We've been looking forward to going to Ireland with Jill and Graham since we arrived...after 3 months away from kiwiland a weekend with good kiwi friends was going to be very special - we could hardly believe that we were visiting Ireland together. Friday afternoon saw me skipping down the road to meet the bus and Harry driving in from town with our bags. Haz had just been for a job interview and like me when I had one recently decided that he needed the rest of the day to recover from the experience. We had a coffee in a little place in Clifton (Haz and I still don't know the nice little cafes and coffee places in Bristol so we took pot luck and it was o.k. - just). The sun was shining the first sun that Jill and Graham had seen in nearly a week and it was a good time to show them the suspension bridge and the view of Bristol before heading to the airport. We felt like tourist guides and we surprised ourselves about how much we knew about the city in such a short time. A smallish cruise boat was travelling up the river and we passed it in the lock. We arrived at the airport carpark (the same price to park the car for 3 days as it was to catch the bus from town). Booking online is great you zoom in, use our card (whatever one we used to pay with online), and the gate opens and let us in. You can then drive round and round and round and round and round (I think you probably have the picture by now) trying to find a park which we eventually did. Lesson Number One for the weekend away - if you are going to leave the car door unlocked over the weekend find a smallish park right beside a large concrete pole so that no one can open the door. Lesson Number Two make sure your car is a bright colour otherwise you'll never find it again!! Harry insisted on bringing the pineapple lumps Jill and Graham had bought me stating they would melt in the car - I intended to keep them all to myself but ended up having to share them!!!! Incidentally he did leave the weight watchers muesli bars behind - I don't think he cared what the heat did to them. We had a great (laid out like a patchwork quilt), lakes and rivers. My first impression of Ireland is one of green and flat with few animals and few people. Ryan Air is a no frills budget airline, where the air hostesses hop off the plane at the end of the trip and act as ushers into the airport (and check in operators do as well at the beginning of the flight) and Budget rental cars is the cheap rental car company where the queue was very long and other rental car firm employees eg Hertz and Avis stood bored and enviously watched the queue hoping that customers might decide to change allegiances and opt for something more expensive. Friday evening we drove to our bed and breakfast and that was about it really. The bed and breakfast was in the country about (5 kms from the Limerick - we initially turned around cos Harry said we had gone 5 kms and we must have missed the turnoff - we think it must have been in miles as when we eventually asked for directions we went down the same road as before). Arriving at the bed and breakfast we were welcomed by two dogs, one insisting on peeing on both front tyres, before acknowledging there were any humans getting out of the car. Highlight of the b&b were the door handles installed upside down and our experiences with the beds. In England a lot of people don't use top sheets and every week or so wash the duvets instead. We reckon this just makes work but did wonder if the b&b couldn't decide what to and decided to compromise with a little top sheet instead. Haz and Graham in particular enjoyed tussling with the sheets all night! Saturday we drove off armed with the emails from Nicky and Brian telling us the best places to see and with huge plans to see the south west of Ireland. We soon discovered the roads are a bit like NZ, windy, narrow and we revised our plans as what we thought might take 2 hours started to look like 4 to 5. We stopped at Carrigafoyle Castle - a castle in ruins that isn't sold as a tourist attraction - and climbed the many steps to the top. Graham decided to do a jig in preparation for the evenings of music, laughter and guinness and Haz could not resist videoing him while I was in hysterics. (Before downloading the video the blog asked me if the video was 'obscene or infringing copyright' I said no but after watching it am not so sure anymore). We drove around the waters edge and turned around when it looked as though we might get stuck in the mud. After driving through Tralee and missing the Rose of Tralee festival by a week we stopped for a picnic by the river at Killogran. Lovely, relaxing and we could have stayed a lot longer looking at the flowing water and the statue of the 'Great Puck' (big deer). Then we drove ...... the Ring of Kerry is a picturesque and long piece of road, it reminded us firstly of Central Otago and then around the Wairarapa coast and then Northland. The roads were lined with spring bulbs, scotch heather and gorse. We stopped at lots of spots to take photos and to enjoy the scenery before arriving in Kenmare. This is a quaint little town that we could have spent a few hours relaxing in and browsing round the shops and parks (yes i did say shops). Then moved on to Killarney. Had a great set menu where we all ate too much. We all tried 'Boxty' the Irish pancake made from mashed potato (girls won't get a man unless they know how to make boxty - or so the poem goes). Things we noticed about Ireland so far - the Irish love colour (alot of the stone houses have been plastered and painted which takes away the 'old' look but gives every little town life and vibrancy), they take great pride in their gardens, lots of hanging baskets and well weeded gardens and tidy lawns and they love music. Surprisingly, Harry enjoyed driving the Skoda round and has even said he was 'quite impressed'. The biggest lesson of the weekend so far for me was 'it isn't a good idea to put deep heat on your toothbrush (thankfully it fell off before it reached my teeth).
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