ADVENTURES OF A TRAVEL WRITER

Wandering The Emerald Isle with Joy Ross Davis

At our meeting, we were each given an assignment of counties to cover: The Republic of Ireland has twenty-six counties. I was assigned eight of those counties but was free to travel to others if I wanted as long as I met my deadline of writing assignment (ten articles per week). We were given a crash course on the many sights in Dublin (the most traveled area of the country). So, with my transport vouchers in hand, I set off on my newest adventure, exploring Dublin, a bustling, crowded metropolis filled with people, buses, tour buses, streetcars, and two public transport systems, the Luas (speed) and the DART. I was happy to take the public transportation so that I could stop shivering for a moment. On the surface, Dublin looks like every other big city, but hidden away are ancient cathedrals, beautiful old buildings, and even some ancient stonework from the year of 841A.D., the year the Vikings founded, settled and named it. In the center of the town is Trinity Church my first destination because it housed The Book of Kells, an ancient illuminated manuscript written by monks and containing the first four gospels. After I marveled at this manuscript for almost an hour, I took the DART to the Dublin Wall, a wall still partially standing proudly amongst the bustle of people. Built entirely of stone in 843, ravaged by weather, wars, and time, a piece of the Dublin wall stands in place. When I ran my hands over it, I imagined that I could hear the voices of the people who lived behind those walls, and while my hands had turned a strange shade of purple by now, I still enjoyed the feeling of running them over those ancient walls. A famous landmark called St. Aoeduen’s Gate (1246) still survives. After a night in Dublin with the warmth of a warm bath and soft bed, I sampled a full Irish breakfast (eggs, hash browns, tomatoes, sausages, bacon, baked beans, and brown bread) with food enough to feed two grown adults. I surprised myself by eating most of that huge breakfast, and then I was on my way County Cavan, known as the town of 365 lakes, a fishing lake for every day of the year. Here, I stayed at The Keeper’s Arms and was hosted and guided along by a kind woman named Sheila. After a day or two, we became fast friends. Since it was technically summer, we spent a great deal of time wandering around the town of Cavan, driving to different locations, and sitting out in the back court yard talking to her other guests. As we were talking, Sheila would jump up and say, “Oh, you have to see this.” We’d take off in her car and drive to some place she wanted me to see. When it was time for me to travel on, I felt a little sad to leave, but we kept in touch throughout my trip and even when I returned to the States. As a little aside, I met Sheila in the airport in Birmingham, Alabama, before I boarded the plane to go to Ireland. We talked for a few minutes and I told her that I was on my way to Ireland for the first time. She said, “Oh, come and stay with me!” (The Universe works in mysterious ways). From Cavan, I journeyed on to the county of Monaghan, the home of a beautiful wildlife preserve and sanctuary where, at its highest point, a visitor can look out and see six different counties in Ireland.