Return to the homeland…

It was really a weird feeling being in Ireland. On one hand, it was this new country that we had never been to, knew almost nothing about, and had no connection to other than a few phone numbers for “hook ups”. On the other hand, however, it just felt right. We were shown places where our greatgreat, greatgreatgreat, and greatgreatgreatgreat grandparents lived and raised the families that are truly our ancestors. We always knew that we had Irish relatives, but it always just seemed like something our grandmother told us to make us feel like we had some sort of heritage. It was this feeling of, “wow, so this is where it all began…”

Day two dawned as beautiful as day one and after a lazy morning, we dug a couple bikes out of the garage, pumped up the tires, and took off to explore the countryside. We had a lovely ride, just cruising along in the sun, soaking up as much scenery as rays. We got a little lost, but were put back on track by a friendly local who, in quintessential Irish manner, nonchalantly mentioned that there were some ancient ruins close by, even telling us what backroads to take to avoid a dangerous stretch of highway. The ruins turned out to be a 13th century priory that was spectacular. The crazy thing was it was just sitting in the middle of someone’s field, no parking lot, no swarms of tourists. ‘Suppose that was thing I liked most about Ireland—it’s so understated, and completely without trying to be so. They are currently one of the most economically successful countries in the European Union, have some of the world’s most spectacular ancient architecture, geological formations, and just plain ol’ fashioned good views, not to mention fantastic culture…and they acknowledge it all with a simple nod and a soft smile- before pointing the way to the next incredible place.

We eventually headed home, and after another fabulous home-cooked irish meal, we headed out for a whirlwind of visits to second and third cousins. Most of the time I wasn’t quite able to figure out how we were related to them, but they were all incredibly nice, very inviting, and unfailingly entertaining. On our last stop we mentioned that our travel plans for tomorrow included sleeping in the Dublin airport. They immediately mentioned that they had a daughter living in Dublin, just a few minutes from the airport. Just seconds later they were on the phone with her, and a minute after that we were told she would pick us up at our bus stop at the airport. Will make our trip easier for sure…

The day finished back in John and Margaret’s living room—we stayed up until 1am just talking, with John entertaining us with stories of farming before powered machinery--a completely different Ireland than we saw. We went to bed for another solid night of sleep.

More pictures! Again, you'll have to wait for summaries...I'm too lazy to do then right now. As always, they're nice and big, just click to enlarge...