(briefly) on the road again

Good evening, everyone. As I write this, I'm sitting on a bench in Wexford, County Wexford. I'm right on the banks of the River Slaney where it empties into Wexford Harbor. After six hours on a Bus Eireann coach, I was ready to relax. I was pleasantly surprised as I opened my laptop to find I had a wireless internet connection.

As I continue to travel throughout Ireland, I realize how extremely difficult it would be to decide on a town to actually live in. Whether I'm taking in a town such as Wexford on a park bench next to old fishing boats, or working one main street of a town with face2face, or simply driving through a town on a bus, I quickly fall in love with each place. I've only been in Wexford for thirty minutes but can already tell I would be happy here for three or four months of my stay in Ireland.

I left Dromineer this morning. I didn't know until I finished work yesterday evening where I would be working for the next two weeks. I am moving to a new team that will be working this Southeast area of Ireland. Our accommodation is actually about 20 kms up the road from Wexford in a town called Courtown Harbor. I will be working with an entirely new roaming team. The people on my team from the last two weeks again went to Galway today. There was yet another roaming party that was being put together for an employee who was leaving face2face. I decided I was not going to attend this going away party for some guy I didn't know. While I enjoy Galway, I was ready for something new. More importantly, I was ready to free myself from face2face for a short weekend. As I've told you, my life from Monday - Friday revolves in some way or another around face2face. I was ready for a break.

My team dropped me off in Nenagh on they way to Galway. It was a refreshing feeling to get out of the car, put my pack on, and realize I didn't have much of a plan. I only knew that I wanted to somehow get to the Wexford area. Six hours later, I've arrived. When I publish this post, I'm going to find my way to the lone hostel in town and hope they have beds available.

Before I went out last night, I was again talking with my friend Lyndon about his love for the Midwest. I had been reading my Lonely Planet Ireland book as I wanted to see what the Wexford area had to offer Matt Kyhnn. Lyndon introduced me to his Lonely Planet United States book. I went straight to the index to check out what Lonely Planet had to say about the Iowa/Iowa City area. It was interesting to read the author's synopsis of Iowa City. The good places to eat: Baldy's, Malsala. Good bars to visit? Not the Summit, not the Airliner, not even Quintons. Nope, Lonely Planet directed visitors of Iowa City to (drum roll) The Foxhead Tavern!

I'm currently reading the Alchemist. It is a brilliant book - you should all read it. Written by Paulo Coelho, it is the story of a boy who travels the world in search of a treasure he has dreamed of. Along the way, he learns to listen to his heart and follow his dreams. It is full of wonderful quotes, and I wanted to share the following with you.

"I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. You’ll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that the tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living right now."

With that, I'm going to go find my hostel. It is getting dark and my hands are getting cold.

And, for anyone else who was worried, the trash bags I referenced in my last post did not stay on the streets of Dromineer. On the way home from The Whiskey Still, I picked them up and brought them back to our place. My roommates were shocked that after about two hours, I still hadn't thrown the trash away, as this was my original intention.

mdk