13 hours later and I am feeling 100% better. There's something to be said for a good night's sleep and Nyquil.

Anywho, let's start the recap:

Barcelona

I believe I left y'all on Wednesday night, while I was distressing about having broken out in a rash for the second time! Well, in 'mysterious break-out' department, I've had no more surprises...yeah!!!

Wednesday evening we decided to 'go out' with a couple of Americna gals we had met at the dodgy hostel the first night. Because we were all being rather cheap, we decided that going out would involve picking up cheap liquor at the SPAR and drinking on the beach. I bought a one-litre carton of Sangria for 1.50 Euros and was v suspicous that it could taste of anything other than some gross cough medicine. I was wrong, very wrong. It turns outwine really is cheaper than water in Spain..and delicious! We ended up drinking with some very random people we met on teh beach - very random, indeed. One guy was a DJ, another a male stripper. Ahem. We also ended up meeting a guy from Quebec and his French friend. Spanish, French, German and English were all practiced and spoken very poorly that night.

The next day, afer 3 glorious hours of sleep, Jen & I moved to a new pension - a steal at 15 euro each for a private room in city centre!! Let's Go rules! We ended up walking our asses off (literally, I swear I have nothing to sit on now), and eventually found the Olympic Stadium. jen needs some new golas in terms of what she wants to see in a city - how about a church?? More plentiful and centrally located!!! That evening, with cash on the low I decided that Jen & I should go out to eat on my MAstercard. We found a decent deal on Las Ramblas (the tourist street of Barcelona). A three course meal was advertised at 9 Euros. The food was mediocre - nothing amazing, but decent enough after days of bread & cheese diet. The outrgae came, however, when I rec'd teh bill and found we had been charged 4.30 Euro for each Coke Lite we had ordered. That's $6.50 each!! Oh, I was not impressed!

Dublin

Thursday was travel and wait at airport day. The trip was pretty non-eventful, save for hte fact that I forgot I was going to a cooler climate so my tank top did nothing to stop the biting wind at the London Stansted airport. Lovely.

Anyways, I got settled in to my B&B in Dublin and went out to meet a couple of people I needed to see. And, I must say, that while I was apprehensive about my second meet-up of the evening, it was by all accounts, absolutely necessary and entirely successful in abolishing any lingering doubts I may have had. Suffice to say I am finally cured. No more time or energy to be wasted on the undeserving.


Limerick

I was supposed to land in Ennis, but the bloody bus was super late and I was super tired, so I decided to take a B&B in Limerick. My second enticement for staying in Limerick was that Blue Moose was playing in the city that evening!! Unfortunately, they ended up not playing their gig, due to another band already setting up at the venue - a confusion in calendars. They were meant to be playing in Kilkenny. In the end, I tucked myself into bed early and had a good night's rest. The next morn I checked out Limerick, aka 'Stab City' and found it to be less than endearing..except for all the references to Shannon. I took a picture of the River Shannon!

Killarney

I landed here and instantly fell in love with this little town. It is so quaint and Irish, plus it happens to be just adjacent to a huge National Park and some amazing scenery. I wakled through part of the park and checked out a castle. Back at the hostel I met 3 of my roommates and discovered they were from Canada! We all ended up going out on the town and free drinks were served up all evening by Murphy's promoter and high rollers from London.

Yesterday I woke up sick, but went for a tour in Seamus (the Canadian girls' rented car) and did the Ring of Kerry. Spectacular scenery, breathtaking. I wish I hadn't been so sick.

And that leaves me here, on my way to Kilkenny - another long bus trip....yeah!!