Tagged:  ireland

Another Saint Patricks day. A day full of parades, drunk college kids, the annoying pinch if you forgot to wear grean, and the delicious smell of corned beef simmering in a pot, filled to the brim with cabbage, pototoes, and carrots. As we prepared to sit down for our “Irish” feast to celebrate the holiday, (a tradition in my family since I was a little girl)  I thought back to my travels in Ireland last year. The funny thing was, I couldn’t remember ever seeing the salty feast on a single menu. But isn’t it a “traditional” Irish feast? I didn’t want to burst the bubble of my excited nieces and nephews, but if it wasn’t an Irish feast, where did it really from? While I’m bursting that bubble, I thought I would dispel a few other food myths I learned on my travels. (more…)

What’s not to love about Ireland? Tiny green men promising  pots of gold and lucky charms? The warm hospitality of the locals who will literally bend over backwards to help you? The possibility of running into Gerard Butler as you wander around aimlessly looking for Killarney National Park? All of these reasons and more made Ireland one of the top destinations on my top list of travels.

When a local woman I met on the ferry insisted that her father drive me to my hostel after we arrived, it reconfirmed the warm Irish hospitality, but I was unprepared for the shockingly cold weather. Granted it was January and I know the weather there is unpredictable,  but a snow-jacket and boots? Where were all these green rolling hills full of four-leaf clovers? (They were there, just covered in a haze of cold, wet, white stuff.) (more…)