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| Drombeg Stone Circle, County Cork, Ireland |
If it is so that we live only a small part of the life that is within us, what happens to the rest?
~ Raimund Gregorius, Night Train to Lisbon
It was time to escape. So we did - to Ireland.
We traveled with strangers who became friends. We saw things we had never seen before. We revisited places we love.
We needed to live more of the life that is within us and we did.
There will follow posts about music and castles, churches and wildflowers, ruins and rivers. This trip was so full and fast that I still cannot really get my head around it. Most days were full followed by evenings of traditional music. We learned a good deal - so many discoveries the Irish continue to make and share.
Because most of the trip was planned by others (and significantly controlled by fair or foul weather) there are a number of items remaining on the list we did not manage to do (in no particular order):
1. swimming in the Atlantic from an Irish beach
2. riding the only cable car in the country to Dursey Island
3. taking a boat out to the Blasket Islands
4. seeing the Cliffs of Moher from the sea
5. visiting Leap Castle
6. seeing the sheela na gig in Fethard (we were right there, but couldn't find it).
and then those things we didn't think we would do this trip, but were saving for another anyway:
1. visiting the Giant's Causeway
2. living in Donegal
There are probably other things we haven't even considered that will end up on a list, but we know we will be back and can try again. It's good to have plans and options. But we know we will fall subject to the magic that is always around us there. Lists don't matter.
It's all about living.
We traveled with strangers who became friends. We saw things we had never seen before. We revisited places we love.
We needed to live more of the life that is within us and we did.
There will follow posts about music and castles, churches and wildflowers, ruins and rivers. This trip was so full and fast that I still cannot really get my head around it. Most days were full followed by evenings of traditional music. We learned a good deal - so many discoveries the Irish continue to make and share.
Because most of the trip was planned by others (and significantly controlled by fair or foul weather) there are a number of items remaining on the list we did not manage to do (in no particular order):
1. swimming in the Atlantic from an Irish beach
2. riding the only cable car in the country to Dursey Island
3. taking a boat out to the Blasket Islands
4. seeing the Cliffs of Moher from the sea
5. visiting Leap Castle
6. seeing the sheela na gig in Fethard (we were right there, but couldn't find it).
and then those things we didn't think we would do this trip, but were saving for another anyway:
1. visiting the Giant's Causeway
2. living in Donegal
There are probably other things we haven't even considered that will end up on a list, but we know we will be back and can try again. It's good to have plans and options. But we know we will fall subject to the magic that is always around us there. Lists don't matter.
It's all about living.
Dursey Island is where we finish our walk or at least on the mainland.
ReplyDeleteDang, what day? Should I get a flight and meet you at the end? :-)
ReplyDelete