Well i have had two trips to Ireland now in four years and i want to go back now already. First trip experiences here in this post.  By the way.... I love telling stories and love my experiences of Ireland. My first big overseas trip was in 2010. I dont count the trips to Australia as that is just a hop step and jump across the ditch and was mainly work related. so in 2010 i ventured off to Ireland (alone), amongst a few stop overs and sight seeing trips. Once in Ireland, which was all preplanned with my travel agent, i settled down into my room, did a quick sight seeing trip to get my bearings and hired a rental car. Needed this to get to the ancestoral places. I had done some research from home (NZ) mainly in the last year cos the 29 years before that was hard yakker when family members did not know anything as their father never talked about IReland or his family. There were heresay things that i have since found out were a bit garbled and have got to the bottom of most of it. That in itself is another story. It was well worth it to have done as much as i could in the way of research even tho i knew i had a long way to go to find out more, but it was a good starting point. As my ancestors were from Limerick i stationed myself in the city and visited the Library and spoke to one really helpful man who sent me out to see another man at a outlying library. He was super good. We talked about my gt grandparents and he directed me to where they came from. So following his directions i ventured out to the areas of Shanagolden, Newcastle West, Old Mill, Dunganville, Knocknabooly, Ballyhahill etc. I didnt expect to meet any living relatives but on a whim i decided to ask at Old Mill if anyone knew of the farm of the family i was looking for. Here my world expanded into the biggest most exciting and thrilling part of my journey, which would begin another enormous journey. I was told the family were still living there so after directions to the farm i go and knock on the door. A man opened the door and i asked was he part of the family i was looking for. He looked very surprised and suspicious. LOL. I then asked if he had a great aunt by the name of Anastasia to which he replied yes. i then told him i was her great grand-daughter. Well...hello... my goodness...it was party time. Everyone thought the family line had died out when all the children of Anastasia & Michael passed away as none of them had any children. it was thought my grandfather left Ireland for NZ, joined up with the Army and went to fight in WW1 where he was killed. The other siblings never had any children, that was known for sure. My grandfather was not killed but severely injured at Gallipoli. He was eventually sent back to NZ where he married and had five children. Still having not contact with his family in Ireland. Well i got to meet my maternal side of my grandfathers family and heaps of cousins. One came from Carlow to show me around the place while another from NewCastle West joined us in our trips around the country side looking at cemeteries and possible farm houses where my great grand parents may have lived. We had a massive ball over three days as these two cousins were also family historians and we swapped stories and info. Suffice to say i told them i needed to get back to my hotel as i was going to be heading back to NZ the day after. Oh boy what a shock i got when i got back to my room. It was the next day i was leaving....aarrrggh. a lot of hurried packing and goodbyes were needed with the promise of coming back. This is just a very brief part of what happened. I told u i loved to tell stories. I think maybe i should start a blog. Anyway this will do for now. Will take a break and start more of my interesting journey around Ireland later