the country of god.

i have only been in ireland for two full days now, but it feels like a week. in a good way, time is passing at a slow pace, and i feel as if i am making good use of my minutes and hours.

it has been lovely to begin my trip with familiar faces. not that i don't love meeting people -- and i am sure i will meet many -- but sharing exciting new places with strangers just is not the same thing. as carolynn would say, i use too many superlatives, but i mean it when i say that they have brightened my trip so far.

we flew into ireland on the sketchiest flight of all time. i have never heard amazing things about ryan air, but let me tell you: they have the bumpiest landings of all time. the guy sitting next to me said that this is a regular thing. as well, none of us could understand a word that the flight attendant was saying! can you picture us, in an emergency, with a flight attendant that speaks no english. good thing i am not scared of flying.

i have been to dublin before, but visiting a place again is ideal. i was already oriented to the city, and i knew what i had enjoyed and what i hadn't. the girls were up for lots of wandering and relaxing, and it ended up being a perfect trip. i didn't repeat any of the things i had done last summer! finding cheap pub food was the biggest challenge that we had. but our pints of guinness went down smooth, and we managed to find our way back to our hostel at night without getting lost -- which is a success in my books. carolynn has a high school friend who goes to trinity college for med school. so, we got to go to the trinity college pub, and he took us to the greatest places. seeing a city with someone who lives there makes all the difference! in case you all didn't know, there are 850 pubs in dublin! don't worry, i think we only saw 3 or 4 in all.

today carolynn and i took a train all the way to the other side of ireland (2 and half whole hours! which is long for them), and we are in galway. it is such a lovely, quaint city -- perfect for a day or two. it has been sunny so far, and just when the skies opened up, the sun came back out. i think luck is on our side. tomorrow we are heading out to the aran islands for a bit of biking and exercise. apparently there are a thousand and one irish stone ruins for us to discover. it will be interesting because most people on the aran islands speak irish, and less english. i think we will also be staying in a b & b owned by locals, which i am really looking forward to!

tim jebb tells me that ireland is the country of god. i'll let you know if its true.