I’m heading to Ireland in September. It’s my first trip there – to anywhere on that side of the Atlantic, in fact – and am really looking forward to it. I’ve been wanting to go for years, and finally realized that I could go: I had the money, I had my passport, I had the flexibility in my job, and I had no commitments preventing me. So, I’ve spent the past several months slowly putting together my itinerary for the three-week trip.
I’ve come to realize that three weeks is both a long time to be traveling, and that it’s still not enough to see everything that I want to see. I’m not renting a car, relying instead on public transportation, so that puts some limits on what I’m able to do. I’ve got a list of must-see destinations, and my plan is to set myself in a few base cities, taking day tours out to the more remote locations. The one big exception to this is the Skelligs. I really want to see them, and am willing to invest the two nights in the village of Portmagee, which is quite a ways off the beaten track, for a boat trip out to the islands and a chance to climb to the monasteries on Skellig Michael.
So, having become addicted to sharing my thoughts with the Internet (as well as because of the interest of some friends and family), I’m going to be trying to keep an online diary of the trip, complete with pictures1. You can check out my itinerary (as it currently stands) here, or from the link under the banner.
I hope you enjoy it.
- Yeah, that’s right, photograph-hating Rick has even bought a camera for this trip. I think it deserves some visual documentation. [↩]