Previously Unexplored

The beauty of Ireland has been seared onto my heart.

That sounds ridiculous and dramatic but I can think of no better words to describe the beauty and joy the last seven days have been.

Octocon was a flat-out amazing convention that I dearly hope to be able to return to. It was filled with beautiful new people, amazing conversations and sappy poetry that I may or may not get around to posting later with some of the sketches I did at the convention.

The last four days were spent on a roughly 400mile road trip with my dear friend, Gareth. We went from Dublin to Bray, Bray to Kilkenny via Sally’s Gap, Kilkenny to Galway, Galway to the Cliffs of Moher, and finally the Cliffs right back to Dublin. Gareth drove the entire way because he is a champion and also because I’m rightfully not allowed to drive in Ireland. Road trips can make or break friendships and I’m glad to report that he and I have not had to escalate our relationships to mortal enemies. Instead there was much laughter, car karaoke, and me telling him how rude his country is for being so beautiful. I mean, seriously, at a certain point it’s just excessive. 

Gareth was insanely patient with me and stopped every time I asked to take pictures and a few times when he could tell I wanted to ask but didn’t want to put us any more behind schedule. I am eager to get home so that I can post the pictures I took with the non-phone camera and so that I can get to painting what we saw in oil and in watercolors on larger paper.

In just a few hours I’ll get on a plane to London for a week of art classes, social shenanigans and adventure and while I’m greatly looking forward to that I’m already looking at my calendar to figure out when I can come back.

I have one more day in Dublin next week, but I know that when I leave here, I’ll be leaving a bit of my heart behind.