Ireland

Having finished up the sights in Belfast in the morning, we made it to the bus station for our onward travel to Dublin.

The trip wasn't originally going to include the Irish capital, but with it being pretty easy to get to as well as pretty cheap, we decided to include it on the end of the trip. It would also give us the opportunity to cross the border again, as well as fly back to the UK without needing to go through immigration.

Unfortunately, despite the bus being pretty empty, some irritating children sat right behind us the whole journey; but with it being just over two hours it didn't take too long before we would be free of them.

Arriving in the late afternoon, we headed just around the corner to the Irish Emigration Museum, where I might find out more about my Irish heritage, whilst Chris hoped he might find out he has some too. The museum seemed to capitalise on anyone with any Irish blood in them - even though the state probably wouldn't give citizenship to half of them.

After a little time looking around, we headed out into the city, and headed to a restaurant for dinner before we headed to our hotel on the outskirts of the city centre.

The following morning we made a tour of the city, beginning at the government buildings, before heading through the Temple Bar. Unfortunately with our trip being pretty busy, we didn't get chance to stop there the night before or today. However it was very pretty with the flower boxes and cobbled streets.

We then continued on to Dublin Castle, before heading out of the heart of the city to the St. James's Gate at the Guinness Factory. This whole area felt like a hyper-reality you'd expect in a theme park, as it was clearly Victorian, and yet was very well kept, unlike most similar Victorian factory areas.

After this we headed back into the city to cross the Ha'penny bridge over the Liffey, before our final sight - the Garden of Remembrance.

After a quick tour of the city it was now time to make our way home, heading to the airport after a busy trip away in a surprisingly sunny and warm Ireland.

After taking the Ryanair flight from Luton we arrived at the tiny airport in Kerry and waited for the bus to take us the town of Killarney where we would base ourselves for the two night trip.

We had decided to visit Kerry as there had been nowhere particular in Ireland that we really wanted to visit - rather just an experience of traditional Ireland that we were intrigued. And with the flight from Luton and the Ring of Kerry, Killarney had settled that for us. As we had taken an afternoon flight, by the time we ate than then reached our room in a B&B, there wasn't much else we intended to do that evening, and so we just settled in before the next day when we had booked an excursion to take us around the Ring of Kerry.

Ring of Kerry

Celtic Cross

After waking up and taking a filling breakfast, we walked 5 minutes around the corner to the office to get our tickets and board our coach. Unsurprisingly it was filled with Americans - a staple of any tour, which provided my sister and me with a laugh.

On the way to the airport the previous day, we had seen a lady walking a greyhound - to which my dad but in my conversation to announce that "there's a woman walking her donkey". This had given my sister and I a good laugh all day, and as we began the tour of the Ring of Kerry, suddenly what did we see - a man posing with a donkey. Of course we were in stitches as this - and immediately started taking pictures to tell dad about the "man walking his dog".

The Ring of Kerry itself was nice, but not a lot to it - lots of nice scenery, but as the weather was bad there wasn't much else to look at. However the American behind me had clearly never seen a sheep before, and began pointing every single one out to her son (who had also strapped in a toy one on the coach).

After pointing out a baby sheep (aka a lamb), I began to joke with my sister making "Baa" noises - to which she told me, I was "good at sheep impressions" before telling me that she was going to London and needed to "get [her] some Pound!". I agreed that she did, before turning back around and laughing. Coming back to Killarney we took a little walk around the town finding Penneys as well as getting some souvenirs.

Our final day had an afternoon flight, so we spent the day walking around Killarney, starting with a walk down to Ross Castle and Lough Leane where there were great views as well as a lot of wind, before making our way back to the town to carry out some more shopping and enjoying the local culture to mark the end of our brief, but interesting trip to the other British Isles nation.