A Damp Day in Dublin

So this morning eventfully started with our alarm not going off. Which was entirely my fault, because my phone died. We ended up being woken up by the announcement saying that everyone leaving has to check out at 10:00am, which was at 9:45. So me and Daniel scrambled to get all of our stuff together and got rid of our linens, packed everything together, and were downstairs for checkout by 9:55. Luckily the nice receptionist let us go in for breakfast as well, and we were able to get a full breakfast in us.

Dreary in Dublin

The first thing we noticed of course, was that it was back to the dreary pouring Dublin. We had had a great 2 day stay where there was no rain at all, and for our touring purposes it was great. But good things can't last forever right? So as we left the hostel this morning we got to be back in the rain again.

My post-cards and Espresso

After breakfast we left with our backpacks for our last day in Dublin. Our bus to Kinlough was leaving at 3:00pm so we had some time to kill. I decided to pick up some post cards and write them to some people at home. We ended up in a Cafe near Henry street to write up these post cards, and had a good espresso while we were there. We also ended up going to the GPO (General Post Office) because we needed to pick up postage for these glorious post cards, so we got to visit another historic building in Dublin.

Gentleman Singing in the rain

Leaving the post office, we had some time to kill, so we decided to wander through the town. We came across the first free market in Dublin we had found, and on the streets, in the rain there was a gentleman in a tuxedo. He was singing in the deep baritone voice, and I just had to give him all the change in my pocket. We then continued on through this interesting market until we hit Henry Street, which is an interesting street entirely devoted to walking, and no cars.

The Spire

Walking down Henry street we then came around in a loop and came back to O'Connell which is the  main street north of the river in Dublin. At the intersection of O'Connell and Henry the Dubliners decide to build a giant spire, during the Celtic Tiger (an Irish economic boom) which cost 4 million euro! After our little walk about town we decided to head to the bus station, and hopped around on wifi signals to pass the time until we caught our 3pm bus.

Green, Green, Green

So after we left the Dublin core, the first stop our bus took was the airport. It was interesting for me and Daniel experiencing the 20 minute bus ride, after walking the 8km. Our bus then hopped in the highway, and we were off to Ballyshannon, which is a town close to Kinlough. Our bus ride that was supposed to be 3 hours long, turned into 4 hours because of the bad weather and traffic, but we did get to spend a lot of time staring at the green, green country side. We had a great opportunity to meet anther Canadian on the bus who was headed to Ballyshannon. He was an interesting guy from Haliburton, and loved the phrase "far out".

The Atlantic Ocean beach

Though after 4 hours, me and Daniel were both greatful to get off the bus, and we got to meet Jo and Paul. Our gracious hosts gave us a great welcome. They took us out to the coast first, and we got to see the Atlantic ocean, from the other side of the world. We then headed back to the old Whitten house, and had a great dinner.

Thank you so very much, Jo and Paul here in Kinlough, for a great dinner and for a great time here in Kinlough.

- Kamaljot