We made our next and most recent journey a little closer to home on a Paddywagon Tour of South-West Ireland. AzA J, Spencer and I all woke up early on 1st June and walked the slightly chilly way to the Paddy Palace behind Customs House on the Quays. As we waited patiently for our driver to find us and show us to our big green bus, we noticed how many young, interesting people there seemed to be waiting with us. This was going to be a fun trip!
We followed Mike, our tour guide, over to our bus and were surprised that none of the other people we had spotted were following too. However, it did seem that we had a distinctly older looking crowd around us as we lifted our heavy bags into the bus. Sigh....
After a 10 minute trip over to Phoenix Park, we all piled off again and stood in a circle around Mike as he told us a little about Dublin and our surroundings. We all told each other, one by one, who we were and where we were from. There was Deb, from Illinois who was a clown and ex-nurse. Kate was her daughter, also from Illinois. Gerri, Kate's friend, was also from Illinois. Then there was Sarah, Kate's half-sister and Darryl, her father, from Illinois. Dan was Sarah's husband, from Illinois. Then there was Patty, Mark, Sally, Jane, Beccy, Peter and Paul... from Illinois, and various relations of the rest I've mentioned. Luckily there was Dave - the Aussie. He was so completely wasted when he got on the bus that he needed the entire backseat to sleep for the first part of the journey. After falling off the seat five times, he was awake enough for us to realise he was aces.
It soon came to our attention that there were two other good ones on the tour. Kate and Gerri were remarkably easy going and friendly and seemed to have so much in common with my much loved friends in Aus. We had many a happy chat about craft, theatre, music and everything else we could think of. Kate is a librarian for primary school kids, and has a fantastic collection of owls. She also crafts like crazy and has heaps of mad skills in the area. Gerri is an engineer and, while that may not sound as interesting, she also can knit and craft with the best of them. We are currently sending each other care packages so that we feel like we're all still together.
We saw some amazing things while on this little tour of Ireland. it was weird to finally get out of Dublin and see some of the country. I was beginning to think the whole place was cold, grey and depressing. Not so! We saw the Cliffs of Moher, or the Cliffs of Insanity if you have read The Princess Bride. It was so hot and sticky the day we were there it wasn't like being in Ireland at all. In fact, it was the best week of weather we've had the whole year. We went for a tour around the Dingle Peninsular which was absolutely spectacular. There was purple heather in the hills and people camping by the sea. It was like a lovely dream...
I'm so glad I got to see some of what Ireland really has to offer as I was getting a little bored of my Dublin life. Now, I feel like I would actually want to come back for a visit instead of feeling like I can't wait to get out of here!
In two weeks we're off to Edinburgh and the Fringe Festival with AzA's sister, Danyane and her husband, Tim. Should be a blast!
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