Walking o’re the Misty Mountains

County Kerry is “as close as you’ll get to the mythical Ireland,” according to the Lonely Planet Guidebook. An’ sure it is: a beautiful land of green fields, sheep and gorse, ancient rock walls, with purple mountains hovering in the distance. One can almost imagine behind the fog lie the shimmering gates of Tir na [...]

Talk Blarney to Me

The Ireland countryside is slightly rolling hills with farmland stretching for miles in either direction. A landscape of green and brown, dotted with puffs of white sheep. It is familiar; it could be any stretch of farmland in western Washington. Unlike Sweden and Germany, the small towns that crop up are, surprisingly, not dominated by [...]

In Dublin’s Fair City

I have dreamed of Ireland: of walking in the footsteps of my ancestors, of listening to the uilleann pipes over a pint of cider, of walking o’er the rocky green hills with the scent of magic tinglin’ on the mornin’ wind. I walked off the plane early Saturday after many torturous hours without sleep and [...]