Visiting the Isles of the North

After all the anticipation and planning, Philipp, Viktor, and I went off to London, Dublin, & drove through the countryside of Ireland.

Pictured left is Philipp and me at Buckingham Palace. The place was constantly littered with tourists, and surprisingly the palace was not very impressive. With what I assumed were strict Greek architectural lines, the only ornamentation was the (Wappe) or coat of arms on the gate.

So we saw the sights and met up with a friend of Viktor's, but other than that, we agreed that London was only a place to come on a business trip.

This picture summarizes our stay in London. Everything was so expensive that we looked for cheap deals everywhere. We ate so many cheap sandwiches, stayed in a dump of a hostel (as seen here), and avoided anything that required spending money. For this picture, I was practically standing in the other corner of the room--that's how small it was. And behind me in the room was the shower and sink--that wasn't a pleasant stay.
The exchange rate was bad, and the prices were worse. London hat uns nicht gut gefallen. i.e. we didn't like it.

So in between London and the auto adventure, we visited Dublin. The people were amazingly friendly, the city had a great atmosphere, and the hostel/University (which was on summer break) was the best hostel experience I've had. The city didn't offer too much for attractions (plus everything in Ireland is terribly expensive) so we found the city to be relatively less exciting than we anticipated.

But then we rented our auto for 4 days and headed Northwest to Achill Island. We found great bed & Breakfasts along the way (not terribly cheap, but amazing views with friendly hosts, and a full "Irish Fry" (translated to a full breakfast) every morning.
Here Philipp and I stand overlooking the bay from the Atlantic Ocean by the hills in Achill.
The next day we drove further south along the coast and found the Famine Memorial, directly across from this hiking path up the mountain (as seen here). The funny part was that we found the park where we wanted to have lunch, and Philipp & Viktor didn't translate the word "Famine", so we had our food at the famine memorial...great.

This was also the day of the first time I ever saw Philipp mad. He drove the entire day, stopping everywhere Viktor wanted to go and at the end of the day Philipp decided we would spend the night in a city where we could visit a pub. We searched a dozen B & B's for the best price and finally decided on one. Then 2 seconds after paying Viktor again raised a discussion that he didn't want to stay there. It was simply too much and, as everyone expects at least once on a vacation, the two butted heads.


All resolved, we drove the next day through the rain, mist, and fog to visit the famous "Cliffs of Moher". With only moderate enjoyment, pictured here are Viktor and Philipp. It rained the entire day and we just couldn't get a good view anywhere.


We also drove throug Limerick, the 3rd largest city in Ireland. They hated it becuase it was really industrial, but I kind of loved it becuase there were no tourists.

Then the last day we drove along the "Ring of Kerry" a touristy drive along the coast of Ireland (yet further south) and crossed the bridge onto Valentia Island. Poor Philipp, who drove the entire time, had to maneuver through roads too small for a single car covered in potholes and pedestrians.

Here almost finished around the Ring of Kerry, we stopped on the beach for a last moment of Irish air before heading back to Germany.

The trip home included driving through Cork, Ireland, driving through the night, eating all the remaining food we bought from Grocery Stores along the way (namely Tesco--our saviour--as the prices in restaurants and everywhere were outrageously overpriced), then flying to Friedrichshafen, taking the train to Basel, then connecting finally to Freiburg. Almost 20 hours just of traveling. We were glad to be back.

But then began my last week in Freiburg.

Later Days,
Rick