Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow

This is my last blog post from Ireland

As I type this post I’m sitting in my living room, where I’ve wined, dined, laughed, talked and enjoyed my life for the past five months. I’m still slightly feeling the alcohol from one of my last wild nights out in Dublin, and it’s oddly fitting that I should be typing up my last blog post as such. I think the Irish would be proud.

The time has come to say goodbye. I cannot believe how the past five months have flown. Literally flown. To Barcelona, to London, to Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Prague, Italy, and Budapest. I hadn’t even been out of the country before I came here. Now I’ve been to nine. I have friends, not only from all over the US, but from all over the world. I can’t believe how much I’ve grown in a short five months. Even though you might not notice it, I will come back the United States a much different person than when I left.

This last week here has been amazing. Our day trip to Dun Laoghaire and Bray was so much fun. The market in Dun Laoghaire was very cool and Harbor Bar, the number one coolest pub in the world, indeed lived up to its title. Our last trip to the west coast could not have been a more perfect way to end our stay here in Ireland. The Irish country side is one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever laid my eyes upon. I wish I could let you see it through my eyes and share the experience with you. It is one of the most incredible feelings to look out over the rolling greens, the handmade stone walls, the sheep and the cows, and just feel alive. No pretense. No technology. No modernization at all. Just pure, simple, beautiful Ireland. We went to The Cliffs of Moher which are just as heart stopping the second time around. We went to the Aran Islands and biked through the farm lands, stood at the edge of the cliffs, and marveled at the lives of the Irish who get to live on that gorgeous island. We saw the amazingly impressive Kylemore Abbey that was built on a foundation of rock and a lot of love. We drank pints and listened to Irish music in Galway with the locals who love their fair city like their own family. We stared for hours at the countryside. Our last view of it. I can only hope that I’ll lay my eyes on something so beautiful again in my life.

My things are nearly all packed. It’s going to be interesting trying to lug all my things through Dublin, the airport, the tram to the train, the train itself, and back home to 44 Euclid. Coming home will be the oddest mix of happiness and sadness I’ve ever felt. I am very very excited to see you all again! I think many of you have gotten to know me in a much different capacity through reading these blogs posts. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. But I will never really be ready to leave this country. It definitely has to be of the greatest places on earth.  The people here are so full of wit and Guinness and love, I’ve felt welcomed from the second I stepped off the plane. I hope I come back to see them one day.

Ending this blog post means ending some of the happiest times of my life. But I’ll get to take the memories and the lessons with me for the rest of my life. Luckily, those don’t weigh anything because I don’t think my suitcase can take much more.

I’m wishing this last post didn’t feel so rushed, but time has never been more of the essence than it is right now, and I’ve got a lot more to do before I depart. This time tomorrow I will be on American soil. I hope it remembers me.

It’s been an amazing five months. I can’t wait to talk you ears off about all of it. You’re going to so sick of me you’ll probably just want to send me back.

See you all stateside! Cheers friends!