I had to slow it down. I had a setback with my flexibility and pain, although my strength tests were much better. It was quite disappointing for me because I am so rarin’ to go with all the inspiration I get from my online class with Jude Hill, but I finally accepted (after being told by my doctor and therapist) that I was overdoing it, and I’ve spent the last couple of weeks not doing much other than reading and working and getting through a bad cold.
Last Friday I celebrated the 51st anniversary of my birth, the one in which I “broke the mold.” My poor mother. She had a handful when she had me. Her friends told me later when I was an adult that they dreaded it when she brought me over. I can just imagine when I consider how I might feel with a wild child in my house.
Anyway, I had caught Sandy’s nasty cold, and I had some drinks at Old Town Draught House with a couple of co-workers and my husband on Friday evening, went to bed early, then on Saturday I went to Leon’s Beauty School and got a short haircut and Sandy took me to Josephine’s Bistro on Spring Garden St., which has become my new favorite upscale restaurant. So many of my favorites shut down with the recession. Josephine’s sources its food locally as much as possible and lists the farmers and food producers it buys from on its menu board. I appreciate that extra step so much. And they offer small plates on many entrees. I was ailing, though, so I just ordered a seafood soup and a beet salad. And OH MY GOD, they were both WONDERFUL.
In order to keep myself from going nuts I decided to go ahead and research and plan and make lodging reservations for the Ireland trip, based on the general plan Sandy and I plotted out on a napkin at the bar at Josephine’s. What is really nice about Ireland is that most hotels and guesthouses allow you to cancel up to 1-2 days ahead of time with no penalty! I don’t know if it is a law or what, but I sure do like it. I wish the U.S. would do it that way. Sandy and I travel really well together, thank God, because we like the same things. He has made me more of a history buff and I have made him more of a foodie.
So here’s the plan:
- Day 1: Arrive in Dublin early Saturday morning
- Day 1-2: Saturday and Sunday: Take a bus or train to Ariel House, stay Saturday-Sunday nights, explore Dublin
- Day 3: Monday morning: Take a bus or train to airport and pick up rental car, Drive to Newgrange and Hill of Tara, go on tours
- Day 3: Monday night: Drive to Kells, stay at Headfort Arms (I may decide to change this one.)
- Day 4: Tuesday morning, explore Kells area, drive to Ballycastle, UK
- Day 4: Tuesday night: explore Ballycastle, REST. Stay at An Caislean.
- Day 5: Wednesday morning: explore Giant’s Causeway and Grianan of Aileach and whatever on the drive to Buncrana. I believe this is fitting that I will visit the ancient ancestral home of the O’Neill Dynasty on the 25th anniversary of becoming an O’Neill.
- Day 5: Wednesday night: Lake of Shadows Hotel in Buncrana. Our 25th anniversary night.
- Day 6: Thursday morning: Drive to Galway via Letterkenny. This will take all day. See Galway
- Day 6: Thursday night: Asgard Guest House in Galway
- Day 7: Friday: REST and explore Cliffs of Maher
- Day 7: Friday night: Asgard Guest House in Galway
- Day 8: Saturday: Dingle Peninsula? Ennis? Drive to Killorglin.
- Day 8: Saturday night: Grove Lodge in Killorglin.
- Day 9: Sunday morning: Ring of Kerry, Skellig Michael? Hope so, it would round out the current World Heritage sites in Ireland. But I do get seasick and it depends on weather, also.
- Day 9: Sunday night: Grove Lodge Guesthouse
- Day 10: Monday morning: Drive back to Dublin, maybe stop at Blarney castle on the way, find a place near the airport to stay
- Day 10: Monday night: Dublin airport hotel, collapse
- Day 11: Tuesday morning: GO HOME
Now I have to find something to occupy my brain until May 11.
Since it is likely that I will forget it, guess I’ll mention here that my 7th blogiversary will be on Monday. I began this blog as a garden/local food/general therapy journal. Eventually I ran out of things to say about gardening and local food, especially when other local bloggers came along and started doing it better, and I turned my focus to my art. I am still an advocate of voluntary simplicity, although I might sound monetarily rich from all my traveling. If you saw my house and my car (which I seldom drive) and my clothes, you’d see that it is a matter of the choices that I’ve made to prioritize those things that mean the most to me and make me inwardly rich.
slowly she turned 