Did you miss me?

So it turns out that without someone pestering me to do this I don't get around to it for a very long time. And since Catie is usually the one doing the pestering and she has been with me for the last few weeks and therefore knows everything that I've been doing she hasn't been pestering me. Until the last few days when I have been talking about how I really need to write a blog and then admitting that I haven't done it yet.
But since I made it to Canada there isn't as much to tell you about. There have been great things happening but things like playing cards with family, going to movies and reading stories to children, while fantastic when you are there, don't make for as interesting tales for a blog. So despite the fact that there has been such a long gap since the last one (I shouldn't have suggested that one was the biggest gap. That was just challenging me to have a bigger one. And I succeeded) there isn't actually all that much to say.
There is a bit more to say about Europe though.
We had 3 more days in Ireland after my last post. Which really wasn't enough time. We only managed to get to Cork (with a morning excursion to Blarney) and Galway. I definitely am going to have to go back there some day with more time. We did at least get to see a fair bit of the country on the buses in between. Of all the places I've been to it was the most like New Zealand in terms of landscape. It's New Zealand with castles.
Cork was lovely. We took a bus out to Blarney and saw the castle, poison garden and a cycle race. And yes I did kiss the blarney stone. It just seemed so ridiculous to have to hang upside down off the top of the castle to do it that I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I still have no idea why they would put it there. It supposedly already had an impressive history before it got there and if you were given a fancy historically significant stone wouldn't you put it somewhere a little more accessible?
The grounds were beautiful as well but unfortunately we didn't really feel like we had the time to explore it properly. There are caves and druid remnants somewhere but we only had time to wander through the poison garden (yes, it's exactly what it sounds like).
When we got back to Cork we wandered the town. Saw the pretty churches and streets and rivers. Found an adorable cafe. Passed some people dancing to a busker on pan pipes.
The next morning we started early to get a glimpse of the much lauded English Market before catching the bus to Galway.
Galway was also fantastic in a vague just meandered aimlessly the whole time way. It has a river and a few canals that turn into a bay. It's an area where people still speak Gaelic and home of the claddagh ring so there's a stronger Irish culture there. But we didn't do anything specific, just walked around the old town and stopped by the main sights. We also stopped by the most modern cathedral in I forget which geographical area. Possibly they said all of Europe. I forget. It was pretty and cathedral shaped and had a sign for coeliac communion. Which I though was amazing. And we found the nun's island and the Spanish arch.
But we weren't there for long and the next day we got on another bus back to Dublin airport to fly back to London. We only had one more night there and then early the next morning we had to head back to Heathrow to fly to Toronto. Because it was cheaper for me to do my whole trip as a return ticket to Germany I had to fly to Frankfurt first and then on to Toronto. Which was a bit odd. Especially since there were strikes of some sort in Frankfurt and my flight there was delayed to the point where I ended up with only 30 minutes to get from one plane to the other, including going back through security. I walked very quickly and made it there with more than half of the boarding already done.
And then I got to Toronto. And since then I have been catching up with family and friends and generally doing things that are not so adventurous. And that will continue for the next few weeks. But in early April I will be doing a bit more adventuring before heading home so maybe there will be a few more stories to tell.