We have arrived in our new home city!

We have finally arrived in Cork City, on the south coast of Ireland, where we will be beginning our work abroad experience. We had intended to settle down much sooner than this, but once we started travelling, it was hard to stop. There is so much of this continent to see, and we have big plans for after we work in Ireland, but for now we are focused on different priorities: becoming part of our new Irish community!

We arrived in Dublin on November 10 after spending a relaxing and much appreciated week with Gren and Beryl in Cheshire, UK. In Dublin, we hooked up with a load of kids from the hospitality club from all over the world: France, New Zealand, Poland, Ireland, and other places, and they gave us a ton of advice about working and living in Ireland. Our sweet host from France, Caroline, helped us to get a cell phone (we cracked under the European cell phone pressure - not only does everyone have one, some people have more than one!... anyone who wants our number, send us an email) and she helped us get Mike's long-anticipated new bike (that just might be better than the one that was stolen in Canada! - we are using three locks now, hope we keep this one for a bit longer than the last one). We went to see the Book of Kells and of course toured the Guinness brewery, and we had so much fun getting acquainted with Ireland's pub culture. It is just how we imagined it: nearly every night there is a pub exploding with traditional music, while Paddy (red curly hair, wool knit sweater, rubber boots) drags his chair up to Mike and they cheers their Guinnesses and toast to the rainy weather. OK, that was only once so far, but we anticipate this to happen many times over the coming year.

We were stoked to begin cycling the 250 kms from Dublin to Cork, along Ireland's east coast, seeing as this was intended to be a cycling trip and we had barely even gotten on a bike in the last 3 months. The first three days were gorgeous, tough, but worth it. We cycled over the Wicklow Mountains to the south of Dublin (we kept seeing those mountains on Dublin's horizon and prayed that we would be skirting around them, but our cycling guide book had bigger visions for us). The misty peaks were blanketed by a huge bog; almost no other people, just old stones, green cliffs, and purple, brown and green heather and moss, and we watched the clouds tumble down into the valleys below, dotted with sheep and stone fences. I only fell headlong into the bog once, and considered myself lucky as it was probably the best place in the country to fall: the "Featherbed Bog". Our second morning, we visited the misty ruins of an early-Christian monastic city from the first part of the previous millenia, and met an old man; he had wine corks in his ears and a twinkle in his eye and as he zipped past us on his old, green bike, we could only attribute his odd spryness to leprochaunacity. Every field is green and lush, and fences in sheep or sometimes cows or horses, and in the dusk we startled deer and grouse from the ditches. We reached the coast that day at Courtown, and the next day cycled past thatch-roofed, white-washed stone houses, and stopped on the beach where they filmed the opening scenes of "Saving Private Ryan".

That night we slept in Wexford, and stayed for three days as Mike's knee was bothering him a bit, so we decided to take a break. It was a neat area and we visited a little, traditional fishing village and watched the fishermen preparing their boats on the harbour, skirting around the giant seal lounging on the dock.

As Mike's knee needed a little more time to heal (it will be fine, just a little over-worked), we ended up taking a bus the remaining distance to Cork. Now we are staying with a great hospitality club couple who are helping us get set up in our new city. We are excited to be getting a place and we are scoping out the job market and feeling quite positive about our prospects.

Take care and we will keep everyone updated as our situation unfolds!

P.S. Check out Paul's journal as he tramps about Asia: http://www.paulcoyle.com/