Ireland

Well Dublin what a hoot!
We caught the 45 minute flight from Leeds to Dublin with Ryan air and from the airport made our way by double decker bus to our hostel. On the way we saw a shop front titled 'The money doctor' where i made a fantastic pun which i will now shamlessly retell. 'Hey guys, do you think you could get cheque-ups there?'. Once we got to our hostel it we went out to get something to eat - unfortunately it was about 11 and most things were closed so we went to an Irish fastfood chain - Supermacs! the food was quite expensive - correlating with what the taxi driver told us on the way to the airport. As we started dinner i 'prosted' Anne, which is the German way of Cheersing - but then thought that as we are in Ireland we should do it the Irish way - but we didn't know how to do it, so i asked an dude who was sitting near us 'Excuse me mate' no reply 'Excuse me mate!' still no reply, then he looked at me and said 'did you just say excuse me man (or mate, i wasnt' sure)'
'Yeah'
'you should say sir'
'Oh ok, excuse me sir how do you say cheers in Ireland?'
And he waved away the question and walked away. so i didn't learn at that point how to say Cheers in Ireland, but i did learn that you should say 'sir' not 'mate' when talking to Irish men of about 50 years.
In the morning after a small breaky of dense bread all 12 of us headed out to explore the city. We saw Trinity college - where i got a med student asking for donations to say 'diddle de de Potatoes', the Old Dublin wall, Dublin Castle, Ha'penny bridge - named because it once cost half a penny to cross it and St. Patrick and Christ Church Cathedrals. One (mildly) interesting thing that i noted was that the pedestrian crossing buttons are the same as in Australia and make all the same noises and vibrations - in England and the rest of Europe they have different ones, hmmm. For dinner that night we went to Dublins oldest pub and had a hearty if expensive meal.
The next morning we woke up slighty tired from the big days walking before and headed to the fishing village of Howth where we saw seals in the little harbour. We also saw some caves along the rocky shore which we explored, before having a mighty lunch at a small cafe/restaraunt - it was fantastic! The team then split up a bit more and Ben, Celine, Andii, Jean, Joe and myself went to Bray - another village on the other side of Dublin about an hours nice train ride from Howth. Once there we walked along the shoreline and then climbed up a hill that had its peak covered by clouds. It was an epic climb but we all made it! On the way back down Ben and I had an extreme run down - very cool! That night we ate in the hostel and then went to the Temple Bar district and saw some live music. At the second place we went to they were playing Irish music and i requested as song that i had first heard when i was a little kid on the 'modernday swaggies' tape that my parents played a bit. It was a collection of Australian folk songs - and one of them was Irish - so i requested it.
"I tell my maa when i go home,the boys won't leave the girls alone"
And they played it and it was awesome! Yah!
The next morning we caught a taxi to the airport and flew back - this time with the nice view of the country side!
The whole weekend cost me about €180 which i guess isn't too bad. It was a great time!