Buon giorno from Italy

Greetings from Italy - sunny days, amazing shops, stunning looking Italians and best of all good coffee! The countryside is amazing and the villages beautiful. I am going to have to backtrack to 23 June. Internet access for any length of time has been a problem and some computers (like this one at the laundromat) are decidedly dodgy! I can't access my hotmail from here. I think it thinks I should be speaking Italian but at least I can access my blog! I will now backtrack and at least do a few days at a time and maybe continue this from an easier access point - a laundromat is probably not the best option after all! Training has been difficult as we seem to be constantly on the go. Now however we are in Florence for nearly a week so maybe we will improve. At this stage although we are walking heaps and heaps running days have been few and far between.

Now I will go back to where I last entered my log.

Thursday 23 June - still in Ireland
This morning we did go for an early morning run of nearly 8km along a country lane with 'fresh' country smells - even a bunny rabbit crossed our path. Later we drove to the Rock of Cashel where we went for a guided tour of the remains of the 12th century castle - fascinating history and beautiful grounds. From there we drove on to Dublin where our B & B was like a hotel. After the peaceful Irish countryside and villages we found Dublin very big and busy and not nearly as attractive as the smaller towns. However the atmosphere was exciting and that night we went on a Musical Pub Crawl - such fun. We were taken to three different pubs and listened to an Irishman play his guitar accompanied by his mate on a piano accordian. He told us many stories and amusing anecdotes and bit of history of Irish traditional music. We joined in singing some of the songs he taught us and it was loads of fun.
Sight of the night: On our long walk back to the hotel at nearly midnight we spotted a cyclist in dark clothing with no lights, no helmet, cycling along a busy Dublin street with a lighted cigarette in one hand!

Friday 24 June
This morning we walked into Dublin city and browsed round the shops. After lunch we went on a guided tour of Trinity College which is part of the Uni of Dublin. The tour included entry into the Book of Kells which is the version of the New Testament written by the monks in the 3rd century. This building also housed the Book of Armagh written by different monks and a library with a copy of every book printed and published in the UK and Ireland. Interestingly these books are sorted in size order to save space so as a consequence are almost impossible for students (or anyone else) to access - sound Irish to you?
We flew back to London from Dublin that evening and our flight was delayed an hour. Then after boarding and everyone was settled on the plane we were all requested to produce our boarding passes again as there was an extra passenger on board. Thus we had another 20min delay - Ryannair of course! Friday night is not the best time to travel - the plane was very full again. Finally after a long queue at Heathrow we collected our hire car - a blue Fiat Pronto this time and drove back to Epsom by about midnight.

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