We had a bit of excitement on our last night in Glasgow. We went to bed in our hotel and were fast asleep when the fire alarm went off. It was 11:30pm and we got up bleary-eyed and quickly threw some clothes on. I didn't even stop to put any shoes on and Lidia grabbed the passports and we left the room and started evacuating the hotel. There were people everywhere, most of them dressed in bathrobes. The elevator was broken, so we started making our way down the stairs from the second floor. Halfway down we were met by a hotel worker who informed us that it was a false alarm and we could go back to bed. We were grateful that the hotel wasn't on fire, but a little peeved about being woken up with a loud screaming siren above our bed.

The next morning we asked the concierge what happened. He said that three guys had come into the hotel and started trying to get into the kitchen. The hotel workers saw them on the cameras and so one of them went to find out what they were doing. They turned around and grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall and sprayed her in the face with it and then started running out of the hotel. On the way out they broke the glass on the fire alarm and set the alarms off. Goes to show that wherever you go in the world there are still morons around.

Our first day in Ireland was fantastic. We landed in Dublin and checked into the Radisson Blu. We had splurged and booked the executive suite, but we weren't expecting the size of the place. The room had a foyer leading to a dining room for 8 people attached to a lounge room with two modular sofas in it to seat 10 people with a massive flat screen TV. There was a separate king-size bedroom with an ensuite as well as a separate bathroom. Probably overkill for two people, but we weren't complaining.

We got out into Dublin to explore straight away and went to the Trinity College where Oscar Wilde received his education. There is a massive ancient library there with millions of books lining a long, double-storied hall. Incredibly impressive. We sat for a while taking in the ambience and smelling the ancient leather-bound books. We then explored Temple Bar which is chock full of pubs and bars, all of them with live Irish music and drinkers spilling out into the streets. The place is just pumping with energy.

That night we went on a musical pub crawl across Dublin with two musicians called Andy and Booster. Booster was hilarious. He could easily have been a comedian and had us in stitches with his long-winded stories about Irish culture and music. He was also an excellent singer and guitarist and Andy was a cracking fiddle player. Some of the song titles they told us of were rippers, including "Granny cut your toenails coz you've ripped the sheets to shreds" and "Hold the candle steady while I shave the chicken's lips".

While we were listening and singing along to the music I tried my first pint of Guinness in Ireland. Then I tried my second Guinness. I followed up with a third just to make sure. Maybe it's just because I'm on holidays, but I reckon the Guinness in Ireland tastes better than the stuff at home.

During the tour we walked over the Ha'Penny Bridge to the other side of Dublin and along the way we passed the Spire of Dublin, which is a 120 metre high needle that stretches up into the sky. The site used to be home to a statue of Nelson, but in 1966 the IRA blew it up and in an "Up Yours" to the English they decided the build something different on the site. The contract to build a new monument was awarded to an English company who built the spire as an "Up Yours" to the Irish. That's my take on it, anyway.

We walked back to our hotel after the tour finished and enjoyed a couple of Baileys Irish Creams and a packet of Guinness flavoured chips in our room before falling into bed.

The next two days we spent in Galway. A pretty town set amongst canals and rivers, this is where Ed Sheeran spent his Summers when he was younger and we saw the corner that he used to busk on. In fact as you wander around the bustling streets, there are buskers playing Irish music everywhere you look. We used Galway as a base to explore the region for two days. We started with the magnificent Kylemore Abbey, which was a castle built by a rich doctor in 1868 for his wife and 9 children. In 1920 it was bought by Benedictine nuns and turned into an abbey and school, which only closed 10 years ago. The highlight of the Galway area, however, was definitely the cliffs of Moher. These massive cliffs fall hundreds of meters down to the sea with no railings at all. The views were breathtaking.

We then drove from Galway to Killarney, along the way dropping into the tiny village of Adare, which is lined with thatched cottages. We also dropped into a folk park called Bunratty Park, which contains an ancient castle and fort called Bunratty Castle. While we were coming down a tight spiral staircase in the castle, Lidia placed her hand on the step above her while I was coming down the steps behind her. I didn't see her hand and stepped right on her pinky with my heavy hiking boots. Oops.

We spent the next two nights in Killarney exploring the region, including the Ring of Kerry, a coastal road with both mountain and coastal views across the Atlantic ocean. This was the most picturesque place we had seen so far in Ireland.

On our second day in Killarney I decided I really needed a haircut. My last one was way back in Venice and the locks were getting a little unruly. Our hotel concierge recommended a Turkish Barber shop so I went there. I got the full treatment, including hot, scented towels and a Polish barber named Bart who made a great show of spinning his scissors around his fingers between snips. Partway through the cut he asked if I wanted to do my ears. I said sure and the next thing I knew he had a pair of scissors with a small rag wrapped around the tips. He lit the rag with a lighter and the thing went up like a blowtorch, which he proceeded to press against my ears to burn the ear hairs off! If this wasn't stressful enough, he then asked if I wanted my nostrils waxed. I replied "most definitely not" and he asked a couple more times before asking Lidia. She shot out of her chair like a rocket with a huge smile on her face and said "Absolutely!" a little too enthusiastically for my liking. I finally weakened and said yes, and Bart immediately grabbed a couple of skewers out of a wax pot and shoved them up my nose! If that wasn't embarrassing enough, he left them there and continued with the haircut. I looked like a hairy walrus with these skewers poking out of my nostrils for a full five minutes. He finished the haircut and then ripped the skewers out of my nose, making my eyes water.

After leaving Killarney we headed to Cork. On the way we stopped off at Blarney Castle, home of the famous Blarney Stone. Legend has it that kissing the Blarney Stone gives you the gift of the gab. We waited in the line to get in and when we got to the ticket window, the girl informed us that there was a 2 hour wait to get into the Castle and see the stone. We said "No Thanks" and left Blarney Castle to go to Cork. We checked into our hotel and explored Cork for a while. The weather was a bit crappy, but we managed to see the English Market, the Fort and the Gothic Cathedral. We then headed back to our hotel, picked up the car and drove back to Blarney Castle. Our research told us that it was better to go after 2:00pm and so we waited until 4:00 before going back. When we arrived there was absolutely no wait to get into the Castle. We were so relieved we waited because the Blarney Stone is at the top of the Castle and you have to go up stacks of tight spiral staircases to get there. We thought how unpleasant that would have been in the middle of the enormous crowd that must have been waiting earlier in the day. Anyway, we got to the top of the castle easily and saw the Blarney Stone. The stone is actually one of the bricks that the castle is made from and is positioned in such a way that you have to lay on your back and reach your head way down, stretching your neck to reach the stone upside down, then you plant your lips on the stone. After watching a few people do this and thinking about the 300,000 people who slobber over it each year, we decided it would be healthier not to kiss it ourselves for a superstition we don't believe in anyway, so we were satisfied to have seen it.

The grounds and gardens around Blarney Castle were beautiful, especially the palace called Blarney House that resides in the same grounds. It is a magnificent, turreted palace with gorgeous lavender gardens surrounding it. We spent quite a bit of time exploring the gardens before heading back to Cork.

The next morning we drove back to Dublin via the Rock of Cashel, which is a limestone hill with a bunch of medieval buildings on top of it that was first established in the 1100's. After arriving back in Dublin we went for a walk, checking out Grafton Street which was teeming with people and buskers. We saw the famous statue of Molly Malone before heading back to Temple Bar. Temple Bar is the name of a region where there are lots of ancient pubs, most with live music. One of the pubs is also called Temple Bar and we started in there where there was a live band playing Irish tunes. I enjoyed a Guinness and we sat at a table with a couple from Yorkshire who were celebrating their 31st wedding anniversary and had ducked over to Dublin for the weekend (lucky b*****s). The band were fantastic and we found ourselves singing along to 500 Miles along with the massive crowd in the pub. We then went to another pub called The Quays, where a guitarist was singing popular songs. He was very entertaining and his Disney medley had everyone singing their heads off.

Dublin is famous for it's pubs and cheap alcohol, so it is positively buzzing with hens and stag parties, most of them dressed up in ridiculous costumes. Our next stop was John Fogartys, where there was a guitar and fiddle playing duo. We finished up back at the Temple Bar where a new band was playing traditional Irish instruments. They were fantastic. Then it was back to our hotel for a nightcap of Baileys before hitting the sack for our last night in Ireland.