with the alcohol keeping us warm. Little did we know if we weren't so close to the ocean there would have been snow out! We got asked by one old fella what a kangaroo is, and when we finally got stumped after saying it was a mammal he said it was what a Scots man who was stuck in the toilet said. (Still not sure on that one…). We got snuck into someone's Christmas party (really over rated as the free booze was already over!!!) where we got to watch the drunk people try not to fall over on the slippery floor - Cat and I just practiced our ice-skating skills!

Now, the funny thing about drinking in Ireland is that you pay for mixers (not so strange for Europe) but that they don't count cordial as a mixer (VERY strange) so we took to drinking Vodka and Blackcurrant (cordial)! YUM! Shots are also cheaper than normal drinks, which made for a cheap shout!

Cat and I stumbled back into Barnacles at a relatively reasonable hour the next morning, our pockets a significant amount lighter…

DEC 18 - GALWAY, DUBLIN, LONDON

We got up relatively early given the night we'd had before, and had a yummy Irish breakfast (to be honest, I had the vegetarian but it was made in Ireland!!!) and then set off on the long drive back to Dublin. A new motorway had opened that morning, so everything was still in a shambles, so it was lucky that we set off with lots of time to spare. As we were driving back though, the petrol light came on, and it became more and more apparent that we were in danger of running out of petrol!!!! Luckily before that happened we managed to find an exit, and jumped off and found a VERY close service station!

At this stage we heard reports of the snow in London, and became a little panicked about whether or not we were going to make it home… luckily though, all airports were closed BUT ours!!! PHEW! Clare was very excited to see her first ever snow as we got off the plane at Stanstead.

We made it back into London with only slight delays, and met the boys for a final dinner at Malaysian on Ball's Pond Road. Now, this sounds relatively easy, excepts that all of the roads that led there were CLOSED so we had to get out of the taxi and walk there with the rest of our things… URGH! We made it though, and despite getting snowed on the way home, were thankful to have made it!

That's it for this exciting installation of my adventures with Cat and Clare.

As always missing you all loads, and love you lots!!

XoxoX