The Next Adventure

Care to venture a guess about where I’m heading next? Costa Rica? Armenia? Morocco? Thailand? Let me know what you’re thinking, I’m curious (and always looking for ideas)!

 

But, back to business. Here’s a visual hint:

The answer is Ireland, by way of Iceland (but more on that later). The Emerald Isle has always held a certain fascination for me, from the magic and folklore of the rolling green hills to the lively music and lilting accents. Three years ago I spent a couple of weeks in Ireland, including Dublin, which gives me the great advantage of moderate familiarity with the city.

Ireland’s greatest exports

I’ve enrolled in a local music school that offers classes, lessons, workshops, and more in almost any instrument or style you could think of. I’m hoping to take private voice lessons and a beginner group lesson on the Irish fiddle. I’ll also bring my flute and ukulele, you know, just in case. In addition to the vast amounts of local music in pubs and concerts, the school itself holds “Friday Sessions,” chances for students to get together and play in traditional styles and atmosphere. They also hold occasional  “Slow Sessions,” which are like a traditional session, except that all of the songs are played at half-tempo, to help those of us who are learning and can’t yet keep up with the fast pace typical of lots of Irish music. I’m very excited!

The Cliffs of Moher (otherwise known as The Cliffs of Insanity)

While I have lots of experience with traveling and living abroad, this is perhaps the most “adventurous” thing I’ve ever done, as I’m departing with no visa (as an American, I can stay in the country for 90 days, and the term I’ve enrolled for is 10 weeks), no job (while Ireland offers a great “working holiday visa,” it only applies to students or those 12 months out of school, and I can’t get a real work visa without a job to sponsor me), and no one I know in the country.

As you can tell, a lot of this is still a big question mark that I’ll figure out along the way. I’m hoping to immerse myself in Irish music, write lots of articles for the Huffington Post and other companies and organizations about travel, Ireland, and any other places I visit, and hopefully figure out a way to get a part-time job to help fund my adventures.

To wrap up the Ireland portion of this announcement, I’ll leave you with the risqué statue of Molly Malone, of classic song fame. Said song, in fact, is the unofficial anthem of Dublin (according to Wikipedia).

Now, while searching for tickets to Dublin, I realized that a lot of the flights go through Reykjavik, Iceland. I thought, “How cool would it be to stop in Iceland!” Then I began to wonder if I could finagle a layover that would be long enough to let me see anything. I mean, stopping in Iceland for just a couple of hours would be a tease. As it turns out, it is cheaper to buy two tickets on the Icelandic budget airline WOW (including all of the baggage fees that budget airlines invariably tack on) than it is to buy a single ticket to Ireland. So, first I’ll fly to Reykjavik, spend three days there, then finish my journey to Dublin. I’m incredibly excited to be within a couple hundred miles of the Arctic Circle, hopefully see the Northern Lights, and get a brief glimpse of a country I never imagined visiting.