This week in vacation planning

I’m about halfway through plotting out my Ireland trip. Some of it’s finalized with tickets and reservations and so all Official And Stuff, but some of it is still being planned (for example, I’m on the fence between three different places to stay in Galway; Garvey’s Inn, Skeffington Arms, or The Stop… and I haven’t yet started looking for places in Belfast, or my last night in Dublin before flying out – I’m staying at Egans House when I’m there on my way in, and I haven’t decided if I want to also stay there on my way back, or just stay anywhere because all I’m going to want to do is sleep….)

Say – can you schedule being invited into a badger’s den for tea and cakes, with a side visit to Narnia? Is that something there’s a small private tour of? Or add in some time to be abducted by the fae? 

Asking for a fanciful friend. 

Anyway! So… somehow I’ll get to Orlando, and fly from Orlando to Boston (three hour layover, so hopefully any delays on the first leg won’t impact the second leg) and then from Boston to Dublin. I get into Dublin at about 8:30 in the morning, I’m not sure if that was smart or not. I guess maybe with a little Tylenol PM and a whiskey I can sleep on the plane…? 

I’ll be staying in Dublin for three days. So far my itinerary is …
– Day One:  Glasnevin, Ireland’s National Cemetery; The National Botanic Gardens
– Day Two: Dublin Zoo; Phoenix Park; Dublin Writer’s Museum (if it’s not still closed for renovations); Iveagh Garden
– Day Three: Trinity College and the Book of Kells

Then the next day it’s off to Wexford for a week where I’ll do whatever Hawk, his lovely wife, or their cute dog, put in front of me to do. I think he’s got lots of nature things and lots of ruined churches things planned for us. Eeep! And I get to try to meet their Property Badger! 

After what I’m guessing will be a very reluctant leaving on my part, I will go over to Galway. I think I have… three days in Galway? Let me check…. 
– Day One: the Forthill Graveyard
– Day Two: tickets to a tour that goes by bus to … some port I forget the name of, then a boat to the Aran Islands, then another boat back under the Cliffs of Moher, then a bus that takes you to the TOP of the Cliffs of Moher, then a bus back to Galway. Those are the big stops, but I believe there are half a dozen little places the bus stops off at, too. 
– Day Three: Another day tour, this one to Connemara and Kylemore Abbey. 

Then the next day it’s off to Belfast. Again, I think I have 3-4 days there. … 
– Day One: the Titanic Museum. 
– Day Two: Narnia Day! C. S. Lewis Square; the Lamppost Cafe; Kilbroney Park (they have a big Narnia door you can walk through on one path, yes, am I going to the whole park just to see a door? Don’t judge me.); and if there’s time, ‘the Searcher’ – a statue of the narrator of The Magician’s Nephew standing in front of a wardrobe, with a chair nearby. 
– Day Three: fuck around? I’d like to take a Black Cab tour, but I haven’t set one up yet. 

Then it’s back to Dublin, for an overnight stay, and I’ll fly out the next morning. 

Somewhere in there, I must figure out how to get to a little place called Athy, for the Athy Heritage Centre-Museum if it’s open yet from renovations (it has a lot of things but my primary goal is the Shackleton exhibit) and if it’s not, at least get to the Ernest Shackleton monument/statue. I would kind of like to be able to lay a rose on Sinéad O’Connor’s grave (somewhere in Dublin, I think?) and I’d do the same for Shane MacGowan but his ashes were scattered on the River Shannon. Guess I’ll just have to have a drink for him, somewhere, instead! 

And I need to plan my tattoos. Torn between a plant, one for Ireland, one for Scotland, one for England… or an animal, one for each. What, you don’t get travel tattoos when you go somewhere amazing????