Dublin, Ireland

James Joyce always makes her laugh...

Years ago - oh, I would say maybe 8 years? - I took a week-long trip to Ireland. Dublin, specifically - the thinking

being that with only a week, why rush and try to see the whole country? Its a theme that has repeated itself throughout my traveling adventures, but I can point to this Dublin trip as the genesis of that idea. Just relax and see where things go.

So young!

It had been about 4 years since graduating and my good friend Jenn was living down in Costa Rica. We were close throughout college, seeing each other almost daily, but somehow, life happened and we were reduced to email. Being in Costa Rica, Jenn would have to leave the country and re-enter every few months to renew her visa.
"Hey, I need to leave the country and come back. Want to go to Ireland?"

Of course, I said.

It was in Newark when we finally saw each other and all the nerves about traveling vanished instantly - we were like peas and carrots again.

Dublin at dusk

I can't say that we really did Dublin any justice, as we were both relatively new to the traveling thing, so we played it safe: nights in Temple Bar, Guinness tour, etc. But there were a couple "experiments", the memory of which would stick in my mind years later when I would travel more. The first, we'd spend each day picking a direction on a compass and would just walk that way, exploring as we walked along (getting lost along the way). And the second, being "cool", we avoided guided tours until the very end, when we were out of ideas. In actuality, the bus tour through the countryside was awesome and we wondered why we had waited so long to do it.

Sadly, no Bono sightings.

It was also my first time spent in a hostel. Jenn and I shared a room with 4 Russians, all black leather jackets and smokes who would stop talking whenever we walked into the room and stared constantly at my blonde-haired, blue-eyed friend. There was a Scottish bagpipe player who slept all during the day. And then, the polish lovers who would argue fiercely throughout the day, then make love all throughout the night. Poor Jenn slept right under one of their make-up, make-out sessions.

Striking up a conversation

The memories from this trip are still fresh in my memory: fish and chips every night, baileys and coffee at U2's hotel (The Clarence), a rainy visit to a pirate viking-sacked monastery, and a very cold, very long night spent at the Dublin airport.

Mom jeans when they were cool.

Jenn still lives in Costa Rica and although we don't nearly email each other as much as we once did, she's still a very dear friend.

Never a good idea to pack drunk.

Dublin Photoset