Ireland: Beamish, Bodies of Water, and JM Synge

I'm back from my five-week study abroad trip in Cork, Ireland.

Here are the highlights:

+ A 2K swim in the River Lee, the river that runs through Cork. The water was freezing, about 60 degrees. I did not wear a wet suit.

+ Discovering Beamish, Cork's verison of Guinness that's so much tastier. And drinking at pubs and meeting locals.

+ Reading The Aran Islands by J.M. Synge--and then traveling there for the second time. The view from Dun Aengus--the deep boom of the Atlantic 100 meters below. I became obsessed with Synge's work. He's a playwright who is most well-known for his controverisal The Playboy of the Western World. Most of the research I did for my Irish Lit class was about him. The title is of this blog is a quote of his.

+ Writing three creative nonfiction essays about my travels in Ireland for my travel writing course: one about the Aran Island; another about Castletownbere (a harbor town that I spent time in in 2001 during my first trip to Ireland and I returned to this trip); and a final one about the swim in the River Lee. I would post those piece here, but I'm submitting them to lit mags, so I need to hold off on self-publishing them.

+ Falling in love with Ireland all over again.




More pictures:

Me swimming in the River Lee.
A pint of Beamish
Me at Dun Aengus.
The Atlantic crashing into the cliffs at Dun Aengus.
Me and some my classmates.

I will post more pictures in the next post.