Mood- Exhausted
Listening to- Filter-Take a Picture
1,574 Kilometers (961 Miles), two girls, six days, three tanks of gas, a couch, a hotel, a BNB, two hostels, the beauty of Ireland, and the trip of a lifetime. It would take me a novel of words to explain the imprint my drive around Ireland has left on me.
This trip was manifested in a joke. Something you dream about doing and say you will do after a few pints at a pub. Just a dream to keep you motivated through the rush of life. This was one dream I was determined to come true. Everyone always asks why, why would you do something so crazy? I say why wouldn't I? So we committed to the dream. We booked the car, my friend booked her flights, and the adventure began.
We began the trip with no expectations but a mass of ambition. Drive the circumference of the island if Ireland in six days. We mapped the route, planning to stay in major cities along the way. From Dublin to Cork, Cork around the Ring of Kerry to Limerick, from Limerick to Galway, Galway through Sligo to Derry/Londonderry, from Derry to Belfast and then back to Dublin. Typing these cities and reliving the trip in memory feels like frames in a movie. One of those movies that instantly moves you.
We woke up every morning with the sun. Every day was something new, somewhere we had never seen and endless possibilities stretching on like the winding country roads in front of us. The trip feels like it took years, but was over in a minute and now seems like an eternity away. Each new city meant new people, new experiences and more stories to fold away in our minds. We were like great explorers in the old centuries, discovering and learning something new in every leg of the trip. We kissed the Blarney Stone, we walked in graveyards and churches centuries older then we could comprehend.
We met beautiful people, some who were on their own adventure. Each adding to the experience in a different way. We saw the beautiful Irish coast line slide along the picture frame window of the car. We placed our feet in the Atlantic ocean for the first time. At night we blended into the scenes of people. We experienced the nightlife and danced like savages experiencing the full moon for the first time. Everything was fresh and new to us.
I will never be the same after this last week. Ireland is truly the most beautiful place on earth. The things I have learned, the people I have met, and the beauty I have seen will be with me for the rest of my life. Every second of that trip was worth it and I would not change a thing in it for the world. We were never homesick because we found a new home wherever we went. This trip more then anything made me realize how happy I am to be alive. How lucky I am to live in such a beautiful world and be able to dive into the experiences. One day I will write a book to summarizes the experience of this trip, but for now I can only express it in vague sentiments. The only way you could truly understand or feel it, is to go and live it like I did.
For now, I am back in Dublin. Exhausted after St. Paddys weekend (which will get its own entry into this blog), and dreaming I was driving the windy roads of the Irish country side with the music blasting, the windows down, and the sun on my face.
As always,
From Dublin, with love
Olivia
No comments:
Post a Comment