Ireland Travel, Part 2

Midlife Adventures in Ireland | Traveling My Way

Ireland Travel | Yesterday and Today

Having been to Ireland before nearly 20 years ago,  I felt drawn back to the place of my heritage. There’s so much to see and do on this tiny island the size of Indiana. There’s ancient Ireland with stone circles and burial sites dating to before the pyramids. There’s medieval Ireland when Ireland was the land of saints and scholars where the religious came to become priests or enter monasteries or abbeys, the ruins of which remain.There’s foodie Ireland, yes, you heard me right.The Irish have gotten a bum rap for food over the years. More on that later. There’s musical Ireland of course. There’s the fun of the cities. And you can’t forget Viking Ireland. Did you know that? Ireland was invaded by the Vikings around 800 AD. Dublin and Waterford grew out of this Viking presence.

Now there’s even adventure Ireland filled with hiking, biking and sports like cliff diving. We met a bunch of young gals who asked us to take their picture outside of a pub/restaurant. They hopped up on a bench and then insisted we do the same. We ran into them again later that evening at another restaurant. One gal started talking to us, oh there you are again, she says. We thought it was a case of mistaken identity. We didn’t recognize her since she had changed from outdoor clothes to swanky night clothes for the evening out with friends. She told us she and her friends had gathered for a birthday celebration and decided to go cliff diving onto the beach and then swimming. She swims year -round with a wet suit, she says. No stopping these young Irish.

When it comes to Ireland travel, the possibilities are endless. It was a bit overwhelming deciding which Ireland to see and experience. I wanted to do mystical Ireland which was a little harder than expected. The Ireland I had the pleasure of experiencing all those years ago, when self-driving touring had just begun, changed. She is more commercialized charging admission and parking fees now to major sites. What you experience when you go back is that Ireland has moved on with the times. The Ireland of thatched roofs, quaint small towns and old pubs still exists, it just co-exists now with a new, modern, young, vibrant, hopeful Ireland. This benefitted us in all the Airbnb’s we stayed in which were new houses with hot showers. No hot showers or big bathrooms the first time around. No outlets in the bathrooms though. In most public bathrooms there are no mirrors either. The Irish definitely do not look at themselves as much as we do. What you see is what you get. Who knew I needed to disconnect from this vanity -induced behavior?

(Need to catch up? Read Part 1 HERE.)