Adventures

Day 5 - Driving from Hoi An to Hue via Hai Van Pass

To get from Hoi An to Hue we had initially wanted to take the train, but then decided renting a motorbike was in the end cheaper, easier and gave us a much better opportunity to actually see something on the way. It is also a bit more risky, because technically it’s illegal to drive a motorbike without a vietnamese drivers license. The Vietnamese don’t care though and rent you one anyways and I guess make a good amount of money with it, because we saw loads of other tourists on scooters.

The day before we had signed up for the bike at Motorvina and when the taxi dropped us off at the Hoi An Office we were immediately shown the 135ccm scooter we had booked. Read our review of Motorvina and why we chose them at the end of the article.

By now I had decided that I am only young once, no risk no fun, so after I told Tim once again to drive extra carefully we finally took off. And in the end I think it must have been one of the best decisions we took and probably was one of our best days in Vietnam. The weather was absolutely perfect - and we had a whole day to drive and explore the country.

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Ireland - Day 2 - Connemara National Park

Our second day in Ireland led us to the Connemara National Park. Located near Letterfrack it was just a really short drive and promised to be a great trip. And it really was. The weather looked like it would give us the rain - sun - rain - wind - rain - treatment again, so we came fully prepared with all our raincoats, rain covers for the backpacks and waterproof hiking boots. We started our hike at the Visitor Center at about 10.30, the sun still shining brightly. After just about fifteen minutes we could see dark clouds coming up and rain poured down on us once again - but this time we were prepared. We stayed mostly dry, and everything else dried with the harsh wind following the downpour.

The ascend of the mountain proved to be really windy, and we decided the warning sign we had seen early did in fact make sense. Todays weather wasn't all that bad though, we arrived at the peak of Diamond Hill in bright sunshine, even though it was still windy. The view was fantastic from up there.

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Ireland - Day 1 - From Dublin to Renvyle

Our day began really early when we left home for the Frankfurt Hahn Airport at about 4:30 am. At the airport everything was pretty uneventful, and soon we were on the plane and in the air. We had a very smooth flight (which I have been told is rather unusual) and a perfect landing in Dublin at about 9.00am local time. Our next step was the rental car pickup at the airport, and then it was Tims job to take us onto Irelands roads. Driving on the left side, of course, as our rental car, navigational systems and multiple road signs told us repeatedly.

Our first stop was Trim Castle, the biggest anglo-american castle...somewhere.

Anyways, it was in fact pretty impressive - and we walked around the castle grounds for quite some time to take our first photos on this trip. It was drizzling most of the time we spent at Trim, but we did not let that darken our mood. We all brought plenty of rain-equipment, because after all, we're in Ireland, what did we expect?

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