The last week - Ireland

Land of my ancestors. We finished our trip in Ireland.

First up was a dinner with my cousin Antoinette and her family. Her son, Bobby, can only be described as a card. Very energetic, very enthusiastic, emphatically male and 22 years old. Amy, his older sister, is acerbic, but she remembers fondly me teaching her how to slide down the bannister when I visited in 1991. Sophie, the youngest, wasn't around then, and she's still going through high school, which in Ireland has an incomprehensible structure for those from Australia.

I finally had my first proper Irish Guinness, and it was worth the wait. I would return to this elixir when we got back to Dublin.

After leaving Dun Laoghaire on Saturday morning, we drove through Kilkenny on our way to Rossdale in County Wexford. This time we were driving a Mazda, on the correct side of the road.

Kilkenny is officially a city, but it really is a nice, medium sized, town. As we got closer to the coast and the south, the weather got windier and colder. Once we checked into our B&B, we found out very quickly there isn't much to do in Rossdale if you don't play golf. So we played golf.

We actually went to the driving range, where Rose didn't do too well and I got my usual welts on my hands from the grips on the clubs. My slice reared its ugly head on a regular basis. The evening was spent much better, when after dinner, we discovered that the video collection in the sitting room had Aussie favourite Strictly Ballroom, which, for some inexplicable reason, Rose hadn't seen. I saw it in the cinema and loved it, but Rose thought it was silly, despite one of the best chill scenes ever.

The Sunday was spent driving past Cork (which we were warned to stay away from due to crapness) on our way to Killarney in County Kerry. Before embarking on this trip, we sampled every Irish person's favourite Sunday morning excursion: going to mass celebrated in a modern church by an odd looking man with classic Irish hair. His sermon on circumcision was a comedic highlight of the trip.

Killarney has a beautiful national park right next to the city centre, which stretches on to the nearby mountains. After a short wander through this wonderful park, we went and got some dinner. Two plates of magnificent Irish Stew went down a treat.

Then I decided to purchase Rose a tin whistle, which is something I regretted for the rest of our tour around country Ireland. Whenever the radio decided it was too far away from anywhere to get a signal, Rose would decide to attempt to play the whistle, and the resulting noise pollution was almost unbearable. Serves me right for buying it for her.

The next day, between trying to stick gauze in my ears, we drove up to Galway. We stopped in the town for one main purpose - to buy some soda bread and some Kerrygold butter. The best bread and butter combination in the world. I will not argue about this.

Then we drove off to the Connemara mountains, which are some of the most rugged, inhospitable yet incredibly breathtaking mountains anyone could ever see. Mountain sheep wandered on the side of the road looking for feed, and we pulled over to eat our simple yet delicious improvised picnic of bread and butter. While it was difficult to stand up outside of the car, we enjoyed the rest, and Rose enjoyed her home made lemonade.

On the way back we stopped in a local craft shop and purchased a pretty photo of a sheep and a rainbow. The shopkeeper assured us the local sheep were worth three Australian sheep. A monument outside the shop memorialised a place where "nothing happened".

In short, it was lovely to see some of rural and regional Ireland that I didn't get the opportunity to do when I was in Ireland last.

Driving into Dublin I struck some luck, when after driving down the River Liffey for a period, I decided to turn over to the other side of the road, only to find I was turning into the street our hotel was in. After dropping Rose and the bags off at the hotel, I went off to drop the rental car back at the depot.

Driving out there, along the same route I caught the bus to where we stayed in 1991 brought back memories of being with my grandmother all those years ago. The city felt smaller, but still effectively the same.

After sorting out our room (we had been given a smoker's room, and it gave Rose a headache), we started to venture into Dublin. The city has no skyscrapers (tallest building is 16 storeys), but a large spike coming out of the middle of the main street, O'Connell St.

I took Rose to the Pro-Cathedral, where all the memories came back strong and I lost it a little bit. It's a small little place where the cities many Catholics can come to worship, as all the other large Cathedrals in Dublin were, and remain, Protestant places of worship.

Our last Wednesday of our trip was spent with the relos, as we got the Magical History Tour of my family. We were shown where all my Great Grandparents are buried (as well as some other ancestors), drove past Bono's house, the house where my Grandfather was born, baptised and went to school, as well as the Monks family home (my Grandfather's mother's family). We stopped off for lunch, and I had some more scones (I love scones), and did some window shopping.

We also visited the youngest of my Lewis generation, who is only a couple of months old. We had some dinner, then went off with the younger relatives into town, where Bobby took us to a rather comical "college night" where the uniform of short dresses, long straight hair and unbelievable tans had Rose, Amy, Amy's partner and myself all highly amused.

We paid for it the next morning, as we started slowly due to the after effects of a late night. When we did go out we eventually got to the Guinness Storehouse, where Guinness is made. An incredible exhibition of exactly how the lovely drop is made awaits, as well as related Guinness paraphernalia such as advertising and packaging. Near the top of the exhibition, which is shaped like a seven storey tall Guinness glass, you can pour your own pint, which I did with glee, before receiving my diploma and finishing my drink. We also visited a bookshop where Rose bought an Irish cookbook, and I tried not to buy about 50 books on Irish history.

The last day included a trip to Trinity College and the Book of Kells. Since being here last, they've really improved the whole set up as to the Book of Kells' display, and it was a nice way to finish.

I know I've taken my time to write these travel notes, but writing on my blog while away was a solitary activity that didn't involve Rose. Some people have enjoyed reading them, some have seemed to pledge never to speak to me again. Anyway, my thoughts and experiences have been exactly that: my thoughts and my experiences.

I would be lying if I said I didn't wish we were still travelling the world. The first few days in Istanbul seem like decades ago now.

Our favourite place was France, and particularly Paris. I know I'll be getting back to Gallipoli, the UK and Ireland, and Rome one day. I've already pledged any future trip to Poland will include everything but Auschwitz. There's a little town in France we desperately want to go back to.

Anyway, that's it. Photos will be up on Facebook soon - I was waiting to finish these. And this blog will go back to what it was before: me pontificating about stuff I think I know stuff about. Thanks for reading.