After some time back home, I've mustered up the energy to continue the re-cap of the latest d/a journey. SO - the reason why we headed out to europaland recently was to photograph dear Deirdre's wedding in the countryside of Ireland. Adrian hadn't been back to Ireland since he lived there back in 2000, so it was sort of two 'trips' rolled into one with the Ireland segment.
We stayed in Dublin our first night and wandered the streets that Adrian still knew quite well. Hit up the 'Foggy Dew' pub and also Cafe Irie where he used to work. It was fun to absorb Dublin via a memory map of old haunts.
The wedding was beautiful. It took place in near Killarney, in the chapel her parents got married in. One the same day too. Lots of formal stylish dresses with hats and a ton of quick conversations chalk full of antidotes and sayings including bouts of laughter. This Irish gang have a great sense of humor. Or is that the way of the Irish? To find humor in all things sour or sweet?
After the ceremony, all the guests walked down a road that ended at a pub that belonged to Deirdre's cousin. Deirdre and Dabhi walked on their own after the guests. They arrived to a big cheering crowd with oysters and champagne in hand. The wedding continued on to Bantry, where we had dinner and danced to two excellent bands. Lots of soul music and lots of guinness. I was on my way to my hotel room upstairs at 130am or so - when I was stopped by Siobhan with " you can't go to bed now! You will miss the sing song!". I then learned that Irish weddings come with a 'sing song' sesh until sunrise. The groom started at the piano with a traditional irish song, then his brother jumped in. An hour later there was some locked arm dancing with more guinness in hand and everyone singing song after song around the piano. RADICAL.
The day after the wedding, Adrian and I had a nice drive up to Shannon where we were to catch a plane to Milan the following morning. The countryside around Bantry was so peaceful yet dramatic. We couldn't help but pull over and run up the green hillside jumping from knoll to knoll and rock to rock. It was SO windy and exhilirating. Lots of wild fox gloves and small towns. We ended our quick Irish hang with sleeping in our car, as we couldnt find a hotel room near the airport. Our flight was leaving in the early morn - so at least we were out of the rain and in a car fort in a safe little tree cove parking lot steps from the little airport (that looked oddly like the Olso airport). Flew to Milan, had an espresso at the station. then found the next train to Interlaken left in 5 minutes. RAN to the packed Italian train with standing room only. Had to wait until we crossed the border before our first class swiss passes kicked in. Finally got to sit down. ahhh. We were exhausted but in full adventure mode. Feels good to reach the limit sometimes.
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