Home Again, Home Again Jiggity Jig


Years ago, during our travels when Katie was growing up, we would end trips with what was your favorite part and/or what did you learn.  So, we have been home from Ireland for two weeks, and I feel like I need to answer those questions.

One of the first things I learned in Ireland was about meals.  We ate in both pubs and restaurants.  As you would expect, the pubs tend to be loud, but, to my surprise, so were the restaurants.  Not obnoxious loud; loud with conversations, stories, laughter... It was a beautiful sound.  No one is on cell phones; they are talking to each other and enjoying mutual company.  And the establishments encourage this.  You are not usually given a ticket until you ask for it.  Many times the wait staff leaves you alone, but if you need something, they are not offended if you ask.  I loved the chatter and meals being events to be enjoyed.

Also, we didn't have telephone access and if we needed to get in touch with the non-Ireland world, we had to wait until we had Wi-Fi and communicate through email or Facebook.  I learned to not be so dependent on my phone.  Things I thought I had to share or talk to someone about could wait until night when I was able to communicate. 

The parts where we visited, the Irish were a gracious people and catered to tourists.  Perhaps at times we become overly suspicious of people not like us, and that is all I am going to expound on that subject.

I learned about time.  The Irish are not early risers, but they get a lot done in a day.  I found that by nightfall, which was usually after nine, I was more than ready for bed, having filled my day from rising to falling.  We didn't overly plan our days which meant that we could enjoy each place we visited to the full extent.  I think that was a wise decision.

My favorite part might be a tougher thing to answer.  I spent most of the trip not believing we were actually there.  The beauty, the culture, the atmosphere, it was all so unbelievable.  There were so many moments on the trip that we just stood and absorbed our surroundings, and I saw so many other people doing that.  Cameras and phones down just taking in every sensory image you could.  I loved the farm land, but on the next leg of the journey, I fell in love with the ocean and then the mountains.  I guess my favorite part is actually being able to take the trip that we saved for and share it with my friend, my traveling companion, my partner in crime, my daughter.

-- MW


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ireland --Day 2

Image
Ireland is the vacation place for golfers and in that light, I am keeping score of my driving. Yesterday was two horn honks and one missed round-a-bout turn.  Today, was still one missed round-a-bout but no horn honking. It's good when your score goes down. Today, our first full day in Ireland, was a visit to Limerick to see King John's Castle and St. Mary's Cathedral. The passion of the Irish is evident in their history, their persistence to be their own people with their own culture. And who doesn't love a good story of blood, decapitation, and dead bodies drug from their graves and hung by their heels, only to be found three years later?  The cathedral played a part in the Irish fight for independence, so it was a on today's tour. Incidentally, there were dead bodies in that tour as well, entombed in the cathedral.  We ate at the oldest pub in Limerick, Katie Daley's, and you can venture a guess as to why. And, ended the evening with ice cream and listeni
Read more

Ireland - Day 5

Image
Our new digs for the close of day 5 in Ireland allows us to not only look out onto the ocean but also hear the sounds of cattle roaming the hills of a nearby farm.  I'm pretty sure this resembles my eternal resting place. Today started with us finishing our list from yesterday, a stop at the Gap of Dunloe. The Gap of Dunloe is a narrow mountain pass forged between the MacGillycuddy Reeks and Purple Mountain by glacial flows. Because we weren't allowed to drive from the start of the Gap to view the pass, we decided on a jaunting car (horse-drawn carriage) and not trek the 8-mile round trip. Pretty sure we both were feeling the effects of the 127 steps we ascended and descended for the gift of eloquence at Blarney. Besides our driver said the equine-powered cars had been taking visitors to the gap for 200 years. Pretty sure that was part of the sales pitch. Sally (horse), John (driver), Katie and I trotted, and walked when not coaxed, down to the Gap.  Passing in front of a
Read more

Ireland- Day 4

Image
We began our 4th day in Ireland with an excursion through the narrow back streets of the city of Cork (which, incidentally, the size of the city itself took us by surprise) and paid a visit to Cork City Gaol. In case, like me before planning this trip, the word Gaol is unfamiliar to you, it apparently means prison. It was hauntingly beautiful, and all the stories inside were fascinating. We learned about prisoners that stayed varied lengths of time in there, days to months to years, with various charges, some with only one and some that had racked up some 200. We even learned the story of Countess Markievicz, a revolutionary woman that was once imprisoned there. At the end of our tour, there was a wonderfully done multimedia video presentation in a room that looked like it was once a multi-story tower of some sort. It gave some of the evolution of the prison, and the end presented videos of actors depicting some of the prisoners we learned about. They urge the viewers to remember them,
Read more