The Emerald Isle

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Luke smiles demurely at the site of some super cool ruins.   Hundreds of years ago, some Irish people used to protect themselves from invaders by building their own mini-islands.   One way to cross the lake to get there was by memorizing the location of underwater stepping stones and dancing your way across (ala El Macho and his lair in Despicable Me 2).

I’m officially adjusted to life back home now…although the transition was rough.  We’ve got another trip planned without kids in a couple days to celebrate our 10 years of marriage and this one’s gonna be a brute to come back from.  Hint: those pics are gonna have a lot more ocean in them…

The flowers in Ireland were seriously to DIE for.  But then again, flowers in general are kind of a novelty once you’ve lived in the desert for 10 years.  What are these anyway, hydrangeas?  I only know that they made me infinitely dissatisfied with my palo verdes.

We went on a little boat ride on Ireland’s only fjord (and you thought Frozen made those up) and it was spectacular!  Freezing, but spectacular.

So, I’ve got this thing with old doors and gates.  They’re so fabulous, especially fancy European ones.  Luke made fun of me mercilessly on our first couple trips to Europe when I’d stop in front of every doorway I saw but he knows to keep quiet now.  Speaking of doorways, in Ireland, EVERY door is painted a crazy fun accent color.  They say it’s because when the queen died one year (while under British rule), the royals made everyone paint their door black in mourning.  Story goes, when the drunk Irish guys came home late at night to a string of townhouses all with black doors, none of them could tell which house was theirs.  So they began painting them all different vibrant hues.  Hehe.

The main pedestrian shopping street in Galway.  It was our first place to spend the night and absolutely charming!

Tell me I’m not the only person who acts like a child when there’s oodles of green grass around.  Am I right??  Anyone?  Buehler??

At the top of Blarney Castle where we (disgustingly) kissed a stone (with our mouths) that millions of other people have kissed (with their mouths).  I thought it was supposed to bestow the gift of gab (which I already possess and therefore saw no need to participate) but when I learned it actually had the power to make one eloquent, (i.e. no foot in mouth syndrome) I happily queued up.

This was where we had our farewell dinner (delicious) to traditional Irish music played by a local band (hilarious).  It was a load of knee-slapping fun.

In short, Ireland was considerably more awesome than I expected.  Gorgeous place to rent a car and just get lost.  In fact, doing that alone with my lovely husband is now on my bucket list.  Green and gorgeous is an apt description.  This was my first trip to a foreign country where the locals speak my language (Canada doesn’t count) and I loved it.  The accent is so freaking cute that I’m stymied as to how they’ve fought so many wars.  If some farmer tried to come at me with a pitchfork I’d just giggle and ask him to talk some more.

The food was amazing – surprisingly similar to American food and this was the first European country I’ve been to where the people’s body types are most like Americans (ahem, large).  Then again, considering how many Irish immigrated to America, it’s not really that surprising.  Thanks for the food legacy, Ireland!
(and the ghastly English spelling 🙂