So Ireland, I’ve visited your lands for over a week now. Weather last week provided no rain and a fair bit of sunshine, a real treat for this part of the world. This week returned to rain and cold. Traveling around over the weekend I visited several locations throughout Southern Ireland. Cashel, Blarney Castle, Killarney National Forest, Cliffs of Moher. Navigating the roads of Ireland is extremely difficult, as they have almost no street signs. Once I got a GPS, I was able to get around much better. The narrow roads and driving on the left side combined with the roundabouts adds to the difficulty. Streets in each small town that you are forced through add further problems, as people carelessly walk about the streets or park on each side, preventing 2-way traffic.
The land of Ireland proved mostly the same throughout. Flat pastures throughout cut by hedgerows or small stone walls. Very little remains in the way of forests or public lands to explore. Overall a sad place for me. The small towns I drove through all were quite nice, however. No area I saw looked run down or ghetto, despite many areas being quite old. I also have seen very few scummy looking people out here. Perhaps if I drove into Dublin itself I would see some, but I do not plan on that activity.
The castles provided interesting locations to explore and allowed one of the few links to how the land might have once looked. My camera broke on the flight over somehow, so I had to buy a disposable camera to take a few pictures. This event disappointed me greatly, as I missed some great pictures.
I moved my flight up to this Friday, I am ready to leave Ireland at this point. Nearly every night some noise wakes me. Either people talking loudly outside or a band playing or something similar. I think that last night was my first night of full sleep in this country and I cannot wait for my last night of sleep here.
