August 16: Travel Honestly (Arrival in Ireland)
It doesn’t matter how much I have traveled and how well practiced my departure routine is (hydrate a day before, drink a glass of red wine with dinner, but don’t eat dinner on the plane, wear many layers, adjust the headrest, and fall asleep during takeoff), arrival day of a trip is a challenge!
I arrived in Dublin around 10:30 this morning and took the ExpressWay bus from the airport going northwest. I’m starting my journey in Derry (or Londonderry - more on this another time). I had one transfer along the way, during which I took a very necessary coffee (and Baileys) stop!
As I write this, we’re passing by a small pond that perfectly reflects the sky — like a piece of it fell and nestled itself into the hills. A few miles back, up on a grassy ledge and through a row of trees, I spotted the most beautiful white horse. I thought for a moment I was dreaming, it looked so magical against the bright green scenery (and I am tired!). Every so often, we pass through towns with stone buildings and pubs that all seem to share the same names. Around me, people are greeting each other loudly, exchanging cheeky phrases about the traffic and weather, as only the Irish can.
The bus is crowded, but clean, and I find my thoughts drifting as I gaze out at the waves of grass and people’s conversations blend to gray noise around me. It has been a year since I was in Ireland last. I was living in Belfast for the summer, interning with a mental health organization and traveling around the island on the weekends. At the time, I was in a long distance engagement, feeling horribly sick, and was midway through a master’s degree that I found myself questioning every day. It was a difficult summer for me, though I fell in love with Belfast more than I expected to and I’ve loved Ireland as a whole since the first time I visited (a story that deserves its own post for another day).
Now, I’ve graduated from my program, my health is… not great, but more stable than it’s been in years, and I’m happily single (genuinely); yet, I still find myself feeling slightly disconnected from the land and people around me. Whether this is due to jetlag, disbelief at my current reality, appropriate grief for the passing of a significant life chapter, or a general sense of apathy developed over years of traveling, I’m not yet sure, but I think it’s an important thing to mention. So often, we see people’s travel posts and pictures and we assume they are experiencing pure joy. I love traveling and am certain I have portrayed it at many times in the past as something whimsical and exciting. It is that sometimes, but it’s also a time for challenging reflection. This piece of it is important. When I travel — particularly when I travel alone — I must learn again how to be on my own, to be my best company. I find a sense of peace in discomfort and acceptance of my full range of emotions. There is opportunity to assess the current “self” and what you’re proud of, what you’d like to change. Your perspective shifts with each interaction and you have a chance to change your mind, challenge what you know. This is what makes travel brave, I think; the decision to change, the choice to learn something new.
I hope to share more about all of this throughout this new blog. I’m committed to “traveling honestly,” sharing myself as much as I can. I’m planning to be traveling throughout the fall and winter and want to convey what I think are the most important parts of the journey — the connections, the realizations, the growth. Ultimately, these things can happen anywhere; travel is not the key to growth and often people travel without any of those components at all. They are not dependent on each other, though in my life they have been strongly correlated.
Tomorrow you will learn more about my time in Derry! For now, please share in the comments below what you want to know more about next: my tips for traveling, favorite destinations and destination guides, the people I meet along the way, about the historical and cultural contexts of Ireland, significant trips from my past, etc. We’ll travel honestly, together!
