Holy crap

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Funny how your flist can become completely overwhelming and totally unmanageable when left unattended for two weeks. I don't think I'll ever recover.

I did have a fabulous trip, though. I am, of course, now completely smitten with an Irish musician named Owen. Other than that, I think the highlight of the trip was the castle ruins (particularly Rock of Cashel and Cahir). I like those kinds of castles much better than the renovated, redecorated ones... it became a running joke with my travel companions, "Oh, this place has furniture. Sorry, you won't like it." We also saw the Cliffs of Moher, Dingle, Dungarvan, Kinsale, Waterford crystal factory, Kilkenney, and a bunch of stuff in Dublin that I'd already seen the first time I went there, but it was new for everyone else.

I also enjoyed the cows and sheep, of which we saw many. In fact, our next door neighbors were cows. It's kinda weird how they all stare at you when you walk past. It's like the Borg or something.

The house we stayed in was beautiful, in An Rinn, outside of Dungarvan, right on a cliff overlooking the sea, surrounded by fields and pastures. The driving was... well, never a dull moment. We rented a Jaguar totally by accident (we reserved a Toyota, but our 50 bamillion suitcases couldn't fit in those midget cars Europeans drive, so we needed a bigger one), and my mom loved driving it. My aunt... not so much, lol. Fortunately, we hardly hit any pedestrians, and the car was returned not too worse for wear. Plus, we had Irish men offering to pump our gas for us in exchange for the chance to sit in the Jag, lol.

It took about a week to really get into the Irish pub scene, but once we did, we had a lot of fun. Spent two nights at a bar in Dungarvan, which is where I met the aforementioned Owen, as well as a couple pubs in Dublin with good Irish music. We managed to make friends and the Irish were all too willing to buy us drinks (yet I still managed to escape without drinking any Guinness).

There were a few minor bumps (we lost our camera, some stress over incompatible travel companions), but overall, we had a brilliant time, and I'd so totally go back.

Anyway, once I've got all the post-vacation RL things sorted out, I'll start slowly but surely plowing through the "Closure" reviews (which, again, holy crap) and post up the last couple chapters. I think I might have won some awards? I have to check my email...

Comments

[silverusagi]

Sounds like you had a great time! Ireland is on my list of places to go.

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Yeah, I did. :) Ireland was actually pretty low on my list, but it just happened to work out with the house and everything, and I loved it a lot more than I expected to. It's a beautiful country.

[louise39.livejournal.com]

Welcome back and it sounds like a brilliant trip.

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Thanks! I had such a great time... I want to go back!

[clawofcat.livejournal.com]

Whee! You're back, baby. So good to hear that it turned out alright, despite pre-departure reservations. I know nothing about Ireland, but the place names sound beautiful. I'm dying to see pictures when you get the chance.

And, yes. You won awards! *does the Snoopy dance*

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Heh, yeah, I was somewhat apathetic about it before I left, but it turned out to be quite fun. (Plus, cute boys! He hasn't emailed me back yet, though...) I don't actually have any pictures of my own, since we lost the camera, but Meghan just sent me her pics so at least we'll have something.

And yay! I'll have to do an award post next...

[ellan-vannin.livejournal.com]

Glad to see you back! Your trip sounds marvelous, I hope you'll have more stories to share!

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Thank you! I did have a wonderful time.

[brunettepet.livejournal.com]

The trip sounds phenomenal. I love that guys would pump your gas just to get to sit in the Jaguar! I have never understood men's fascination with cars.

Welcome back!

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Haha, that was pretty hilarious. The one guy actually said to my mom, "You know, you don't see many women here driving these cars." And I thought, "Dude, I haven't seen another car this f-ing big since I got here, no matter who's driving!"

[riccadonna.livejournal.com]

You've been missed! Seems like you had a wonderful trip, with the added guilty pleasure of being on holiday while the rest of the world was back to work...Welcome back and start posting weird memes and stuff as soon as possible.

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Aww, thank you! It's good to be back, I guess... although I kinda wish I wasn't, lol.

[dragonflylady77.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a cool trip. You wanna come to France with me next year? ^_^

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Heh, I would love to, but I've already been to France twice, so I should probably shoot for someplace I've never been before. :)

[dragonflylady77.livejournal.com]

Well we're going to go to Scotland and Switzerland too. Wanna come with us for a swim in Lake Geneva? :)

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Ooh, I've never been to those places... sounds like fun! What made you choose those three? It's a bit of an unusual mix.

[dragonflylady77.livejournal.com]

Well I'm from France and I have a very good friend in Switzerland so that's 2. And I want to go see jamies_lady in Scotland. ^_^

[lusciousxander.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you had fun on your trip. :)

I'm even gladder that there will be more Closure soon... when????? *very desperate fangirl here*

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Thanks! And a new "Closure" is already up, so no need to be desperate. :)