We flew to Dublin and took the bus across to Galway. We had anticipated renting a car but as we arrived 20 minutes after closing time there was no car! Frustrating and then easily resolved as the local taxi drivers were very happy to take us to to Roundstone – 2 hours north of Galway. Actually not that far but very narrow, windy roads. So taxi it was and with great relief we spotted the Aussie flag hanging in the gate post!

Friends Francis and Laurie have rented this house for two weeks and have a flow of guests coming through staying for a few days. It is lovely to be shown around Francis’ homeland – quite a contrast to the Med – we have swapped sun hats for beanies as we seem to have hit a cold snap. It’s nearly the height of summer and it’s 17C But when the sun comes out it’s warm and delightful and we still have our shorts on.

We tootled around – Laurie driving carefully along tight hedge lined lanes. Do not bother having a new car in this place. Your duco will be wrecked as you squash into the Hawthorn to let another car go past.

There is so much water along this Connemara coast. You find yourself having to go the long way round as the Atlantic creeps in – golden seaweed and moss on the rocks.

On one of our days we took a trip to Inishmore. We went by ferry from Rossaveel. The day was not looking great and the forecast was high winds and a 3m swell. We kept going with the thought if it got too bad the ferry would not go.

We all trundled onto the boat. A lot of French tourists on a cycling / camping holiday. I chose for us to sit at the front of the boat – inside but we would see out the windows. As we left the port it started to get much tougher and by the time we left the protection of the headland pretty much all those cyclists were vomiting into the bags the crew had tossed to them.

We hired electric bikes – and headed off with a map in our cold little hands! We are riding to Dun Aonghassa – a prehistoric stone wall fort on high cliffs. It’s a great ride with stone, stone, stone everywhere. Plus ‘giant’ cows – limousin and charolais cows – they are huge.

We had a lovely day. The trip back to the mainland was much quieter and we got to see a pod of dolphins charging through the waves alongside us.

Lovely days sightseeing, lunches in pubs, visiting relatives, buying Aran jumpers and generally enjoying being with friends.

We are heading back to Dublin for a couple of days.

Some sightseeing is in store – neither of us have spent time here and it is a bustling small city with unintelligible English 😂. We find everyone is talking so fast with such an accent that we are struggling to ‘catch the drift’ And Gaelic – well that is another story. Reading the Gaelic signage around the city is enough

We stayed in the Docklands which was a 20 minute walk up to the University and the middle of town. It was very nice – probably quieter than being right in the centre. There is a tram route from the Docklands into town if you don’t want to walk and one day we took the train up to Belfast to see the Titanic Museum and the city of Belfast. Loving train rides- watching the scenery – very relaxing.

Time to pack our bags and head to the airport. We are flying to Bali. We have chosen to stopover in Ubud for 7 days and we are meeting some of our family there. It is going to be lovely to see them.

We arrived in Ubud safe and sound after an easy 8 hour flight from Dubai. The drive up to Ubud was the slowest part with the Bali traffic!

So nice to have the time to recover from jet lag, see the kids, be warm and enjoy being immersed in this place.

Alex, Stephen snd I participated in a Tuesday cooking class at Casa Luna in Ubud. Delicious fresh food plus a trip to the markets. We enjoyed breakfast and lunch – very yummy and lots of fun. We were the only Australians. Of twenty people – Italians and French ruled.

This week has been delightful. We have been looked after and are ready to head home – it’s Melbourne time – it’s nearly Spring and there is a lot to look forward to.

I’m signing off here until next year. Planning already underway 😊🙏

07 Sep This entry was published on September 7, 2023 at 8:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.