Ireland

I'm back in Madrid after a four-night trip to Ireland. Before boarding the plane I was hoping for dreary, cold, foggy, drizzly weather (for most Oregonians that sounds crazy, but remember that it's been hot and dry in Madrid for the past month or so). When I got there it was sunny, however, I didn't mind because it had the clean air feeling...not the 6 million person city, nasal drying, weather in Madrid (it's actually not that bad :).

I arrived on a Saturday afternoon and spent the rest of the day as well as Sunday walking the city from top to bottom and back again seeing all the popluar tourist sites. That first Saturday I felt kind of weird, not sick, not uncomfortable, but something was out of place. After a couple hours I realized what it was - it was that everybody was speaking English and all the signs were in my native language! It took me a while to adjust; if I happened to bump into somebody I would say "perdoname" or "lo siento" instead of "excuse me" or "sorry".

Monday I went to Bray - a little town on the Irish Sea. From there I hiked along the coast to Greystone where I went swimming; the water was quite cold! Tuesday I went to a National Park and monastery called Glendalough (oddly pronounced: 'glen-duh-lok'). I hiked past two lakes and loads of tourists/vacationers, past an old mine, and then scrambled up a staircase of small pools and falling water. Near the top I was startled by a few deer standing close by watching me. They weren't scared so I took the opportunity to take some shots (with a camera, I didn't have a gun with me). I was able to get within 25 feet or so of them. Later I swam in one of the pools and it was surprisingly warm.

Here are some pics:


Maritime Festival




St. Patrick's Cathedral