Catchup ya'll

Just because we have been a bit quiet on our travel website doesn't mean that we have been having a quiet few weeks here! It has been go, go, go and we have fallen behind in our updates quite a bit! So, to get you up to speed, here is a quick run down on everything that has been happening in the last few weeks:

Brisbane
On my way home from New Zealand I popped into Brisbane to catch up with a couple of mates of mine, Simon and Paul, and to check out this lovely city. As luck would have it, Simon and Paul both had a wedding to go to that afternoon and evening but this just gave me lots of time to wander around and really appreciate Brisbane at night - it's gorgeous boardwalk and lively pedestrianised street with loads of shops - before gatecrashing the wedding (after the dinner and speeches etc.!) and catching up with the guys and their gals.

Simon and Lynn nicely let me stay at their place that night and Simon and I caught up more over breakfast the next day before I was back on a plane to Dublin!



Summer Visitor # 1
Our first visitor of the Summer was Matt Hoyle, a friend of ours from home who was over in Europe on business and conveniently enough also had business in Dublin so decided to visit us for the weekend. Unfortunately for him he caught us at a time when we weren't really drinking (I was off alcohol for lent, Johnny was a bit hungover, and Craig abstaining for his liver's sake) so we had a quiet enough time but it was nice to hang out and spend time with him nonetheless. He got to see a bit of Dublin too which was cool!



Donegal
Johnny and I headed up to Donegal for Easter to take in the sights of the County that is meant to be one of the most beautiful in Ireland. It did not disappoint! We stayed in Gallaghers Hotel right in the centre of pretty little Letterkenny and used that as a base to explore Glenveigh National Park, have my first Easter drink at the gorgeous coastal town of Bunbeg, and a lovely drive along the coast. The Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday night was beautiful with the choir and candles and on Easter Monday despite the not so great weather we took our time getting back to Dublin, driving up to check out Portsalon (which a guy from Donegal the night before had told us was the "second most beautiful beach in the world" - we wouldn’t necessarily agree but it was nice!) and a few of the other cute northernly seaside towns.

Donegal has a wild and rugged beauty, one which, when coupled with the Irish-speaking pockets and little towns, has a feeling of 'untouched serenity' about it - definitely worth a visit and there is still so much more of the county than what we have seen so we will be back again!



London!
Another Kiwi friend of ours who is also called Matthew was in Spain and London for a couple of weeks in March and as he couldn't make it across to Dublin we thought that we would pop across to London for the weekend to visit him. We stayed with another friend, Claire who lives right by Tower Bridge, and, as well as spending time with Matthew, made the most of the beautiful warm Summery weather to walk alongside the Thames, check out all the goodies in the Borough markets, chill in Hyde Park, catch up with our London friends, and have a BBQ in Hammersmith Park! Ahhhhhh…. Glad that Summer has finally arrived!



Summer Visitors # 2 & 3
Our next visitors were our friend Anna who is on her big OE from New Zealand, and Aneela who lives in London and was in Ireland on Business. They stayed with us on the same weekend so we took the chance to show them both around (including places where Aneela hasn't already been seeing as this was her third time to Dublin!). On the Saturday we took them up to Newgrange where Johnny and I chilled in the café while A&A checked out this ancient burial mound, stopped briefly to visit the ruins at Slane and had fish and chips in the pretty seaside village of Howth. Sunday was a lazy day and before we knew it our two lovely guests were gone!



There! That brings you all up to date for now! We are off to Manchester tonight for the long weekend though so there will be more updates next week! Check back soon! :-)