Off to the Country

One of my co-workers, Anna, graciously invited me out to her home outside of Dublin to spend the day with her family and to get to see some of the country side. What a contrast to the city! The natural colors of the coast and country are unreal. It happened to be a gorgeous sunny day, and the blues and greens of the ocean popped. I felt like I was driving through a painting as we made our way out to Wicklow Mountain, passing by fields of the greenest grass and rolling hills I have ever seen dotted with sheep, horses and beautiful country homes.

Hiking through Wicklow Mountains was gorgeous. At the foot of the mountains were two pristine lakes, and as we climbed higher into the trees there were babbling brooks and flowing waterfalls. At one point as we were climbing towards the top of the mountain in a section of woods where the trees created a ceiling, blocking out the wind and noise of other hikers, when all of a sudden it began to snow. Peeking through the ceiling of trees were beams of sunlight and flakes of snow, and I have to say it was pretty magical. As we climbed higher, the snow picked up and the wind gained incredible strength, we decided to turn around before Anna, her daughters and myself got blown off the mountain!

Settling in after a long day of enjoying nature, Anna invited me to have dinner with her family. We had a delicious meal of thai food. I was so thankful to Anna and her family for welcoming me into their home. It was great to be at a kitchen table having a meal with family, and gave me a taste of home that I’ve been missing a bit since being in Dublin.