When Irish eyes are smiling

The airport was not kind to Annie and Carolyn. The bag and poor packing methodologies resulted in A & C having to pay excess baggage. Pauline got by with the skin of her teeth but with that done we jumped on aer lingus for a really quite nice flight to Cork.
Once there there were lovely reunions all round for Gwen and Pauline and Annie and Dorothy. Gwen now joins the tripsters on our travels in south Ireland. After hugs and kisses we headed off to to battle with the car hire agency. (diabolical) of course none of our bookings were right and all the things we had been assured of in Adelaide were not done in Cork.... But not to worry we got to the car and once we found out how to take the handbrake off we were away. Dorothy so kindly guided us down the N 25 to our home for this week in the charming village of killeagh 12 kms from Youghal
As usual the best part of the day was spent traveling - but once here we made a quick trip to tescos for some g&t supplies we headed back to the very delightful cottage - unfortunately by this stage it had become clear that Pauline had fallen foul of the dreaded bus lergy.... She batted on valiantly - but very sore sinuses and low level nausea was really a horrible way for Pauline to spend her first night in Ireland.
However even with this, the beauty and charm and vivacious greens of this beautiful isle kept us all repeatedly pinching ourselves.
Since being here we have only been met with smiles, conversation and patience ( in relation to cd's driving!) we are all saying that Ireland agrees with us ( even in the midst of a revolting bus lergy).