episode #1 redux

okay, trying to recreate here, but unsure of possible success. things never seem to come out as well a second time. will save drafts elsewhere this time!



so i started my journey in glasgow. spent 2 days there while, as i mentioned previously, i saw much art (though i did miss the dali painting at the cathedral....bummer), got started on my pints, had my hair twisted, and met several great people. i then continued on to edinburgh to join a backpackers tour around ireland.




we spent 6 days tooling around the emerald isle in a blue minibus named betty, and i met more cool people, caught up on my pint drinking, heard some wonderful live music, practiced a bit of football (soccer) and hackey sack, saw a bit of traditional irish "line" dancing, and learned more about irish history than i ever did in college (no surprise there).




my favorite place on this beautiful isle? impossible to say. there wasn't a single one that didn't endow me with some truly wonderful feeling. even the sometimes bleak and heart-wrenching town of belfast gave an opportunity for my heart to pound as i stood beside a mural at the site of the bloody sunday shootings (*not* the one pictured here).




anyone who has been to ireland knows that the serenity and beauty of this emerald isle is impossible to convey in words or capture in pictures. there is no way to explain the awe which fills one's heart and soul as you stand on her unfathomable greens and watch the clouds move low across the horizon. naturally, i couldn't help giving it a shot anyway...





then of course there is the exhilaration of climbing around centuries-old ruins of castles and fortresses, imagining another time in that place, when stones were solid and laughter rang. this first one i visited, just north and west of belfast (kenmare) stopped my heart and my breath for a moment. then i recovered myself, and fumbled blindly for my camera, unwilling to look away, lest it disappear like the mirage it seemed.


(my apologies for the flowery language, but there is nothing about ireland that allows me to deny the tendency toward it. y'all mostly know i'm a closet romantic anyway....)

okay, that's it for now. next episode coming soon. and hk, since you tease that i might have pulled my pix from the web instead of actually traveling, here's me in the flesh.