Finding Moksha: The Emerald Isle

Irish, every knows one, or claims to be one - especially around St. Patrick's day. This year I coincided my trip to the Emerald Isle with Paddies Day and as awesome a day it was, it definitely wasn't the highlight on a 10 day trip that was as relaxing as it was maxing.

I was with a tour for 5 days that took in Dublin for Paddies day, which included O'Connell Bridge for the Parade, Temple Bar into the wee hours, as well as a few warm up drinks the night before in the Guinness Factory.

The following days took us to Galway, Cliffs of Moher, Annascaul, Blarney Castle, Cork and back to Galway. Highlights included seeing Aslan live in Galway, catching Mr. Pussy's comedy act in Annascaul (a one street 3 bar village), a horse and cart ride through the Killarney National Park, kissing the Blarney Stone, and of course all the guys and girls I met along the way. As well as a few crazy Irish people (in particular our bus driver/tour guide "Trooper"). I think my earliest night to bed was St. Paddies day at around midnight, every other night was between 2 and 3am and did involve a stupid amount of drinks and Irish banter. I also think I heard "Galway Girl" played by a pub band about 10 times a night.

After saying goodbye to those kids back in Dublin, I caught a bus cross country back to Galway to rendezvous with my "old friends" and their Wicked van. These 3 girls and 2 guys had had a pretty horrid time whilst I was absent, of the 6 nights already in the van, 3 nights involved all of them basically sleeping on each other due to inclement weather or location (there was a 2 man tent as well which couldn't really be set up in downtown Dublin over Paddies day - ha).

With myself rejoining the team, as well as Jayme's boyfriend Tony rocking up, we tagged out Daniel who went back home to Melbourne and Haz who high tailed it to Greece. Taking over the driving duties in the van was definitely an experience and up there with one of the funnest road trips I've ever done. From Galway we basically snaked our way north into Northern Ireland before arriving in Belfast 5 days later.

Highlights include; our sunset drive on the west coast, Giant's Causeway, Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge, Belfast, and of course all the nooks and crannies that Ireland has to offer.

Special thanks goes to the Wagon guys, especially Team Awesome, as well as my "old" friends in the Wicked Van for an amazing time in the Emerald Isle.