dripping with passion

i had a half a day in dublin to end my ireland adventure and before heading home to england. dublin was neat, but i was okay to only have half a day. i was most excited to see the supposedly wild and entertaining nightlife in the temple bar district, but i couldn’t keep my eyes open until dark because i was so travel-drained. so my few daytime hours in the city were spent wandering. this is at trinity college, where a witty irish student gave us a lil tour. the picture on the right i stole from the internet, because they wouldn’t let us take pictures in the old library, which was my favourite thing i saw in dublin. after a gloomy overcast morning, the sun streamed in the big windows. to connect the floors of books there are ladders and spiral staircases and then tiny doors on the top floor. grafton street is the main drag in ireland and i loved the flowers and the musicians. the townhouses surrounding the park had colorful doors. the penny bridge over the river liffy. i think it is...

i decided to wake up super early in galway the next morning and take a quick drive up in connemara/county mayo before heading back to dublin. i am so glad that i did – those few hours were by far my favourite in ireland. the landscape was ethereal and raw – it felt like the brushstrokes on the canvas were deliciously thick. i snapped some photos on the first half of the cruise and then as i looped around by the sea i decided not to stop and just to take it all in. this is a good time for me to tell you what i feel i must, must. dear reader: in this instance, and many others during my gallivant around the british isles, you are glimpsing only about 1/100th of the beauty i saw. i have to say – believe me when i write that it was so much better than this! isn’t it amazing what the human eye can see and what the human heart can feel? all alone on this island in the ocean, i felt such a streaming urge to share and to remember – which i hope to accomplish after employing both methods: fran...

the destination for day one in ireland was dingle town, a little hamlet on the south edge of the dingle peninsula (which means i drove across the entire country in one day). i spent the evening wandering around dingle’s charming, flag draped streets. i ate shepherd’s pie in a pub and read my guide book. when it got dark, the musicians came out to the pubs and as i drifted from building to building, the traditional irish music wafted through the misty air. it was as cool as i just made it sound. i slept in a bunkbed in the hideaway hostel and wished so much for clearer weather in the morning for my scenic drive along the peninsula. the weather had worsened in the morning. but i decided to enjoy the enchantment of the fog and imagine in my mind’s eye what all this prettiness would look like under the clear blue sky when i return to ireland one sunny day. the road was brushed with wildflowers and perched on cliffs. despite the fact that i was pretty much driving through a cloud,...