Wearing far too many layers of clothes as we attempted to sneak our way past Ryanair's 15kg luggage limit (successful, by the way), we left warm and sunny Spain. Stepping off the plane into the typically wet and chilly Irish weather was certainly a shock to the system, and suddenly wearing so many layers didn't seem quite as ridiculous.
We spent 3 nights in the beautiful Irish capital of Dublin, seeing all there is to see and going to plenty of pubs, before Hannah left us to return home to Australia. Phoebe and I spent another two nights in Dublin after that, plus a day trip to the Wicklow Mountains, staying with a wonderful girl we met in Croatia who took us under her wing and showed us her city, before heading across the country to Galway for a couple of nights. We spent a day exploring the Irish countryside, driving through County Clare, seeing faerie trees, tombs from 8000 years ago, and old castles like Dunguaire Castle, and of course the famous Cliffs of Moher.
We made our way to the wonderful city of Edinburgh, where we stayed for 5 nights with an old friend of Phoebe's. Edinburgh is such a beautiful, old, buzzing city. We saw so much live music which was heavenly - one night was folk music at a small pub, another was a gig that we were taken to at a small but lively bar venue, a band called Temples I hadn't previously heard of but who were really talented, another night was a jazz bar, bursting with people and energy, where we spent the night dancing to the lively jazz band. Sitting on the window sill of our friends' apartment one night with a glass of red wine in hand, surrounded by people and with old records playing in the background, I had a moment where I was reminded of just how lucky I am.
A brief night was spent in Glasgow as we made our way day to England, where we've been for the past fortnight - but that's for another post. Here's a selection of photos taken in Dublin, Galway and Edinburgh, just on my iPhone.
