Forty Shades of Green

 Irish luck rubbed off on me in March when Jourdan and I got tickets to the UEFA Europa League finals in Dublin. This prompted a four-day excursion to the land of Guinness, pots o’gold, Lucky Charms and more shades of green than I knew existed.

The Burren

The trip began with a 4:30am train to Venice to catch our flight; needless to say I did not sleep that night. We arrived at the Dublin airport completely dazed and in a sleepless stupor. Our first moments in a new city always begin the same, we stand in front of the aiport/train/bus station looking like lost puppies trying to find our way. Unlike all of our pervious trips, a kind older gentleman came up to us and, in his fabulous Irish accent, asked, “Can I help you girls?” What? Did someone just offer us help? This is when I knew I would like Ireland. In this way Ireland reminds me of the South, welcoming and ready to take care of visitors.

The next day we took a day trip over to the West coast to see the number one tourist attraction in Ireland, the Cliffs of Moher. Part of our tour was a visit to a farm in The Burren, comes from the Gaelic word for “stony place.” The Burren is an area with limestone “mountains,” more like big hills, which millions of years ago were under the ocean. After this we headed for the Cliffs. When we arrived you could barely see ten feet in front of you because of how heavy the fog was, but lucky for us the fog lifted for about fifteen minutes letting us see the breath taking view. I can only imagine what they would look like on a clear day.

Cliffs of Moher

Wednesday was devoted to the football match, Porto vs. Braga, both Portuguese teams. We were supporting Porto and bought scarves for the game. Little did I realize that all of the “real” Porto fans would assume that we were also Portuguese… this made for a few interesting comments and unreturned team sentiments. The match was fun and Porto pulled out a 1-0 win. But the most memorable part of the day occurred before the match at a pub in an area called Temple Bar. In case you are not aware, the Queen of England made a historic, peace-seeking trip to Ireland the same time I was there. As I sat by the window of the pub enjoying some fish and chips and a Magner’s, I kept noticing that the Garda (Irish police) were closing the street. They closed and reopened the street several times, I assumed this was just protocol while the Queen-mobile was in transit. But the last time they closed the street was different, Garda lined up all along the sidewalk; something was happening. I made eye contact with a man on the street and mouthed, “Is she coming?” Just as he nodded the police brigade drove by followed by a black Range Rover and the Queen in all her hat-tastic Queeness! I’m sure I resembled a 12-year-old schoolgirl as I waved enthusiastically to the Queen through the window; clearly she was waving to me and not the other 50 people around. Well, that’s one more excessively famous person I can check off my list: Pope, check. Queen, check. Paul McCartney, still waiting…

The trip came to an end with a quick trip to Northern Ireland to visit some friends of Jourdan’s. We didn’t waste money on a place to stay Thursady night seeing as our flight was at 6:15am. One piece of advice, if you ever have to spend the night in an airport find the Starbucks, their chairs are quite comfy. Ireland was an amazing place to end my semester of travels, good food, good football, and great people! Now it’s time to buckle down and pass my exams; yes it surprised me too when I found out that I actually had schoolwork associated with this semester. I’m banking on using ten-point vocabulary words in hopes of confusing my professors into passing me… keep your fingers crossed.