I’ve arrived in Ireland and yesterday was a whirlwind day of beautiful experiences and sleep deprivation. I slept a little bit on the plane and on the bus from Dublin to Cork, but not very much. I kept my eyes open long enough to see a tiny bit of Dublin before the bus headed south into the countryside.

When my friend Victor picked me up on Friday morning, I was already exhausted. However, we set out for a full day for two reasons: 1) I knew I needed to get on the Ireland time zone and the best way to do that would be not to nap, and 2) Victor had a very nice family also staying with him from France, through a website called BeWelcome, and he wanted to show them around too. The site is sort of like AirBnB or Couchsurfing, except you agree to host visitors out of good will, and not for any exchange of money. I have to say that having these new friends join us for the day added a great deal to the experience, and I am very glad to have met them.

We toured around Youghal, Victor’s small town, and also checked out Lismore, Ardmore, and a few other spots. Ireland as a country is only about 100 years old, but this area was inhabited by the British long before the United States was colonized. So, I saw a good deal of natural beauty and history on this first day in Ireland.

Way back, they built a wall around Youghal to protect the Anglicans from the Catholics.

Unfortunately, fighting within different branches of Christianity goes way back. Now a days, people get a long much better, and we got to tour one of the oldest continually functioning Anglican churches in the country. 

As you can see, my little birdie, Loki, and my plush friend, Tofu San, got to join me for the trip.

Check back soon to see more of their adventures (and mine, of course)! Right now, Tofu San is stuffed, because he got to eat some of this giant meringue — I don’t think you can tell how big it is! Don’t worry — the kids helped too.