Ireland was beautiful. On a route of Dublin to Blarney Castle (we both kissed the blarney stone), Killarney, Cliffs of Mohler, and Doolin with many little stops along the way to view places where paganism was beaten away by Christianity.
(All of these lovely little places we keep finding ourselves in seem to have been completely transformed due to belief structure...usually religion. The unfortunate part is that it appears the religions refuse to exist without destroying that of the past. So while many things are beautifully done in the name of religion (and most of it by force and not choice), the places lose their history prior to the birth of that religion in that place. It is actually really sad in a lot of ways how people did and continue to force their religion on others as the only way. At least that's my take on it.)
The adventure of this trip was not so much in Ireland itself, as it was a tour and we just had to be in the right spot at the right time. The adventure was learning never again to take the coach from London Victoria overnight into Dublin. The overnight pass involves getting off the bus to pass through security (where nothing happens except that you're trying to sleep), and then off the bus onto the 3.5 hour ferry ride to sleep in a cramped restaurant that seems to have the air conditioning on at all times. By the time we arrived in Dublin we were not rested as I thought we would have been.
The way home should've been smoother with the ferry ride up at the beginning, but when we fought Monday morning rush hour and pulled into London Victoria, the counter-terrorism unit was running a drill. Luckily Australian and American married couple don't fit the "we need to search through your luggage" group as all of the single passengers on our bus were searched. It was an extra hour and a half added to the end of our trip. Needless to say...we're glad to be back home in London.
(All of these lovely little places we keep finding ourselves in seem to have been completely transformed due to belief structure...usually religion. The unfortunate part is that it appears the religions refuse to exist without destroying that of the past. So while many things are beautifully done in the name of religion (and most of it by force and not choice), the places lose their history prior to the birth of that religion in that place. It is actually really sad in a lot of ways how people did and continue to force their religion on others as the only way. At least that's my take on it.)
The adventure of this trip was not so much in Ireland itself, as it was a tour and we just had to be in the right spot at the right time. The adventure was learning never again to take the coach from London Victoria overnight into Dublin. The overnight pass involves getting off the bus to pass through security (where nothing happens except that you're trying to sleep), and then off the bus onto the 3.5 hour ferry ride to sleep in a cramped restaurant that seems to have the air conditioning on at all times. By the time we arrived in Dublin we were not rested as I thought we would have been.
The way home should've been smoother with the ferry ride up at the beginning, but when we fought Monday morning rush hour and pulled into London Victoria, the counter-terrorism unit was running a drill. Luckily Australian and American married couple don't fit the "we need to search through your luggage" group as all of the single passengers on our bus were searched. It was an extra hour and a half added to the end of our trip. Needless to say...we're glad to be back home in London.
