After a hectic couple of weeks getting the flat sorted, dealing with auditors, packing, shredding documents (see auditors) and panicking we finally made it to our first stop: Ireland.

August is usually the middle of the twelve month rainy season in Ireland but luckily we had enough dry hours to do some grand stuff in Mayo and then in Dublin...

Croagh Patrick - the site where St.Patrick "Samuel L Jackson-ed" 'the motherf***ing snakes off this motherf***ing plain'

Westport, Castlebar, Ballina and Ballyhaunis - some small towns where the men all look weather-beaten like Alex Ferguson

Kiltimagh - as above but with Louis Walsh

Beaches - and people actually swimming. Fair play.

Potatoes - a lot

Wildlife - Alexia fed horses and cows.

Museums & Galleries - Irish Country Life (harsh portrayal of rural life), GPO in Dublin (Easter Rising and 1921), Hugh Lane Gallery (Francis Bacon: messy and Sir John Lavery: excellent) and Irish Museum of Modern Art (a bit disappointing).

Stonewalls and cottages - a lot

In Dublin we met Ody, who I went to uni with, and like any man whose country is facing 15% unemployment would do, he naturally decided to bunk off work to show us around the capital. Thank you. It was great to see Croke Park, Trinity College, Dublin Castle etc. Walking around Temple Bar with an Irish man and then going for a coffee was not expected and probably unlikely to happen again.

And so there we have it. After a quick 5 days of potatoes, cabbage, bacon, Guinness, soda bread, rain and embracing my Gaelic heritage we left Dublin airport to head to the Netherlands.

(See mum, I didn't mention anything about the paedo priests)