I love Ireland. I had the great good fortune to take a wonderful 8-day trip to Ireland in 2007 with my dear friend, Christin. Eight days is not enough time in Ireland nor is one Irish blessing enough to share during this week before St. Patrick’s Day. So, I’m sending An Irish Blessing (or two)… your way and sharing more photos from that fabulous trip!
Here’s an Irish blessing to start the story:
May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.
The picture of the gorgeous rolling hills above was taken from the parking lot of Aillwee Cave in County Clare. The entrance to the cave was located up on a hill, so we had this spectacular panoramic view of the valley below. To say that the view was breathtaking is an understatement. A quintessential portrait of the Emerald Isle of green rolling hills as far as the eye could see, pastures dotted with grazing farm animals and scattered trees, the shimmering hills glowing in the late afternoon sunlight, we stood mesmerized. But, this picture was taken in the middle of our trip. So, let’s back up a bit…
Fair warning – this is a long story, filled with laughter and a few good photos; so, as the Irish proverb below states, pour yourself a glass of wine or a cold beer, sit back and commit to the journey.
A drink precedes a story.
Castle Turret Climbing Training Day
Christin and I do not live in the same area of Southern California, but live about 50 miles apart. In 2007, we were work acquaintances who decided to travel to Ireland together. How that came about is a story for another day, but at this point in our acquaintance, I had never been to her home. So, after spending the day at a conference near her home, I drove to her town to spend the night before our early morning departure from LAX. We met at a local restaurant for dinner with her mother and our travel agent to pick up our final travel documents. Then we ran a couple of errands before arriving at Christin’s home at about 9:00 p.m.
She neglected to tell me {I’m sure really on purpose} that she lived in a 3-story townhouse! I left my 2 large suitcases on the bottom floor in her garage, but I must have climbed her 3 flights of stairs 49 times in the 9 hours I was there! Little did I know that I was preparing myself physically for the castles of Ireland! Here’s another Irish blessing for you:
Here’s to you and here’s to me
I pray that friends we’ll always be,
But if by chance we disagree,
The heck with you and here’s to me.
She looked at my 2 giant suitcases and said “what the heck are you taking?”
“Well, I didn’t know what to pack, so I packed rain gear, evening clothes, high heels, tennis shoes, boots, etc.”
“Well, some of this has to go!” and she wisely helped me thin out my stuff, saying “you don’t need this, you don’t need that, you don’t need this”, etc. as she threw things out of my suitcase and into one of her closets (she’s a world traveler and I’ve only been on a couple of trips out of our country). But, even with her expert unpacking skills, I still had two suitcases, although they now weighed less.
We fell into bed just before midnight.
Snafus and the Chinese Fire Drill
Next morning, we are up at 5:00 a.m. and out of the house at 6. Amazingly, we arrive at LAX in just under an hour. Our tickets are for US Airways, so we go to the US Airways terminal only to be turned away because United Airlines is the correct terminal for International Flights!
We get up to the automated ticket counter, only to have our tickets rejected by the computer! After waiting in line for what seemed like forever (it was actually only 45 minutes), we finally get our boarding passes and are allowed to proceed to the security check point. After clearing security and finding our gate with only 20 minutes to spare, we realize that we are not assigned to sit together!
When we ask one of the airline employees if we can be reassigned, we are told we will have to ask the passengers after we board. So, we do.
Both of our seats are center seats and Christin asks her seat partners to switch and both say “no.” The woman sitting on her aisle seat said she would switch if we had an aisle seat, because she needs an aisle seat. I work my way to my seat and tell the gentleman in the aisle seat that I’m his “center” and he asks me to change with him because his “window” is his wife. Well, Christin’s “aisle” overhears this and says she’ll now change because I have an “aisle” now, so problem solved after our Chinese fire drill. Here’s another Irish blessing; quite appropriate, don’t you think?
May your neighbors respect you,
Trouble neglect you
The angels protect you
And heaven accept you.
The luck of the Irish has finally rubbed off on us and we settle down for a long 5 1/2 hour flight. Five hours later, I ask Christin if she has any idea how much longer to Philly and she says probably about 1/2 hour – we’ve been talking non-stop for 5 hours!
We arrive in Philadelphia, wander the airport halls, buy neck pillows for the next leg of our flight and eat fried green beans (yumm-o!) at one of the airport restaurants. After a 3 hour layover, we board the plane for Shannon, Ireland and get to share 3 seats between the 2 of us for the entire flight. Both of us are able to sleep for about 4 hours.
4 Castles in 1 Day
After touchdown in the beautiful Emerald Island at Shannon Airport in County Clare, we shuttle to the rental car place to pick up our rental car. Here we were met with our first surprise. We had reserved a mid-sized car and once we completed our paperwork, we went to find our car in Space 36. To our surprise, our car was a small Toyota! Well, silly girl that I am, I had packed way too much stuff (even with Christin’s ninja editing of my suitcases the night before) for our short vacation and my 2 large suitcases wouldn’t fit in the trunk on this small car! Christin had smartly packed only one bag, but there was no way that 3 large bags and 2 two girls were fitting in this car! So back into the office we trudged – 3 large bags, 2 girls – to rent a larger car.
Guess what? No larger cars available. So back to Space 36 to figure out how we were going to manage…
May God give you…
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer to each prayer.
Here’s a picture of our car:
Have GPS, will travel?
We had decided that having a GPS devise might be prudent, so we rented one from the rental car dealership. Christin works on installing an impossibly large GPS system on a seriously small dashboard. After twisting the gooseneck GPS into place, she attempts to locate our first destination. After numerous attempts and no success, we decide she will go back into the office and ask for help.
She comes back to the car with a very patient, kind Irishman, who after fiddling with the GPS himself for many minutes, suggests to us that the GPS isn’t probably going to be worth the extra expense so we should turn it back in because “the roads are well marked in Ireland,” and we shouldn’t have a problem! (remember this line – “the roads are well-marked in Ireland”; it will play a factor in our travels!).
So, we put one bag (Christin’s) in the trunk, 2 suitcases in the back seat (mine) and off we go to our first destination, with me at the wheel. In 2007, the Irish were still driving on the opposite side of the road and I was a tentative driver, nervous and unsure, especially with the roundabouts. We had a guidebook of Ireland and during our long flight from California, attempted to make some decisions about where to go and what to see during our week-long trip. We were “on our own” because we had decided not to book a tour, but rather drive ourselves.
Our first lucky break was the fact that we had this small car! Most roads in Ireland are small, two-lane roads and although the roads are narrow, the trucks, buses and vans are not! Throughout our journey of Ireland’s countryside and back roads, we would be grateful to have this small car! The luck of the Irish had blessed us!
Two shorten the road.
Continued on Page 2…
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