Alanna Scully Photography

Hi everyone…. wow, I can’t believe it’s been so long since I blogged. I was so proud of myself in the beginning of my trip for staying on top of it, but the past few weeks have felt very go, go, go, and I seem to never have the downtime to write like I want to; not just here, but also in the personal blog I’ve been keeping to document my journey. This post is a bit different, and it’s been a long time coming… I’ve had it in my head for weeks, and to be honest, it’s changed shape quite a bit since I first wanted to write, but I still wanted to reach out and connect with you guys, and share what’s been going on here since April 15th.

When I left Cork, I was lucky enough to have a friend from college with me, who accompanied me to my next destination, which was Killarney. We had a fabulous day together that Monday, shopping at the Blarney Woolen Mills and kissing the Blarney Stone, something that’s on my life-long bucket list and so I was thrilled to get a chance to do it. When we got to Killarney, it was raining like crazy, and so after a few minutes of menu shopping, we chose a restaurant and settled in for a nice meal. We were having good craic together, just the two of us, and since it was raining so hard, we were exhausted, and we were planning on doing the Ring of Kerry the next day, we decided to just stay in at the B&B that night. I think Caty was checking her phone to see what the weather was going to be like that day, and that’s when she told me the unthinkable: that a bomb had just gone off at the Boston marathon. She quickly started surfing through different media sites, and it was so new that we literally watched on our phones as it started popping up on CNN and MSNBC. We couldn’t believe it. We were shocked, we were upset. We immediately started Facebooking and texting anyone we could think of that might be there, as Marathon Monday is huge in Boston and both of us have friends and family that might be there watching. We left the restaurant and on the way out started somehow talking to two American girls who were walking in. They mentioned they were from Boston, that they went to BU, and we asked them if they had seen the news. They couldn’t believe it either and immediately got out their phones to start doing what we had been doing- contacting loved ones. That’s when we learned a second bomb had just gone off.

Disbelief. Just utter, complete disbelief is what you feel when something like this happens so close to your home, while you’re so far from it. The drive back to the B&B was silence mixed with the obvious questions. Who could do this? How could they do this? How many people do you think are hurt? Will they be okay? Will Boston be okay? Will this absolute evil and madness ever, ever end?

When we got back, we were glued to the television set. We watched the chaos unfold on video playbacks and saw still life pictures that looked like a war zone in Afghanistan, not the streets of Boston. I don’t think I’ll ever get that image of Jeff Bauman out of my head. I don’t think any of us ever will.

I was so glad to have Caty there with me at that moment, because I know she was feeling just as helpless as I was. A few minutes later, though, is when I got another dose of horrible news: my sister wrote to me to let me know that my Uncle Michael had been diagnosed with stage III lung cancer. And at that moment, I was overwhelmed. I was scared. I wanted to scream and cry myself to sleep and just like that, I didn’t want Caty there, I just wanted to have a private meltdown and I wanted to sob into my pillow and I wanted to wake up and somehow be at home again with family and friends who would all be safe and cancer-free and Marathon Monday, 2013, would never have happened.

When we woke up the next day, Caty and I had breakfast and of course, the topic of conversation was Boston. It was hard, for days, to talk or think about anything else. But it was also a beautiful day in Ireland, the kind that happens like twice a year here, and so we decided we had to push everything aside and make the most of it. There was nothing we could do from here anyways, so we decided not to be frivolous and waste such a amazing day, which really at that moment felt like a gift from God. We decided to drive the Ring of Kerry, and since we didn’t know how long the nice weather would last, we skipped showering and got right into the car with our cameras and set out on the Ring. And every few minutes, we would talk about Boston. We would talk about the victims. And every few stops, we would spend some time sitting on rocks overlooking the ocean, and I would close my eyes, feel the breeze in my hair, and say a silent prayer for the city of Boston and all those in it who had their lives turned upside down.

It’s hard to describe the emotions from that day. Sadness? Yes, definitely. Continuing disbelief was also still there. Anger at the bombers, and anger at God, for letting such horrible things happen to good people, innocent people. But there were also moments of that day, several moments, of happiness. Pure happiness. Because I can’t describe the beauty of Ireland, and the beauty of the Ring of Kerry, and I was so happy to have a friend to share it with. And I did find myself feeling guilty about the happy moments that day.

After that, things went from bad to bad. A camera of mine ended up in the ocean and I lost some pictures, and a photographer friend who I was supposed to travel with canceled her trip to Ireland. The cancellation was absolutely and completely understandable, and I really was just thrilled she was okay; she was only a mere 100 feet from the second bomb when it went off. Nonetheless, with all these things happening, I missed home and family and friends so much, and I didn’t want to be here anymore. At all. And I did start looking at plane tickets home. But to make a long story short (too late) I decided to stay and finish my trip. And I am ecstatic, absolutely ecstatic, that I did. I rode a donkey. Yup, absolutely crazy thing to do because it’s so random, but I did. I ended up staying at a working farm in Dingle, which was the coolest experience. I made some new American friends and got to interact with a wild dolphin, up close and personal, which was absolute magic. I took a ferry to the Aran Islands, where I saw some of the most beautiful scenery in Ireland, and where, yes, I met a nice Irish gentleman. I did all of these things that I would have never had the chance to do before, and probably won’t again. And even on the crappiest days, the ones where I was still feeling very alone and unsure, I was able to find happiness when I really looked for it. I think it’s been a good reminder for myself…. that it may not always be obvious, but it’s always there. You just have to find it.

I’ve still been following the Boston story and I see survivors on the news every day that inspire me beyond words, and so I wanted to take a moment in this post to let everyone know that in order to raise money for the One Fund, I will be placing a gallery of photos I’ve taken in Ireland up when I return home. Prints will be available in all different sizes, as well as canvas wraps and a few other products, and all proceeds will be donated directly to the One Fund. Now hopefully there will be some prints that will go well in people’s homes… I’ll have to stop taking so many cow, sheep and horse pictures and focus more on landscapes in my last month here

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I miss you all more than I could say, and I can’t wait to see you in a couple months time. For now, I leave you with a picture of me, happy, enjoying that beautiful day on the Ring of Kerry.

XO.

I swear, I tried to make this blog post a lot shorter than the last novel I wrote. “Tried” being the key word

My time in Cork is almost up, and today marks one month since I’ve been in Ireland. One month! I can’t believe it. It really is flying by, which is both good and bad. Good because I miss my friends and family, and I’m excited to get home and start a new chapter in Vermont. Bad because I know I’m going to miss this place, and because I put so much planning and effort into this trip that I wonder what I’m going to focus on when I get back.

I was hoping this trip would help guide me into a decision about photography, but so far I haven’t had a big a-ha moment. Some days, it’s been great to have my camera and discover the city through my lens. Others, the light is so flat and dull here that it has frustrated me and sent me into a “I’m the crappiest photographer ever” tizzy. It comes and goes. I hope to be able to keep doing wedding and portrait photography, at least long enough for me to figure out what my career path will be once I am settled in Vermont.

Cork has been interesting and I’d say the gamut of emotions has been run here. It took me about two full days to adjust to life here, but once I did, the time here flew by and I know it’s going to be very hard to leave on Monday. I have really gotten used to life here with Sean, the typical Irish paddy who says “top of the morning to you” to everyone on the street and could make you smile on the darkest of dreary days here in Ireland with his endless stories, and his wife Julia, who transplanted from Germany and is one of the most quietly charming people I’ve ever met. Dinners here were full of great conversation, and between myself, one student from Taiwan and another from France, Julia representing Germany and Sean the only true “Corkonian”… well it was basically like a meeting of the United Nations on a few occasions.. It’s been wonderful having a “family” to come home to and I know I will miss it a lot.

I will also miss the friends I’ve made in Cork, who have made my time here infinitely more enjoyable. Within the first couple of days, when I realized how many transplants there are in this city and how hard it was going to be to meet people my age, I joined a few Meetup groups and went to a few events. One group in particular was great for me, as it was a group of expat women, and most are in my age range, so I was thrilled to have found them and gotten to do a few meet ups and get to know some great ladies. It’s been really hard having my girlfriends so far away, so it was nice to have other girls to go out with and chat to about big things like life in Ireland, but also little things like the hard water making my hair crazy or how the girls here who wear 7 inch heels on the cobblestone are basically insane.

When I first arrived in Cork, I remember cringing realizing how much of a city it actually is. I have never been a city person and I thought for sure I’d end up lost every day, or I would feel unsafe, or I would just absolutely hate it. Nothing could have been further from the truth, once I walked around and figured out which areas to stick to and which to avoid. On Good Friday, the hop on/ hop off tour was only 5 euro, as opposed to 14 euro, so I spent the day riding around and learning about the city. I did a fantastic tour at the Cork City Gaol (or Cork City Jail, as we would spell it) and I also visited the Crawford Gallery, another great thing to do here and the price is right: FREE. Being a tourist on a fixed budget, free is music to my ears, and I’m trying to soak up as much free as possible in Ireland

The English Market is also free and it became one of my favorite places to go while I was here. I would probably compare it to the Seattle Fish Market, if I had ever been there. In Boston, it’s most comparable to Faneuil Hall, although Faneuil Hall has a lot more prepared food, where the majority of the English Market is things that you take home and prepare. Nonetheless, I’ve found myself wandering it almost every day, just for the sights and smells and sounds of it. I’ve eaten at the Sandwich Stall and the Farmgate Market upstairs… Both excellent and I find it a relaxing place, one that I’m definitely comfortable enjoying alone, which isn’t always the case when dining here.

Just as I enjoyed the best fish and chips Dublin had to offer, I headed to Jackie Lennox’s in Cork and enjoyed the best fish and chips this city has to offer. Have you ever watched a food competition, or competitive eating I guess it’s called? You know how the competitor starts off strong and then halfway through sometimes takes a deep breath in and you can tell that they actually want to die but instead they just shove another hot dog in their mouth in hopes for the crown, or the ribbon, or whatever it is they get when they win? This process would basically describe every meal I’ve had in Ireland, only I’m not competing to win a crown; I’m simply trying not to get yelled at by whoever is serving me for wasting food. It happened in Dublin and was quite traumatizing, and so I’ve been trying to avoid it ever since. At Jackie Lennox’s, there was no choice, there was absolutely NO CHANCE of finishing the portion they served me. And I got garlic and cheese chips… My GAWD. Delicious but absolutely gluttonous, and I barely put a dent in them.

Moving off from food, because I have done other things in Cork besides eat…. I took some fabulous day trips from here and Cork is really a great location to explore the southwest of Ireland. I took a day tour of West Cork that included the Gougane Barra in Macroom, the Mizen Head Peninsula, and a few small towns like Bantry and Clonakilty. Mizen Head was absolutely fantastic and the drive there was breathtaking. I almost wished I wasn’t on a tour and could have had my own car, because there were plenty of photo opportunities on the drive there. Once we got there, I paid the 6 euro for the scenic walk out to the lighthouse, but I don’t think very many of us on the tour actually made it that far. The wind was absolutely incredible and literally made your ears ring.

I also learned my way around the Bus Eirann busing system (no easy feat, if you ask me) and took day trips to Kinsale and Midleton, to visit the Jameson distillery. Kinsale was amazing and if I ever got the chance to come back to Ireland again, I would make sure to spend a few days there. Midleton was a nice, quiet town, with the beautifully kept Jameson distillery right in the middle. I really enjoyed the tour there and got picked as one of 8 volunteers at the end to do a whiskey tasting… So yeah… I wasn’t feeling any pain by the time I left there

Other don’t misses in Cork:

-Ringing the bells and climbing the clock tower at Saint Anne’s Church. It’s quite a terrifying climb so I don’t recommend if you have any problem with heights, but the rewarding views at the top made this one of my favorite moments here.

-The Bookshop Coffee House on Pembroke Street. Housed in the old Cork city library, I fell in love with this place…. HARD. The food isn’t spectacular, but it’s a perfect place for curling up with a coffee or tea and reading or doing some blogging. There are overstuffed old ornate chairs that look like they came from the original library, and a super comfy couch that I sank right into. Literally if it as socially acceptable I would have taken off my shoes on several occasions and stretched my feet on the couch. Damn social norms, spoiling all the fun.

-Butler’s Chocolate Cafe. This place is next to the GPO (general post office… check me out talking like a Corkonian) on Oliver Plunkett and oh em geeeeeeeee…. Their hot chocolate is the absolute best. A friend from home had suggested it to me, and once I popped in it was all over. Have I mentioned I’ve gained ten pounds since I’ve been in Ireland?!?! I would attribute 8 of those pounds to how much hot chocolate I’ve drank at this place. My favorites: the mint and the cookie hot chocolates. Oh and did I mention each drink comes with a free truffle of some kind? THANK YOU BUTLERS FOR ENSURING I’LL HAVE TO ENROLL IN PLUS SIZE DATING IN ORDER TO FIND A HUSBAND SOMEDAY. Appreciate that.

-Scoozi’s and Electric. My favorite restaurants in Cork. I went to Scoozi’s on a date, and while I didn’t immediately fall in love with the date, I did immediately fall in love with this place. The atmosphere is great, the wait staff is friendly, and the food is yummmmm. Same goes for Electric, which is on the South Mall and overlooks the river. I might say that I liked the food at Scoozi’s better, but then again Electric did have creme brûlée, sooooooo let’s call it a draw.

-Trad sessions, anywhere in the city. My favorite was at the Oliver Plunkett, but basically all over the city they have trad on certain nights. I did a stop at the tourist office when I first arrived, and one of the brochures they have me was for “Lee Sessions”, and it listed out bars that had trad every night of the week. So helpful when you came to Ireland to get away from Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber music, and you didn’t expect to hear it over here as well

-Arthur Maynes. Dude, best wine bar EVER! I’m not even kidding, I’m not that into wine, and I adored this place. It’s housed in an old chemist shop, or pharmacy, and the atmosphere is perfect… old apothecary bottles behind the bar, bookshelves filled with old chemist books, tapered candles dripping wax onto the wine bottles holding them. But here’s the modern awesomeness part: on the wall, there’s about 30 bottles of wine in this high tech machine. You buy a card, put say 20 euro on it, and then insert the card into the machine. You put your glass under the wine you want to try, select how much you want (a quarter of a glass might cost 2 euro, a half glass 4 euro and some change, etc.) and voila! Wine pours from the spout into your glass, and you get to sample as many different kinds of wine as you want without committing to a full glass until you know you like it. I LOVE THIS PLACE. I immediately thought of my stepmom, as she is kind of a wino, and I know she would go nuts for this. I sampled 4 different bottles and they were all delicious.

-University College Cork. Or Harry Potter World, the sequel. Okay, I actually know nothing about Harry Potter World, but walking around this campus, you’d probably be able to tell why I said that. The buildings are just gorgeous and have this old world feel… The architecture is amazing and really gives you the true, old collegiate experience. Of course it started to pour when I tried to take pictures there, but you’ll see one of the buildings in one of the collages below. The one that looks like a castle with three people walking towards it… Yup, just another building at UCC. Awesome place!

-Cork Butter Museum. Just kidding. You can totally miss this

Two more days in Cork and then I’m off to Kerry! I’ll be in Killarney for 5 days, Dingle for 5 days, and then up the coast to Doolin and the Aran Islands. Thanks for reading my little adventures… be back to blog in a week or two!

Last Tuesday morning, I picked up a rental car in Dublin city centre for 6 days on the road. I’m not going to lie to you- I was TERRIFIED about driving here. I literally asked the Hertz guy, “so has anyone ever totaled their rental car?” I think the question made him a bit uneasy, but I felt like it was legit:). Driving here presents so many differences and I was nervous to say the least. But by the second day, I wasn’t worried about the driving at all because I felt like an old pro. I mean, Hertz might disagree since I brought their car back pretty banged up, but more on that later. I will say I got out of Dublin just fine and made it to my next stop, which was Enniskerry.

Enniskerry is a quaint little village and one that’s definitely worth a stop off. If you like history you’ll love the Powerscourt Estate, which is where I spent the very cold, snowy morning. Fans of Irish movies will recognize the name as Gerry’s hometown from PS I Love You and also as a scene from Leap Year was filmed here, when Amy Adams gets their coffee while Declan is asleep on the bench. Yes, I have movie issues. What do you expect??? I’ve been single for like 100 years, this is what happens. Moving on…

I should mention that this is the point of the beginning of the trip that I fell for the first time. Actually, that’s a lie, it was probably like the 3rd slip, but the first legitimate fall. The stones that line the roads and walkways here are so slippery, especially when it’s wet, that I went down like the Titanic (probably a very bad joke to make around here) and it took me a good four minutes to get up off the ground. And immediately my knee was bothering me but I didn’t realize how bad it was until I got my jeans off later. HUGE bruise, with a huge gash in the middle, which lead to a huge scab that’s still there, and still as I write this a week later, my knee is killing me. I feel it with every step I take, especially when I’m doing stairs. I’m hoping I didn’t do any permanent damage. Damn slick Irish roads.

After Enniskerry, I headed to Wicklow for my first B&B stay. I will say I was a bit nervous and didn’t really know what to expect, as I’ve never stayed in a B&B alone before, much less in a different country. And my GPS started making me mad at this point- it’s great, even on back roads, until you get to the town… There’s no house numbers in Ireland so I can only put in a fake number and then the street. And some of these streets go on forever and are separated by roundabouts, so Wicklow was my first experience getting all the way into the town, and then getting lost for an hour. Lovely.

Anyways, my first B&B stay at Drom Ard was great and Catherine, the proprietor, was incredibly friendly and welcoming, as was her adorable dog Holly who made me miss Lola so much. That night I had my first dinner out alone, and I have to say it went much better than my first lunch out alone. The bartender was a super friendly Irish girl and the presence of a couple other people there alone made me feel a bit better. I knew this aspect of the trip would be easier away from the big cities.

The following day I had a gorgeous breakfast at the B&B, the dining room looking over all of Wicklow and the water in the short distance. I asked Catherine whether there was a walking beach and she directed me to Brittas Bay. It was a great, dry morning (one of three I’ve seen in Ireland so far, today included) and I walked along the beach and collected some beautiful stones and stuck my feet in the Irish Sea. With my socks on. Seriously, don’t ask.

I ended up doing a lot that day, and it was grand. I drove partway through the Sally Gap, which was beautiful but still somewhat covered in snow and so it was incredibly terrifying to drive. I hiked through Glendalough, which was lovely, and saw some monastic ruins. Leaving there, I happened upon the Wicklow Gap and learned that it was the quickest way to Kilkenny from where I was, so I was thrilled. It was an absolutely gorgeous drive and I highly recommend it to anyone coming to Ireland and renting a car. I can’t even imagine how beautiful it is in the summer (actually I don’t have to imagine it, cause the scene from PS I Love You filmed here was obviously filmed in the summer when all the flowers were out… like I said, movie issues). It was gorgeous and brought me down through an old village called Hollywood and all the way to Kilkenny, which has been my favorite part of Ireland so far.

In Kilkenny, I stayed at a place called Newlands Lodge, and honestly I could write an entire blog post about how wonderful it was. From the minute I arrived, Mairead and Jimmy welcomed me into their fabulous home, which is in the country outside of the center of Kilkenny. They built it specifically with the B&B in mind, and every last detail was perfect. When she showed me to my room, I couldn’t believe I got to stay there. I had a huge bed, and in any other place that would overtake the room, but these rooms were HUGE and spacious and well decorated, with huge windows that let in lots of light. The view from my windows was the cow pastures all around the lodge, and I was in heaven. Heaven.

What was originally supposed to be my only full day in Kilkenny was actually spent in co. Tipperary, visiting the Rock of Cashel. This was absolutely beautiful, and worth the visit, but let me tell you- heed the warning if someone tells you it will be a windy day there. It was possibly the windiest experience I’ve ever had…. and I lived in Nashville during a tornado. I was literally clinging to a tombstone to keep from going over the side. I did get to see the Scully monument my dad had told me about there, so I was happy about that. Needless to say, I didn’t last as long as I would’ve liked there, and by the time I got down from the ruins I was miserable and wanted to be back in cozy Newlands Lodge, so I didn’t get to explore Cashel, which looked like an adorable little town.

That night I headed to Kytelers Inn for the second night in a row. The first night I had a great time and got to chatting with two of the bartenders, so it was nice to have a familiar place the next night. I ended up making some friends from the states, one who is studying in Dublin and his girlfriend who was over visiting him. They were super nice and actually asked me to go out bar hopping with them, although I did bail because I’m an old lady and it was about midnight by the time we left there. I turn into a pumpkin at midnight

I should take this moment to mention to all my friends back home who were positive I was going to meet someone on this trip: friends, it’s simply not going to happen. Everyone here goes out soooooo late! It’s absolutely crazy to me. All the timing is different and I’m still not used to it, but people don’t tend to eat dinner here until 8, then from what I’m told, people my age will go to a friends house for 9, stay there til 11:30 (or half eleven as they say here), get to the pubs for midnight, and go home around 3:00. Lana’s Old Lady Timeline: eat dinner at 6:30, force myself to stay out for drinks until 10:00, get back and be in bed by 10:30. The road to dying alone continues…

Anyways, just as my day in Glendalough and Wicklow could qualify as one of my best days in Ireland, my 2nd day in Kilkenny could easily qualify as my worst. Let me try to put this into terms that would make sense, because this was not rain. This was a torrential free for all where the rain was literally coming from all sides. There was rain pouring down, there was rain blowing from the sides…. I’m pretty sure the rain was coming up from the ground. It was horrible. It was like that scene from Forrest Gump where they’re walking through Vietnam and they’re shielding their eyes from the rain coming from below. Except that when the sun came out there weren’t people shooting at me and I was perfectly safe…. But I digress….

I did Kilkenny Castle that morning, which was beautiful, but trying to get a picture of it? Forget it. It was absolutely horrendous, even under an umbrella, and at one point I tried to change lenses and get a good shot of Kytelers Inn, which is a short walk from the castle. This is when the water got in my camera, and after that? Pure misery. I was cold, wet, cranky, and freaking out about ruining my two thousand dollar camera. I was NOT happy. And when I arrived in Wexford, everything came to a head.

I will say, if you ever decide to come to Ireland and stay at Newlands Lodge in Kilkenny, you’ll probably want to stay there at the end of your trip, because no other B&B is going to come close. And I don’t know if it was the wind or the rain or the drive or the camera, but when I got to Wexford my attitude was badddddd. And when I saw my room in the B&B I was staying at, things got worse. It was gloomy, bare, cold, and the complete opposite of Kilkenny. So, long story short (too late), I ended up canceling my 2nd night planned in Wexford and my one night in Waterford, and going back to Kilkenny, which I’ll just call “home” from now on lol.

Before heading back to Kilkenny, I did explore Wexford a bit and bought my niece an adorable little souvenir at the Wexford Bull Ring market, which was a “don’t miss” in my tour book, but in the winter I’d say you could definitely miss it. But I had some great chats with locals there and I did enjoy it. Walking around Wexford town after that, I popped in and introduced myself to Joeleen Codd, who had a beautiful photography studio in Wexford center. She was very sweet and it felt nice to make a connection and say hi to another photographer.

When I left Wexford, I headed down to the Tintern Abbey and then the Ring of Hook, where I visited the oldest operational lighthouse in the world. It was beautiful there, and although the wind prevented me from hanging out too much, it also provided for some beautiful scenery with the waves crashing against the rocks. I took some pictures and walked around a bit, and talked myself out of going on the tour. I have been spending the ten euro to do tours pretty much everywhere, and I decided I needed to reign it in a bit. I am on a pretty tight budget here and I don’t want to have to call my dad mid-May to ask to borrow money (because very rightfully, he would just hang up on me lol).

It felt great to get back to Kilkenny that night and relax at Newlands. The next day, I headed to Kells Priory, an old ruins site down the road from Newlands, and had a peaceful walk around. I went out to Mount Juliet as well, which is a beautiful place to walk around and also a gorgeous golf course. Afterwards, I headed back into Kilkenny centre, since the day was dry and I’d be able to get a few pictures done. I walked a bit and then decided to get take-away and eat it at the lodge, before coming back into town for evening drinks. And this, my friends, is the glorious moment that I went from a few bumps and scrapes on the left side of the car to no longer having a passenger side mirror (see photos below lol). Honestly, the car I rented feels very small, but when the roads are so narrow you still have to mind your mirrors…. and your steering. The side mirror came clean off and made the most horrible noise. The kicker? The take-away place wasn’t even open!!!! So here I was, starving me arse off, with no mirror and no food to show for my efforts. The solution here was obviously to head back into town for a pint.

I went into a pub called Lanigans and before long was chatting with a group of gentlemen at the bar, one about my age and the others a bit older. They were super friendly and one gentleman even bought me my first hot whiskey, which definitely helped calm my nerves. That gentleman turned out to be the owner of Tynans, a very popular bar down the street, and so I went back that night and enjoyed the craic there with my new friends

After 4 nights total in Kilkenny, it was very hard to say goodbye to Mairead and Jimmy, and we took a whole bunch of pictures before I left. You’ll see M & J below, along with a couple shots around Newlands. I headed off to Waterford, where I stopped at Waterford Crystal and did a bit o shopping. This was also where I discovered that the McDonalds in Ireland carry Cadbury Creme Egg McFlurries, and I venture to say my life will never be the same.

My last stop before arriving in Cork was Mahon Falls in Dungarvan, another don’t miss because they are absolutely gorgeous, but unfortunately I didn’t visit at the right time. It was literally so cold that the falls were FROZEN lol. My hands were too, so unfortunately I didn’t even make it all the way down the trail. Ah, well… next time

For now I leave you with some photos. These were really taken all over- Enniskerry, Wicklow, Kilkenny, Inistioge…. Inistioge is adorable and where another Irish favorite, Circle of Friends, was filmed! So of course I had to stop and get a brownie in the Circle of Friends restaurant. I mean, there was really no question that that had to happen

Wow. I can’t believe it’s been a week since I arrived in Ireland. So much has happened since I wrote last and yet it’s almost like nothing has happened at all…. it just feels like a lot because all of this is new to me. I’m still getting acclimated to life in this beautiful place, but every day gets a bit easier and I keep catching myself saying things like “lovely” or “splendid” or my new personal favorite “I’ll chance me arm”. The Irish have a way with words and it’s fun listening to them talk, which they like to do as much as me so it’s been grand. Ahhhh I just used grand! The indoctrination is almost complete

I landed in Dublin last Wednesday morning, and after a horrible time at immigration (seriously, horrible… and all my fault for telling the stupidest lie you could possibly ever tell to immigration) I was let into the country and able to leave the airport. I met up with my friend Krista, who is an American photographer who lives in Dublin now, and she was good enough to show me around the city a bit, until I was able to check into my hotel. I’m not ashamed to say that once I checked in, I slept for about 20 straight hours. I was so exhausted from the flight and the ordeal at immigration, not to mention the crazy hectic days leading up to my departure. Once I rested up and overcame the jet lag, I started to explore Dublin. My first day out on my own I went to the Dublin Photographic Archive, the Dublin Photography Gallery, the Natural History Museum and the National Gallery. It was a lot of museums and some were better than others, but it was great because my hotel was so central that it was easy for me to walk everywhere and not even have to worry about the bus. I also got to eat lunch at a place where my dad and stepmom went on their honeymoon, Gallagher’s Boxty House in the temple bar area, which must have been the most awkward experience of my entire life. I mean, when it came to eating alone, it was like a Band-Aid… I knew I had to rip it right off. So when I walked by and saw it, I thought what the heck, here we go. When I walked in, I was in a small dining area and there were different groups of people, and I thought, hey, this wont be so bad. Until she walked me int the bigger dining area, where there was only ONE couple in the whole place, and she sits me right next to them. Talk about awkward. Needless to say, I ate my fish and chips quickly and went on my merry way

A few days into my Dublin trip, my friends Jack and Amy came over from Liverpool and joined me for St. Patrick’s Day. It was such a relief to have them there. Dublin was great, but I’m a country girl and always have been…. I found Dublin as intimidating as I find New York or Boston. Everyone was bustling around, getting on with their days, and it wasn’t the Irish welcome that I had been hoping for. Not to mention that the sight of a purse snatch on my first day terrified me to bring my camera out of the hotel room. Once I did, though, I felt better, and more like myself… it’s like having an old friend there with you. How cheesy did that sound??

Lol, anyways, for Paddy’s Day weekend, I did have old friends with me (or at least one old friend and her boyfriend, right Amy?) so it was great. We hit the Guinness storehouse, which is brilliant, and even if you don’t like Guinness this is a must-do if you’re ever in Dublin. The 360 degree views from the Gravity Bar on the top are worth the tour alone. The Gravity Bar is obviously the tallest bar in Dublin, and we also hit the oldest bar in Dublin, The Brazen Head (where I sampled some traditional bangers and mash… yummmmmm) and the smallest bar in Dublin… Which I think is pretty much just called The Smallest Bar in Dublin lol. It was legit a fire hazard and I had some concerns, but I also met a very nice Irish gentleman there. Now before my girlfriends read that and all go nuts picking out their bridesmaids dresses, let me interject that it was just a casual conversation with a nice Irish person, that restored my faith that Irish people, even in Dublin, can be that extreme level of nice that you were expecting, if you let them.

A couple other Dublin observations and recommendations:

Finish your food. Sounds random but I literally was scolded more than once by waitresses when I couldn’t finish what I had ordered. The Irish hate waste, which I think already makes them better than us. Now if only they would stop serving such damn large portions…

Bring your own bags when shopping. Along the lines of cutting down on waste, you have to pay if you want bags at the grocery or convenience stores. Something I wish somebody had warned me about before I had to walk through St. Paddy’s day crowds carting soy milk and corn flakes.

Wear whatever you want. Seriously, WHATEVER YOU WANT. Because honestly, if girls can walk around in the dead of winter wearing tights as pants, you can certainly get away with mixing brown with black. And girls do do that, btw. Except they call them hot pants here, as if that makes it better. Olivia Newton-John must be so proud.

Eat Leo Burdock’s fish and chips as much as you can. Eat it when you’re drunk, and eat it when you’re sober. Just eat it, and make sure every bite is covered in their special vinegar. Heaven.

Anyways, I wanted to share a couple quick pictures from my time in Dublin. Jack took the ones of me and I dare say I may have gotten him hooked on the picture taking… it’s hard blogging from this iPad because I have to use a different collating program and I can’t watermark… Or I guess I can but it takes too much time lol… But here are some pictures to sum up my week in Dublin!

I’m sure anyone who has ever been in a car with me has, at one point, wanted to laugh. Jump in there on some random, gloomy Monday, and I’m playing Sounds of Silence by Paul Simon. The next day, Jack’s Mannequin will be blaring from the open windows. And sometimes, just sometimes, I love to jam out to Britney Spears. I said SOMETIMES, stop judging me! Anyways, certain songs just speak to you, to where you are in that moment, or maybe to where you’re hoping to go. I heard someone say once “A day without music is like a year without rain.” I couldn’t agree more. Music helps us grow, it helps us get through things. We need it as surely as we need air or food or water. I usually don’t go a few hours without listening to it, let alone a full day. I love it. And as I said, my taste can be varied and eclectic. Which is why I can openly and unabashedly proclaim that I love the song Good Life by One Republic. What did it get me through? The past 2 years.

 

True music lovers are definitely rolling their eyes right now, because One Republic is as generic as they come, way overplayed on the radio, and they’re not exactly bringing us any classics that we’ll play for our grandchildren someday. But there are many reasons I love this song. It’s hard not to smile at the whistling effect in the beginning and end. The song was used as a trailer for a movie that I loved, One Day, with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess (the book was better, but I digress). And one of my favorite couples, Julie and Dan, were introduced into their wedding reception with that song playing in the background. It’s just a good song that reminds me of good things, but above all, this is the reason I love it:

 

It gives the reassurance that adventure awaits us all. It gives the hope that any one of us, at any time, can change our course. It gives the promise that we can all have a good life.

 

I never thought at the age of 30, this would be my life. I think at some point in your teenage years, you form a vision in your mind of what life is going to look like, and for me, this wasn’t it. Living in my dad and stepmom’s house, being single, working so hard for myself and barely breaking even… never saw any of that coming. I pictured a great job in Vermont, a husband, maybe a baby… that is what I thought 30 would look like. Car pools and juice boxes and what I’ve come to call a “commercial life”…. BBQ’s at lakes with friends, bonfires, hiking trips with a baby in one of those hippie Bjorn things. Obviously, my vision for the future wasn’t 20/ 20.

 

Today, I leave for Ireland, where I will spend the next 3 months of my life. To say that going to Ireland is a dream come true would be a vast underestimate. Going to Ireland is everything to me. I’ve tried to get there so many times, only to have things fall apart at the last second, and I was always disappointed in college that I missed my opportunity to study for one semester there. My great-grandparents came over from there and settled in western MA, and whenever I look at pictures of the rolling green hills, the sheep causing traffic jams, the buskers playing music on the city streets… I just know that I’m meant to be there. I’m meant to take pictures of these things myself, I’m meant to experience them and be wide open to adventure and meet new people and have them meet me. And so two years ago, I told my mom I wanted to go to Ireland. And not just for a vacation. I wanted to go there for as long as I could. Point of fact, I told my mom I wanted to move there, although I’m glad the current state of the world and Ireland’s economy helped my thinking to evolve a little bitAfter learning how hard it is to get a work visa, and realizing it would be damn near impossible for me and probably way too much hassle, I decided to go for as long as the Irish government would allow without any special type of visa, which is 3 months. Three whole months.

 

Am I excited? That seems to be the question I’ve gotten most often in the past month. People look at me with this total glow in their eyes, expecting me to be just busting out of my skin with anticipation to talk about this trip. And the truth is, the fear and terror in my eyes probably makes them back off a bit lol. I am excited, sure, but I’m also TERRIFIED. I’d say the scale was about 15% excited, 85% want-to-throw-up-from-the-anxiety. Those numbers are up from 10%/ 90%, btw, so as you can see I’m already improving.

 

The past few months have been hard, probably the hardest of my life. Without getting into detail, some things have happened since July that have hindered my ability to be excited about this trip quite a bit. There have been days when I’ve felt so sick and tired and exhausted that I’ve almost called the whole thing off. There have been times when I’ve been so overcome with excitement about this trip that I have started crying… and those times have often give way to crying fits that are happening because I’m just so overwhelmed and anxious and downright scared. And after months of this, I finally started reminding myself of one thing: this too shall pass. Happiness can be fleeting, but thank goodness, so can sadness, and at the end of the day we only have ourselves to blame for which wins out. And I’m ashamed to say that in the past few months I’ve let the sadness win out more days than the happiness. Out of all the things I hope to work on about myself when I’m away, that one is probably the biggest.

 

 

Life is short. And life is hard. Sometimes the tough days can feel so long that its hard to remember that tomorrow is a fresh start to pulling it back together again. We all have the opportunity at one point or another to make our dreams come true. We just have to recognize it when it comes along, be open to the possibility it brings, lean on family and friends when we need support in chasing it, and realize we have the strength and courage inside ourselves to follow through and make it happen. Every day life gives us reasons to give up, but I think we all have the power to overcome those reasons and decide to say this could be a good life. If I work hard. If I’m a good person. If I give as much as I receive and if I don’t take my blessings for granted. If I make sure I earn it and that I’m open to it…And most of all, if I just relax. If I just stop comparing my life to other people’s. If I have faith that things will work out the way they are supposed to… this could be a good life.  This could really be a good, good life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the pictures on this post were taken by the lovely, talented, amazing Molly Anne! I will seriously miss her while I am gone. Thank you Molly, I looooove you!

 

And lastly, to all my family, friends and clients who have supported me in the past two years… words aren’t enough, but THANK YOU. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for baring with me and believing in me and giving me pep talks on the days where I was ready to say heck with it and live in my parents basement foreverYou know who you are and I couldn’t have gone on this trip without you. LOVE YOU ALL!

 

And now, since I’m not good at goodbyes, just picture me holding up a shot of whiskey and toasting you all. As they say in Ireland, slainte

 

XO.