About half a dozen of us were dropped off in an insalubrious area of Dublin, across the road from the Guinness Brewery. We were going to be doing the southern tour starting on Monday, so accommodation for the next 2 nights was included in this. We ended up in a large self contained multi storey unit, and as we were entering 3 or so young women had smallish bags and were leaving.
Grabbed some dinner, then went back to the unit, some fella in the kitchen, apoligised said he'd be gone in a couple of minutes.
Had a bit of a yarn, turns out they were a group of 8 Northern Irish students, 4 Protestant,4 Catholic, put together as a sort of cross religion experiment by the university. Said they had free lodging and cheap uni fees, but had to vacate every weekend or so, when groups like us came in. We didn't really feel that great after realising we were kicking people out of their home for the weekend .
Next day was a lazy one, cricket on the tv, England vs the West Indies in a test in London, Lara hit a hundred.
View from our unit
Walked down to Temple Bar int he evening, bit of dinner, then back to the unit ready to go the next morning.
Picked up at about 8.30, then to our first stop, about 30 metres down the road - the Guinness Hop Store
Tour, and a pint at the end, nice breakfast
Drove through Killiney, lunch at Dunlaoghaire
Then to Glendalough, pronounced differently than we do in Perth
We then went to Avoca, better known as Ballykissangel. meant nothing to me then, means nothing to me now
Stop for the night was Wexford. Dinner, then to a pub, my notes simply say 'Big Night'