Vacation to the Emerald Isle

Though most of our summer consisted of visitors coming to see us, we also took advantage of visiting a good friend while she was visiting her motherland of Ireland.  We spent 5 days in Ireland this past week and thoroughly enjoyed the friendly people of the Emerald Isle.  Most of our time was spent in Galway, on the western coast, where our friend Ann's family was from.  We toured the Cliffs of Moher, which were breathtaking.  Our bus tour brought us back through the Burren and the narrow and winding roads so typical of Ireland.

Ann took us to see Trad on the Prom, a performance highlighting the traditional music and dancing of Ireland, which was definitely a highlight of our time in Galway.  Ann took us to some amazing restaurants and showed us some of her favorite parts of Galway, including walking along Galway Bay at dusk.

We spent our last afternoon in Dublin seeing some of the historic sights there.  We had a lovely time in Ireland!  What a difference it makes traveling with someone familiar with the country you're in, especially when you get to meet the native people and they're so friendly and welcoming  =)  And once again, Ireland is on our list of places to return to someday!

Here's a link to our Ireland pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/101852905683847445633/Ireland2012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNDAsNG8iIGnQw&feat=directlink

We are moving this weekend to our 3rd apartment in Sweden.  It is a temporary apartment because by October we're moving yet again to what will hopefully be a more permanent place for the remainder of our stay in Sweden.  Thankfully, we have helpful friends to assist with the move, as well as not many things to move!