"Ireland, a good craic!" a Ireland Travel Page by Pieter11

Everybody knows the cliches about Ireland: green hills everywhere full of woolly sheep, kilometres of celtic walls made of rough granite, old and traditional pubs with old red-haired men drinking their Guinness and a rough Atlantic Ocean throwing its waves against the high cliffs.

Often you are disappointed about this kind of cliches: they often are not as fantastic as you thought they were. In Ireland it is completely the opposite. No matter how great you expected the hills, the walls, the pubs and the cliffs to be: you will still be surprised by their beauty, pureness and authenticity.

To me, Ireland turned out to be one of the most inspiring countries in Europe.

My (first) visit to Ireland was a four-days trip in January 2007. The first day I spent in Dublin, with its famous Trinity College, Dublin Castle and Ha'Penny Bridge.

The second day I rented a car and drove all the way to the west. After visiting Clonmacnoise halfway, I went to Galway and the great Connemara Area northwest from the city. At night I experienced the nightlife of the student-city of Galway.

The day after I travelled south towards a nice little town called Kinvarra, and after entering protected landscape of The Burren I went to the spectacular Cliffs of Moher, and after visiting the cottages of the town of Adare, I went back to Dublin.

The last day was spent in the shopping streets of Dublin, its St. Stephen's Park and one of the many pubs in Temple Bar, before heading back to the Airport and flying back home.