Travels in Ireland - covering ground, making new waves in life!

I cannot say that suddenly I'm fit as a fiddle, or that any weight was dropped during my adventure in Ireland (the food and drink are far too good), but being able to study abroad and tour a beautiful country, it becomes easy to rack up steps!  Not the same as making way up one of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, the terrain very different, but I would average about 15,000 steps a day in Ireland, which is a huge increase from my typical days previously where I would be lucky to break 5,000 steps as my days were primarily spent at a stressful desk job.  Before leaving on this three week adventure, I was forced to resign - the agency (actually my supervisor to be specific) was unable to make accommodations for me to be gone for the length of time that I would be away.  Ultimately leaving this agency was a blessing in disguise.  I was stressed all the time, and the return on my personal and professional investments were relatively void and only added to frustrations.  Concerns about financial stability  made stepping into the unknown a bit scary, yet also I felt a significant sense of relief wash over me knowing that I wouldn't have to return to a job where I didn't see any growth.  I would instead be going on an incredible adventure and then trusting the next steps in my process (thank you Universe and whatever powers may be)!

I left on August 2nd, arriving in Dublin on August 3rd.  My first time traveling internationally on my own so that I could attend an intensive course, A Counselor's View, looking at mental health across cultures and specifically the use of play therapy abroad.  There was a wonderful sense of home that I experienced in Ireland.  A sense of peace, comfort, feeling welcomed and safe.  We had the opportunity to see wonderful relics throughout Dublin, such as St. Patrick's Cathedral and going to the Wicklow mountains to see the Powerscourt House and Gardens and Glendalough.  We had a literary pub crawl around town, visiting numerous pubs and being entertained by delightful Irish actors.  A night of theatre to see the Riverdance at the Gaiety Theatre.  Seeing the ancient Book of Kells and the Longs Room where 200,000 books live on old shelves, a fragrance to the air of old books and a bit sweet almost.  A day in Belfast (I can hardly find the words to describe the impact of this experience alone!) and a day in Galway to explore other areas of Ireland.  We were given the opportunity to explore on our own, adventuring around the city center of Dublin such as Temple Bar and a ghost tour.  And the food... Oh I could talk for hours about the food!  We experienced wonderful eats, good drink, hooleys and fun, and then of course plenty of lecture at Trinity College.  It was meaningful to me to actually stay and learn at Trinity College, a familial connection to the campus.  Participating in this course and the Institute in general was very meaningful, and worth every bit of sacrifice in order to partake in it.  It meant that I was away from my partner, Chris, for the longest span of time since we started dating almost five years ago, a distance that technology today helps to bridge with Skype and email.  It meant losing my job, with the realization that it was not a positive work environment and that likely I won't be without income for long as other jobs will be found.  It meant investing a lot of money, but you can't take it with you anyway, right?  In general I still find it hard to actually describe the immense impact that this opportunity had on my life.  I am so grateful to have been able to study in Ireland.

 It was two weeks into my journey that the course ended and Chris came to Ireland to join me, from there we would then embark on an International Road Trip.  I collected him from the airport, and we picked up our rental car that our dear family friend, Sean, assisted us with reserving.  The goal then was to keep Chris awake as long as possible in order to ensure that he could adjust to the time change.  We had lunch and pints at the Ginger Man (one of my new favorite restaurants), we walked to the Dublin Castle and St. Patrick's Cathedral to walk about the outsides before going to the Guinness Storehouse for a tour followed by a pint at the top where there was a beautiful view all the way around to see Dublin in all its historic glory.  After some adventuring, we made our way back to Ashbourne for the night, too exhausted to stay awake any longer.  It was then where I finally realized how exhausted I was from Institute, having an agenda which kept us constantly moving from first thing until late night each day.  I welcomed a full night of sleep, finally next to my love again.

The next day we ventured to the Powerscourt Waterfall to start our touring around the Wicklow Mountains.  We were expecting to have a bit of a hike from the parking lot to get to the waterfall, as this is how most natural treasures are in Colorado, however it was a quick couple minutes from the car.  It was nice that we were there relatively early that there weren't too many tourists flooding the area yet.  (I will say, Ireland has had a record increase of tourism recently between affordable travel rates and the fame of certain parts of Ireland being used to film scenes in popular movies and television shows, and somehow word got out that Ireland is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, needless to say there was lots of tourism traffic throughout our time in Ireland.)  We went up to the large waterfall and took some pictures, enjoying the sites and wandering around the rocks.  Chris redirected us down around to the base of the waterfall, there was a wonderful rock to sit on that was perfect for capturing the bottom of the waterfall. 

Chris settled next to me, but suddenly gave me a quick kiss and said "hey honey, I have a question for you."  I looked at him and obliviously said, "yeah, what's up?"  He then said something along the lines of, "I wanted to find the most beautiful spot as this is an important questions..." and then I can honestly say I don't remember what else came from his mouth as I caught onto what was happening and the whirlwind of "what is going on??" and "ohmygodohmygodohmygod..!!!" and "took him long enough!" and "I can't believe this is happening!" and "are you serious?!?!" and on and on went through my head.  Then he asked the very important question, "Will you marry me?"  He brought the ring from his pocket, and it was as if the wind had been knocked out of me.  My hands clasped around my mouth, I looked at him and back at the ring, tears overflowing my eyes, I failed to remember how to speak.  Eventually I caught breath and was able to say, "Yes!  Yes of course!  Oh my god Yes!"  I kissed him and put the ring on, wiping mascara from my face.  I thanked him and kissed him again, still in a state of disbelief.

We then took a walk about, finding a pathway to jaunt around, hand in hand, talking of the future in terms of "when" instead of the "if" which had taunted me for years.  I felt our love swell between us as he told me about how long he had wanted to ask me, discussing light plans on when we will and how we want to get married, how he had asked my mother a year and a half ago, the thought he put into the ring and the meaning behind the stone. After our time at the Powerscourt Waterfall we went to Glendalough, walking around the relics of the 7 churches and tombstones from the ancient monk settlement.  Eventually we made our way up to the path that overlooked the Upper Lake which was beautiful.  So far we were off to an excellent start!  We then spent the week together touring Ireland and celebrating our engagement between just us two, and would share more broadly once back home.  We broke away from the immediacy of social media and having to share to word promptly, and instead got to relish in this new step in our lives together, just us two.

The next day we ventured from the Dublin area down to see the Kilkenny Castle and then to the Rock of Cashel.  We stayed the night in Cork City staying at the Creedon's Bed & Breakfast, the next morning taking a spin through the Old English Market before venturing to Cobh to see the sites.  We walked the stretch of the old harbor city where the Titanic had launched from, ending at a Titanic Memorial.  We were able to go down to the ocean side and touched the water.  We then went to Midleton to see the Jameson Distillery that is still working, we had a tour and some drinks and met some wonderful people.  It still fascinated me after almost 3 weeks being in Ireland as to how kind people are, everyone a friend.  We then drove to Killarney where we stayed at the Killarney Avenue Hotel, greeted by a bottle of champagne and a box of chocolates courtesy of my Mom and Sean as a congratulations on our engagement (two of the few we had shared the news with at this point).  The next day we made our way to the Torc Waterfall and went on a terrific hike.  We went to the top of the Torc Waterfall, down to the lake, and then followed a sign that indicated that there were rose gardens down the way which ultimately led us to the Muckross House and Gardens that was lovely to visit.  We then continued to follow the trail which led us to the lower part of the Torc Waterfall, then up a zillion natural stairs to Aghadoe which overlooks the Killarney Lake, and then back to the car.  Being in the County Kerry area we decided to cruise around some of the Ring of Kerry, going about halfway around.  It was a fine jaunt, but ultimately it's going from little town, then seeing the ocean, then through a little town, then seeing the ocean - all of which was beautiful however after a while you get the point, so instead of going around the entire ring we turned back when we were about halfway and headed up to Dingle where we stayed for the night.  I must strongly recommend that if you ever find yourself in Dingle, you simply must stay at Ard-na-Mara Country House bed and breakfast.  They are simply marvelous!  It is a quaint little place just off of Slea Head Drive, about a mile away from the town center, and the couple who owns and operates it are just delightful!  We had a great meal in town and wandered around the harbor, drove part of the Slea Head Drive and then took some rest.  We had a wonderful homemade breakfast in the morning before taking off for Tralee to see the rose gardens, then made our way up the west coast, caught a ferry and headed to Kilkee.  It was recommended by Sean that we bypass the Cliffs of Moher which are constantly overrun by tourists and instead see the Cliffs of Kilkee which are stunning.  Chris said that had he not been anxious to propose early during our trip that this would have been his second choice of location.  I don't blame him!  The cliffs are breathtaking!

After we finished walking the area we drove over to Bunratty, and I will again recommend that if you are ever staying in this area a wonderful place to stay is the Courtyard at Bunratty, another bed and breakfast run by a wonderful and very genuine couple.  We had a large room down a quiet hall where we were able to settle in for two nights.  We had supper at the Creamery which was wonderful.  Tuckered by all the driving and touring, we headed back to our room a bit early.  The next day we went up to Galway, and I shared with Chris little tid-bits from what I had learned about Galway during Institute, seeing little relics around the city center.  We ended up at a tattoo shop, taking the opportunity to get some designs that we both have wanted for a while, documenting our big life experience.  Our tattoo artist was a unique guy named Joey who did incredible fine line work and chatted about politics (quite a Nationalist that guy).  It was a memorable experience, and documenting with a tattoo seemed fitting for Chris and I.  I'm grateful to share so much with this man.  We returned to Bunratty, had supper at Durty Nelly's and enjoyed our last night in Ireland together.
It was perfect.  We were exhausted, and we are happy.

Best... Trip... EVER!