The Craic was 91

Ahhh Ireland. We have just visited the magical and mystical emerald isle. Home of funny accents, strange language, more castle ruins, huge cliffs, Guinness, farms, leprachauns, off the chain story tellers, talented musicians, homely pubs, random hail storms, bad jokes, shamrocks and of course U2!

First up Clint celebrated his 32nd birthday, in 'sunny' Dublin. We had an 'Irish' breakfast in our hostel consisting of soggy cornflakes and toast. Yum our favourite!

We then headed to City hall and met for a 'free' (tips basis) walking tour. After battling the freezing cold, rain and random hail storms, we found out Clint has two holes in his left shoe :-O that makes it hard to walk in the rain! 'No problem' said Kylie... 'Here's a plastic bag' haha nice! Now Clint has a plastic bag on his left foot, providing much needed protection.

We had a lovely birthday dinner at a random chinese restaraunt over a few pints of Clints favourite new beverage, Guinness. Guinness is Irelands trademark drink, and has been best described as 'a blonde wearing a black skirt'. We saved our first pints of Guinness for Ireland, and we are glad we did as the rumors are true... Guinness tastes the best in the Mother country. It takes about 10-15mins to take your first sip of this wonderful drop from when you first order, as theres a bit of waiting involved. The barman will pour half the glass, then you've got to wait for that to settle (he then goes off to serve others) then comes back, tops it up and its ALMOST done. But not quite.. you've got to wait for the rest of the magic to happen. (by this point Ky is half way through her pint of Smithwicks Irish Ale) once it becomes jet black-all good! Ready to enjoy!

Friday 18th to Sun 20th Dec we did a Shamrocker tour of Southern Ireland. We couldn't wait to get out of the city and see the Irish country side. Our first stop was at the Mitchel Town Caves. Wow! We went 200ft underground and it was a comfortable 12 degrees. It was very peaceful and quiet and chockers full of amazing rock formations.

No trip to Ireland is complete without visiting Blarney Castle and kissing the Blarney Stone to get the gift of the gab (like Kylie needs a top up!) Clints fear of heights was put to the test as the stone was right at the very top. To kiss it we had to lay on our backs, grab hold of some iron bars and lean backwards over the side of the castle while a man guided us, making sure we didn't fall on our heads! Eek! Scary but awesome!!

Friday night we stayed in the hip and happening countryside town of Killarney. We had a lovely dinner, but it was very expensive.. as with all of Ireland. The tour took us through lots of towns that all came with their own claim to fame. Some were very serious, others just plain out there. e.g. the town of Killorgin have a festival where they find a wild goat and crown it king for three days, there are no rules in the town.. what the??

They have BEACHES in Ireland :)

Saturday night we stayed in Doolin. There are no trains or busses that go to Doolin so you need to drive or go on a tour, its a very special little town. It's near the Dingle penninsula which is the Western most part of Europe (just for the record we have been to the highest point in europe-Junfrau and now the furthest west from Australia) They have no internet in Doolin, and they have only recently got phones! Crazy!

'Hello, Lollipop island?'

We had mighty craic here (it sounds worse than it is!! ask us when we get home!) and an amazing vegetarian dinner. The highlight of the night was Kylie getting up and singing two songs in front of the locals during the break of some local musos. She brought the house down and made us all proud. Nice work Kylie, you're a star :)

We are stoked the Irish didn't let us down in the frozen puddle department. We saw some 'fecking fantastic' frozen lakes! On a side note we stopped at a National Park which had some stonehenge like rocks. The best part was that it lightly snowed while we were walking around, covering everything with a soft layer of snow. It was pretty. We visited this place during Lyndal and Gators wedding.. this is for you Mr and Mrs Gators!

We are sad to be leaving Ireland, and the UK for a bit, as its home to some precious memories. However, tomorrow we leave to Alesund in 'sunny' Norway!! We are visiting Clints cousin Matt and the lovely Lisa. It's here we will be spending Christmas and if we are lucky it will be a white one! Looking forward to maybe a bit of skiing and we're hoping Clint is a better skier than ice skater!!

If we don't get a chance to write before Christmas.. have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!! We are thinking of family and friends, we love yaz and miss ya lots!!!