leaving

I have never been good at goodbyes but sometimes I do much better than others... This was not one of those times.

As I sit here on the plane I am filled with a mix of emotions. I am excited to share stories and photos with those back home, but am already missing those people with whom those stories and photos happened. I cannot begin to wrap my mind around going back to reality after falling in love with the most perfect place on the face of the planet... Driven mad with the intensity of being wanderlust. I'm not sure if I used that word right, but someone explained it to me as being compelled by an inner desire to travel the world.

My great uncle Jackie told me yesterday that I would be in love with Ireland and that I need to be home for at least a week before deciding I can move here. I replied asking him how he knew I wanted to move here and he said (with a few additional expletives) that everybody wants to move here... But they only know the truly magical, holiday, summer of Ireland and not the grueling monotony of being there for four seasons, year after year with the same people who you either talk to everyday or are in such a roué with that you don't talk to them at all anymore. I'll have to see where life takes me, but I don't think Jackie would be too harsh a critic if I ever did make the move back to this lovely place.

Between sobbing to myself and being completely indecisive about what I want to drink or eat when the cart rolls by, I am finding it to be the longest flight I've ever been on and cannot imagine the end of this journey. Appropriate I think that today is the longest day of the year.

To those I've left behind: I miss you already. I wish I had got to spend more time with some of you. I wish that I was going to be there for peter's first day of big school and grace's dance competition and the building of stephs house and the birth of Jackie's baby... And so many other things but I am confident that I will be in touch with all of you frequently and that we have the rest of our lives to get to know each other better.

To those I'm coming home to: I have missed you! I promise!! And talk of moving to Ireland is in no way a reflection on how I feel about living in the USA. I cannot wait to sit around and tell stories of my adventures and shenanigans and show you pictures of the beautiful people and places! And I earnestly hope that all of you someday get to experience this. This completely insane love for a place and its people that I am experiencing.

I have about a small eternity left on this plane flight.

Also, while I've been writing I chose a ginger ale and the salad... I need to become a better decision maker when it comes to eating and drinking. Maybe not better... But quicker!!

the farrier

Brian took me and Steph around with him for a days worth of farriering. We watched him put shoes on horses and I got to see loads more places in one day than I would have!!

3 days left. That doesn't seem possible, but it's true!

Xoxo

dublin

dublin. mary was so excited to go back to the place where she spent so many years... and she was so terribly disappointed. dublin in the 2000's is not the same as dublin in the 1950's. nonetheless we did some fun stuff. 

we got to dublin via the bus. we took the bus from letterfrack to galway city and then caught a bus to dublin. once we arrived in dublin we got some food and started walking! we walked all around near trinity college, temple bar, the river and the cathedrals. our walk was partnered with off and on rains but i enjoyed every bit of it! 

after about 2 hours of walking we checked in to a hotel in the temple bar area, put our feet up for a little and got some dinner. the area was full of people and music and dancing and there isn't a place in dublin that you can't hear it from! :) 

the night in the hotel was eventful. the fire alarm went off twice because someone who had enjoyed dublin a bit too much had smashed the fire alarm in order to get someone to help him get into his room. mary was convinced we were going to die after it happened the first time and then when it went off the second time she was apologizing to me that i was too young to die. it was just a crazy bit of an evening. 

in the morning we decided that we were going to go to the guinness factory and then catch the bus back to galway city. from the hotel the lady told us it would take us 10 minutes to walk to the factory... a good 45 minutes later we arrived there, went on our self-guided tour of the building and made it to the gravity bar at the top of the building. it's an amazing view of all of dublin and you can see out of the building in all directions. it was really something. mary and i got our complimentary guinness and mary had to go to the bathroom. i made quick friends with 2 scottish ladies who were standing at a table and mary went to the bathroom. and here's the bit that i'm not really sure about.... mary must have just been coming out of the bathroom when my cousin scott (from ny) and his wife serena spotted her. scott said he thought that it was my grandma and followed her up to the top level where we all found each other. it was the perfect way to spend the afternoon in dublin catching up with scott and serena. 

we took the busses back to letterfrack and i think it's safe to say we were both glad to have made it home in one piece. 

in the guinness factory 

the view from the gravity bar 

watching the euro 2012 matches at a pub

a beautiful church we walked into during the ecumenical council

dublin 

the gravity bar 

scotty!! 

mooneys and judges

euro 2012! 

churches 

mary outside the factory

the last week in renvyle

in the last week here i've been in clifden, renvyle, letterfrack, galway city and west port. connemara is just the most beautiful place in the whole world. i've been to music shops, seen horse shoes being made, sea kyacking and golfing! my great uncle thady took me golfing for the first time and i couldn't imagine a more picturesque place to golf. the tpc scottdale has nothing on the renvyle house's course! (on a side note- the owner of the hotel says he has been to the tpc in scottsdale and does not agree with my thought on the courses!) we've had 3 consecutive days of sunshine here this past weekend and so i've been outside on the beach at the house and on walks enjoying the rare, sunny irish weather. we have been swimming in the sea off the white strand... it's a bit cooler than the pools in scottsdale but i'd say i prefer it here!

saturday evening i went out to the disco and sunday morning i went to mass at the church in honor of the anniverary of the death of stephen salmon, my great grandfather. it is a beautiful church and everyone seems to know that i'm a salmon. and they keep saying that they are so glad i've come home!

last night was the first game of the euro 2012 and ireland played so we were all decked out in green and orange and watched a disappointing first game for ireland. hopefully there are better games to come for the irish! peter was chanting "let's go ireland... go st. patrick!" and after much confusion steph had to explain to him that st. patrick didn't play for ireland and so his cheer didn't make any sense. he didn't care and continued to paint his face with streaks of green and white and orange. we had ordered food from about the only fast food-esque place in renvyle and got "thady burgers" which are named after my dad's uncle thady. it was delicious.

there are loads of things to catch up on, but, as i said, the sunshine is calling me to be outside and i will write again later.

xoxo

the view from the house

sean keane in concert 

on the drive around letter, derryinver

the swans at the golf course

renvyle castle 

farriers

golf with thady at the renvyle house 

inishbofin

for people who have been to ireland in the past it will be hard to believe that i have been in ireland since monday morning and today is the first rain i've seen since i've arrived. it's really spectacular weather here and i am having a great time.

the day that we got here steph came to collect us, as she would say, and we started the trip back to renvyle. it was a very strange feeling for me... i had gone 15 hours by plane, changed 8 time zones, knew i really wanted to be chatting away with my cousin and yet it was like i was part zombie and just could not do it. as i struggled to stay awake in the car we all made a little small talk and mary (my grandma) filled steph in on all the family in the states and steph told us a little about everyone here. it took me the whole car ride back to renvyle, being in the house for a few hours and meeting about 15 cousins and aunts and second cousins and such before i really began to believe that i was actually here. and even then it was more like a dream.

we spent all day tuesday at the house with the family:
jerry- mary's youngest brother. we are staying at his house.
eileen- jerry's wife. she is a teacher in clifden.
      steph- jerry's oldest daughter. she is 28. she has spent the most time with us so far and has 2 kids.
            grace- steph's daughter. she is 6 and she does irish dancing.
            peter- steph's son. he is 4 and is hilarious.
      liam- jerry's oldest son. he is 25. liam plays gaelic football and soccer. he also works in construction.
      barry- jerry's youngest son. he is 16. he has been off school since we've been here and mary named him sir lancelot for being such a chivalrous adventure companion for her. he fishes and plays soccer and irish football as well.
      caitlin- jerry's youngest daughter. she is 12. she is one of the country's best irish dancers. she is in 6th grade here and is the same age as the kids that i teach which is blowing my mind since i find her to be so much more mature than they were.
jackie- mary's oldest brother. he lives up the hill.
petey- just younger than mary. he lives a house away from jerry.
joe- lives in the top of momo's old house.
teddy- mary's second youngest son. he lives down the road.
geraldine- teddy's wife.
      jackie- teddy's oldest daughter. she is 25. she is a teacher too.
      sinead- teddy's youngest daughter. she is nearly 21. she works at kylemore abbey.

i'm sure i missed someone but i'll make sure i add them in as necessary.

tuesday we went on a hike. mary remembered this hike from the last time she was in ireland and that it wasn't too hard to walk down the white strand to the pier and back up to the house through the town of tully. i had no idea prior to the hike what we were actually in for and thank god that barry came with us. we walked down the sand along the beach, climbed rocks, jumped fences, cut through fields and after about 2 hours we made it up to tully. i don't think in a million years that mary would have thought it would take us 2 hours to walk the whole thing. so when we got to tully we went to a store and took a little break. we ran into peter, who was at his little friend's house, on the way home so he joined the caravan and walked with us home. a good 3 hours later we returned to the house, ate lasagna and chips (french fries) for dinner. after dinner we went up the hill to mary's brother jackie's house. i have never met him before, unless i was a baby, and so i asked a lot of questions and found him to be a very interesting old man. after we had chats with jackie we went down to the grave where my great grandmother and grandfather are buried and then went to patrick's pub to get a drink. at this point it was just me and mary and jerry. jerry seems to be really excited to tell people that his sister mary is visiting and everyone i meet seems to be my cousin once removed to some degree. the pub owner is my 4th cousin. mary says her father was his fathers cousin. my goodness it gets really complicated. anyway we stayed in the pub about an hour and i thought mary was just going to fall over with exhaustion so we went home.

wednesday steph had to go to the island of inishbofin (which i thought was called english muffin since they say it so fast and in their accent) to take photos for a pub to put on the walls of their food and events and such. we had to go to letterfrack to catch the ferry to the island. it was a beautiful drive, as are all drives here in ireland. i went with steph and sinead came with us, as she had the day off from the abbey. i really don't know how to explain it, but it seems like the 3 of us have always known each other. we laugh and joke and get along just fine and had lots of adventures on inishbofin. it was a really eventful day of being chased by chicken, driving a car that had a can of guiness explode in the back while we were driving it, hiking to places that probably no tourist has ever seen before and just enjoying each other's company. i am so thankful that i get to spend my time here with relatives like these! at the end of our day on the island we got back on the ferry to come home and instead of staying out on the deck like we did on the way to the island we decided to sit inside where it was much warmer. we found 3 seats together and a man approached me and told me i was in his seat. we all just kind of sat there waiting to see if he was joking or serious and it was difficult to tell until his wife appeared mouthing to us to just ignore him. he asked me if i had my passport and was making on like he was going to get me in trouble for obviously being an american and after we started talking get this... his best friend lives in america.... in scottsdale... and works at the mayo clinic... across the street from st. anthony on the desert (my church at home)... and the old irish man on the ferry has been there!! to my church. imagine that. he then told me that he was a magician and he met a leprechaun who gave him some irish silk. he pushed it into his fist and told me to blow on his hand and made the silk disappear. it was amazing. so much so that i asked him to come back and show us again. he did and it was just as amazing the second time. he told me to tell steve and pauline bisel that grandpa magic says hello when i return to scottsdale.

today is a voting holiday in ireland and so jackie is off of school and we are all going to do something. still being decided but they are all here and i need to stop writing. when i upload pictures here it isn't possible to label them so i will just have to put up as many as i can and hope that you can figure it all out.


love from renvyle,
me and my mary

a guiness settling 

the "pink" people 

inishbofin community center 

the west side of inishbofin 

the chickens and me 

mary, caitlin, grace and sinead on the strand low tide. 

day 2

i'll let the pictures do all the talking. yes, that is a cop-out of blogging.

jerry's houe (right) momo's house (left) 

what i woke up to the morning i got here... 

steph's house in the making in the distant on the right. 

the white strand.

caitlin and tiny. 

grace and peter and tiny.

the view 

the white strand with the sea 

flu powder would have been easier

i made it to new york this morning and got picked up by my long-time dear friend, allie galway. when i got there she was waiting at the curb and we drove to williston park (my childhood stomping grounds) and got hand-rolled bagels and ate breakfast with her parents. what a perfect way to start my day in ny. then we were off to my aunt catherine's house where we packed the remaining things grandma had left to pack and went to have a truly judge family last minute lunch time get together at my uncle mike's. a few hot dogs, some mike's hard lemonades and millions of well-wishes later we were off to JFK airport. we are now through security and are anxiously awaiting our departure.

wish us well!
a day from now i'll be posting from across the atlantic... hopefully with stories that will rally those of all my other judge relatives!

love,
grandma and me
xoxo

p.s. happy birthday kathleen galway.
p.p.s. please excuse the format of this post. i'll iron out the kinks soon enough.