Like I said, I absolutely loved everything about Cork. It was a great city, and of course it was so wonderful to see Danielle! I got the train back to Dublin and had my first few minutes to myself since classes were over- ahh. I watched a whole lot of Modern Family online, laid in my bed, and for the first time in so many weeks, I allowed myself to be positively mindless! It was a wonderful break.
Later that night, Kristy came to visit!! She’s been in London all semester, and it was so fun to show her my city. We wandered around the city, shopped a bit, made delicious dinner, and of course went to Queen of Tarts. It was a short visit, but it was grand to spend time with her! She’s actually back in the US now- so weird! I’m one of my only friends left in Europe… it’s a bizarre feeling!
After Kristy left, I had a few days to myself in Dublin. It was good to be home and settled, and I did a lot of laundry and just general wandering around the city. Tom came to visit on Wednesday with his Dad and brother Mark, and it was really wonderful to be with him and get to show him around my version of Hogwarts! We also visited the Dublin writer’s museum, went on a Literary Pub Crawl, and saw St. Stephen’s Green. I had so much fun, but on Friday I left him in Dublin to head out West for Easter!
I got on the Luas, the light rail system in Dublin, (Luas is Irish for “speed”) out to Dundrum to meet my cousin Paula, who picked me up and drove me out to Mayo. It was a beautiful ride, and it was one of those times where I remembered, “oh, I’m in Ireland!” It was so great to have some time in the country and relax with my family!
On Saturday, I went on a bike ride along the coast with my cousin Karen and her new husband Darragh. It was absolutely gorgeous- I felt like I was in a movie the whole time! It was slightly unprepared for how long the ride was- Karen and Darragh forgot to mention that it was an 18 km trail each way, and it was about 2 km to the trail from the bike rental place. We stopped halfway and had a lovely lunch looking out at Achill Island, but boy was I glad to be back in the car and on the way back to Tena and Sean’s house after the trip was over! It ended up being almost a marathon long- good training for my half-marathon, but I found myself sitting on pillows for the next few days, as I wasn’t used to cycling that much.
Sunday morning we got up before dawn for mass at Barnacarroll, the church where everyone in my family has gone to mass forever. Dawn mass was very cool- it was actually completely packed, and Karen, Paula and I found ourselves standing in the back! Afterwards, there was tea and scones outside the church, which was lovely. It would have been even lovelier had it not been cold and rainy, but everyone had great conversation clutching their teacups. It made me think of post-mass bash at PC, and I was happy to be a part of it!
After mass, I went back to sleep for a few hours. We got up and had a lovely, relaxing Easter. Paula and Tena and I went on a drive to go visiting some other relatives I hadn’t seen yet, but no one was home, so we went to Nancy’s house and walked out in the fields to see her new calves- she has two sets of twins! Paula and Tena loved taking pictures of the city girl out in the fields, and while I didn’t want to get too too close to the cows, I had a lot of fun getting back to my roots.
That night we went to Burke’s, an infamous pub in Knock. I had heard so much about it, and had been there once before, but didn’t really remember it. There was a whole big group of us in the back room, and I was treated to several pints and glasses of hot whiskey (my new favorite thing, it’s the most calming drink ever), and I slept very well that Easter night.
The next morning Paula and I got our things together, and after she very graciously printed my boarding passes for my next trip out, we headed back to Dublin. After another short ride on the Luas and walk back, I was home in my apartment- for a few hours. My next adventure began early the next morning!
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