ireland

someone i picked up at the pub, originally uploaded by alexandrafletcher.

I've just been on a pilgrimage to Ireland... the mother land and home to a vast majority of my ancestors. Going with my mum also helped the sense of a family reunion... and because she is a genealogist I heard many a story of distant relatives and who they married, what they did and their respective fates. Some of them were bad buggers... and one was hung for blowing up a jail in England.

Ireland was awesome and some of the scenery is so f^&* mindblowing that you just stand on the hill blinking and rubbing your eyes. Such overwhelming beauty makes you feel so insignificant in the best possible way.. you lose your ego and put yourself in perspective of population and also of time.
We drove across Ireland to Dublin and trekked around, went to Kilmainham jail which plays a very important role in Irish history -- witnessing, in yet another country (having just come from India), the backlash & uprising of patriotic countrymen against English oppressive rule.
And don't get me started on the weird conversations that I've had with some Englishmen here.... let's just say that in reference to India there were quotes such as " but we built them railroads.." and" I don't know why they changed the city's name to Mumbai.. i mean are we meant to call it Mumbai Mix now?" Eek! And I thought Australians were racist.