Five Countries Four Marlboroughs: Heading to Ireland

We were up early and ready for our flight to Dublin. We said goodbye to our 'boho' apartment and headed off to the airport - the Marlboroughs were all happy to be on the move.

We learned in London that everyday the weatherman - or doomsdayer as we called him - would say it is going to rain, only to find that it didn't. The forecast was for rain nearly every day and we were lucky enough to have had only one day of rain. The forecast for Ireland was rain all week - was it going to be the same deal?

Our plane had been delayed over 1.5 hours - the first small hitch in our travels. As we landed I said to Terry: 'Well, you're finally here, you've always wanted to go to Ireland.'
Terry: No I haven't.
Bel: Errr, yes you have.
Terry: No, didn't you want to come here?
Bel: Well, I suppose but I was kind of coming because you wanted to. You said you hadn't been there before.
Terry: No I've always wanted to go to an Island.
Bel: Are you serious?
Terry: Yeah I thought you wanted to go to Ireland to see where you came from.

Disbelief, nervous laughing....and to be honest the Irish accent has always annoyed me.

We looked at each other and said, 'well we are here now!!

We picked up our car - a Hyundai station wagon - and started our drive across Ireland to Galway. The drive was 200kms from the east to the west. It was so cold and windy - and we hadn't left the carpark yet.

We stopped on the way at a town called Maynooth and headed into Aldi to pick up some supplies. We couldn't believe it was raining and everyone was just walking along in the rain. No umbrella - no raincoat. What is going on we thought - it is raining!

As we drove along, it would pour, then the sun would come up, then we'd nearly get blown off the road - and this would happen over a 10 minute period. It seems the weather is unpredictable.

We arrived in Galway and checked into our hotel, it was 5pm and Terry and i were getting thirsty. 'Let's go for a walk around Galway kids!'..........Er, how about 'no' was the response, 'we just want to stay here.' No second guessing that response, Terry and I were off!

The rain had eased and we strolled around the cobble stoned Latin Quarter. Buskers filled the streets and whilst there were lots of people, it was nothing compared to London. First pub was Tig Coili for a quick pint - then we strolled along the street and Terry bought some oysters - we'd arrived on the weekend of the annual Oyster festival! We an amazing dinner at a little Italian restaurant, then off to another pub, the Taaffee. The pub was bustling and jam packed and we sat with two Canadians and listened to the traditional Irish music. Musicians just rock up and whoever turns up on the night plays along together. I loved it. We then met an American couple and Terry noticed the guy had a PGA shirt on. Well, as you can imagine, the next hour was spent talking golf. The PGA guy loved to high five and we had a fantastic night, in the packed out pub, on our first night in Ireland.