As most of you know my employment situation has been a little, let's say, nonexistant. To make a long story short, work permits are tough to come by and take a long time to get. I can get a one-year holiday working visa back in Canada, but need to be in Canada to apply for the program. I have a school here that is willing to employ me if I have a visa so... we've decided that if nothing comes up by the middle of April we'll return to Canada for the summer and return in the fall for Kelly to start school and I can finally work.

In the meantime...

Last week our friend Josh Lunn, from Canada, came to visit us. Josh has been studying in Germany for the past year for his architecture program in Dalhousie, NS. Since Kelly had a big exam coming up, out of the goodness of our hearts, Josh and I decided to give Kell some "quality, peaceful study time". I must admit it was very noble of us to give up the apartment and venture out to the harsh Irish environs, looking for ways to pass the time.

Josh and I hopped in Blue Thunder and headed for the northwest coast: Counties Mayo, Sligo, and Donegal. A friend of a friend lent us a couple boards and we were set. We spent the week searching for breaks and hit some solid gold surf spots. Unlike most surfing destinations, the Irish were remarkably friendly and eager to share their coastline, directing us to places we would have never found on our own. When you ask for directions you just better be prepared to chat for the next half hour. Minimum.

Both of us had 5mm wetsuits, booties and gloves. Crucial for the Irish surfer.

Plus it's so darn stylish.

This is Belbulbin, the mountain above Sligo (Sl-eye-go). I think we should name our children after Irish towns but Kelly disagrees. Little Sligo? Not bad. I'll keep working on her.

I love this photo beause the easterly winds were causing the clouds to cascade down the mountain face like a giant waterfall.

If you can believe it, Josh was here for a week and only had two minutes of rain. He even left with a tan. Note: Weather can change any second and we are not responsible for any soggy Irish holidays. People are still recommended to bring rain coats, pants, and umbrellas when visiting us.

How can you disagree with a toucan who has two delicious pints on his beak?!?!

This was the front door to "The Strand", the bar in Strandhill, Co. Sligo.

One of the beaches we surfed at. We were there on a Saturday and shared the entire strand with about 4 other surfers. Plenty of room for everybody to catch all the waves their shoulders could handle.

We saw lots of castles and cool old stuff in between surf sessions.

Rossnowlough, Co. Donegal



Had a great sunset session before heading to Bundoran, Co. Donegal.





I think the hostel we stayed at doubled as a dog pound. Neither of us minded one bit.




NEVER, EVER, THINK IT'S A GOOD IDEA TO HAVE A PINT IN THIS BAR!

Boy was this an experience. Josh and I had just had a great dinner and wanted to catch some good, local Trad music. This bar had a sign advertising live music so we thought to check it out.

Big mistake.

We walk in and notice some stares coming our way as we move to the bar to get a pint. As both of us are devilishly good looking we are used to stares, but this was a little different. We ordered our pints and a woman began chatting up Josh. Next thing we know a man barges up to us and tells us to "F*** Off, F***ing Foreigners". Now this woman, who turns out to be his wife, starts to lay into him about being rude and that we weren't "foreigners" but "Canadians". He apologized and said that he thought we were "F***ing Poles".

Being the peacekeeping Canadians we are, we start to chat up this Angry Man to see what his deal was. As we're talking to the Angry Mana a guy comes around the bar selling newspapers. As Angry Man buys one we notice that everyone around the bar has spent the 2 euro for one. We then notice the heading: "An Phoblacht - A Sinn Fein Publication". We were in an IRA bar!

As all this is happening we're catching on to the lyrics of the "Trad" music being played, all revolutionary, Irish fight songs. Josh then points to the far wall that has photos of the 10 men involved in the hunger strike in the 70's. To top it all off our new buddy, the Angry Man, tells us he lost 2 brothers to the cause and spent 7 years locked up. Just when we finished our pint and were ready to make our escape Angry Man bought us a round. Stuck listening to this man spray the hatred for another beer! We really laughed once we were out but many of our Irish friends were choked that we had to listen to the hatred. They say that you could walk into thousands Irish pubs and never have that experience. Lucky...I guess.

We checked out a hurling match in Sligo on our way home. For those who still think I'm curling over here please check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM-kB1e96CA It is a three part explanation of the sport.

On our way south to Co. Clare we stopped in Ennis to get Josh's passport stamp changed. While waiting I walked down to check out more cool old stuff. This is the Ennis Friary. It was built in 1375 and is home to the Mad Monk, the friary's resident ghost.

Sunset in Lahinch, Co. Clare.

We heard that, on the weekend prior to our arrival, there was over 100 surfers in the water. Really popular with Dubliners out for the weekend. A wide bay with spots for all abilities.

When the swell went flat we decided to see some sights.

Ancient stone fort near Kilfenora, Co. Clare.

Poulnabrone Dolmen, Co. Clare

This is an ancient tomb that was built over 5000 years ago. It's older than the pyramids!

Josh has gone to Amsterdam to complete a 6 month work term with an architectural firm. Kelly has finished her first year of classes and now has a little break before exams.

A few more pictures have been added to the last post....

Snowing in Galway!!! This past weekend was full of crazy weather...rain, snow, hail, wind, sun....Changed every 5 minutes.

A few weeks ago Kelly and I had the opportunity to get out of the "city" for a night. We decided to head to the village of Doolin, considered by many to be a shrine to traditional Irish music.

The drive south was beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that we decided to take many different roads to see more of the countryside.

Riiiight. Okay, we were having some difficulties finding the correct road.

But we did finally get there! Looking for places to camp was tricky as it was still the low season and none of the official sites were open. After finding lots of "no camping" signs we found a hostel where we could camp. We set up our tent in time for the moon to come up.

Then off to a great pub (the one that Kelly and her mom hit up in Sept) and had a nice, slow dinner and some pints. Kelly had a giant plate of mussels and veggie lasagne, I had a delicious seafood chowder and the best fish and chips EVER.

HAPPY PADDY'S DAY!!

We went into town to watch the parade. It was pouring rain and everyone was soaked. It would have been a miracle if the costumes and floats made it through the day.

Practically every school and club in the city puts in an entry.

There was shamrock and green EVERYWHERE!

Once thoroughly soaked we ventured into the King's Head Pub to meet up with friends. The streets were packed with people and the pubs were even busier. Guinness takes forever to pour on a good day so you can imagine the backlog at the bar. We watched the big rugby match as Ireland crushed Italy but then in hurling Galway lost to Dublin. People sure love their sports here, it's madness.

On Sunday we went to a Comedy Club and saw the Canadian Comic of the Year, Sean Collins. He was a gas! His act went over really well with the locals. Nice for us to hear some Canadian humor.

Back to normal for now. This week is study filled for Kelly and more job hunting for me!