Irish thoughts

Hiya! The friendly Irish greeting heard all around the country. Even though English is widely spoken around the world, I was looking forward to being in an English speaking country, if only for a few days, so that I would be able to listen to idle conversation again (eavesdrop if you will).  But the Irish accent was so fecking hard to understand...I listened to entire conversations between people without picking up any of what they were saying.

Anyways...Ireland was a very friendly country to visit. Even the immigrations officer gave me the warmest greeting I've ever gotten by someone in that position. If only the warm greetings could actually warm the body. I know my cold threshold has not had to deal with anything below 70 degrees in many months (hardly below 80 degrees even), but I still want to complain about how drastically cold Ireland feels! I pulled out as many layers as possible but I still had to buy a sweater. (The sweater is covered in cats and hearts, I am no longer in an obvious minority wearing glasses, and people don't openly tell me I have a boyish haircut...it's nice to have some hipster comforts back.) One of the most common questions I get when talking with other travelers is 'how did you pack for so many different environments?' Well, I packed versatile and 'layerable' outfits, but I may still need to purchase more layers. My next pursuit will be gloves, but I might wait until I reach eastern Europe where I won't have to sacrifice the day's food budget to stay warm. Ireland is quite nice, but quite expensive. No more gourmet meals for $3. Probably no crappy sandwiches for $3. But I was ready for this, and it is back to cooking my own food rather than eating out.

Ireland is beautiful.  My first few days were in Belfast (which is actually part of the UK and uses pounds even though it is in the state of Northern Ireland and Ireland uses euros). A big city but still manageable on foot. There is a long, violent history between the Catholics and the Protestants and a wall is still erected to divide the two neighborhoods (not entirely--it's not the Berlin wall, you can get from one side to the other eventually, but still it is a blaring sign of the division that exists even today). There are also many, many murals around the city displaying citizens' viewpoints on the history of their city. these were beautiful and emotional, and probably even more meaningful had I taken the tour that explained them all. But I just checked them out by foot.

I came to Ireland to see the Lumineers and the Civil Wars. The show was quite excellent. I was even in the front row without having to throw out elbows, and no one crowded me during the show.  I had planned to go meet the Lumineers at their merchandise table after the show and bond over common Denver interests, but they weren't at the table, so I was not able to expand our Denver circle of friends to include them (sorry!). 

My next couple of days I bypassed Dublin to get to Glendalough. A quaint hillside village without a grocery store or any industry really. Just a couple hotels and churches.  People come here to go walking. So I did. I walked and I walked up the hills, through the trees, around the lake. It was beautiful. Please see Facebook for pictures as I really don't have much else to say about walking.

Or about Ireland. So...Cheers. See you very soon, it's already November. Please vote!