I know, I’ve been really slack.

I haven’t written a post for a very long time. I honestly haven’t had the chance or the motivation to write about some of the spectacular things i’ve seen and done because the mood hasn’t been ‘right’.

I travelled back to Australia for about 2 months for a beautiful family wedding which I was privileged enough to be a part of. I think going back home and seeing familiar faces and places really helped get my head back into gear. I also read Constance Hall’s book ‘Like A Queen’ – which I read lazing by the pool in Queensland and it has put so many things into perspective for me and given me that kick in the butt that I needed.
I’ll quickly touch back over the places that I visited in the next few posts so I don’t overwhelm everyone with a zillion-word essay.

First things first, Ireland.

Dublin > Waterford > Limerick > Galway > Derry > Belfast

Once I left Dublin, I caught a train to a little town called Waterford, most famous for it’s Waterford Crystal.

It is also one of the oldest cities of Ireland, having been founded by Vikings around 900AD, running along side the river, which runs to the sea. Unfortunately there wasn’t a great deal to see or do there, so I don’t have many stories to share from this time.

Next stop, Limerick! I stayed in this fantastic Air BnB place with the owner of the house. Brenda lives there alone with her crazy husky dog and has people from all over the world stay with her. While here, I visited the famous Milk Market and had a delicious bacon bap (bacon sandwich with cooked onions and homemade bbq sauce – DELICIOUS!). I still think about this sandwich and wish I could eat bacon baps every day.

I also went to a Hurling match. What a game!! If you ever go to Ireland, make sure you see a Hurling match. Australians are very patriotic and rowdy when it comes to Aussie Rules Football, but AFL has nothing compared to Hurling.

Sitting in the rain, the local match included a massive group of people in the ‘standing area’, shouting, singing and letting off flares. The game is played with wooden clubs, that the players use like an extension of their own arms. The aim of the game is to fling the baseball-sized-ball through either the soccer-post-like goals with their clubs, feet or by throwing and getting 3 points (unless its blocked by the goalie) or by flinging it through a set of goalposts above the soccer-posts for 1 point.

If what you just read was confusing, you’ll just have to go see a game.

I would really like to go back to Galway because two days in, I got food poisoning which knocked me about for a week. Such a shame, because it was awesome there and I missed out on a food tour!! My partner made sure to still go on the food tour and bring back “doggie bags” from each place. I wasn’t amused and went back to hiding in my doona.

Galway is famous for being one of the original makers of the claddagh ring and I was lucky enough to be given one by my partner.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHE1sSAAC7T/

Next stop was the very political, Derry. In the late 1960’s would’ve been a scary place to live. In 1969 a battle occurred between the IRA (Irish Republican Army) and the British Army. Bogside is now decorated with massive murals depicting the struggle, the peace dove was my favourite.

I stayed at the most fantastic hostel while in Derry, called the Derry City Independent Hostel and met the most wonderful people. Listening to Christine and the Queens and exchanging favourite bands, movies, beer and TV shows.

The last stop in Ireland was Belfast. I’d been really keen to see this place because of the TV Show ‘The Fall‘ (starring Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan). Here I did another political walking tour around the city (it went for a ridiculous 5 hours but was so bloody interesting! It wasn’t meant to be this long, but he told us that as long as people keep listening, he’ll keep talking haha!) The tour group was led by an Ex-Political Prisoner and was run by a mob called ‘Coiste‘. It was amazing. Our tour guide was Robert and although at times he was a little hard to understand, I felt like I learnt so much about the Britist/Irish conflict, which I never understood. I truly suggest anyone who visits Belfast, to check out this free walking tour.

While in Belfast I also went on another tour with McComb’s Coach Travel. We visited Bushmills Distillery, Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge (famous for Game of Thrones) and The Giant’s Causeway (famous from Game of Thrones and Harry Potter).

I’m a massive Harry Potter fan and basically my whole trip to the United Kingdom was about Harry Potter, so you can imagine how excited I was when I went to the Giant’s Causeway. Unfortuatnely it was our last stop and typically as soon as we got there it started hailing, but the rain and hail didn’t dampen my spirits.

My next post will be an in-depth Harry Potter loving blog post while I was in England.

Stay tuned folks,

– Miss Adventure