Dawsons re-invade the Motherland

Thursday, 1 November '12

I enjoyed a lovely long-ass trip to Ireland on Thursday. It literally took 12 hours, door-to-door. I left around 10am in the morning to the airport, flew in to Dublin and then had to take a bus to the train station. I had to wait in the train station for hours given that I missed the afternoon train by 30 minutes. I only realised once in the train station that I didn't bring an adapter... le fuuuu. So I had nothing to do for two hours at the station... I ate some bad fish and mash and napped on an uncomfortable bench in the station. Eventually I made it onto the train to Westport and towards the end of the trip, some lovely guy opposite me on the train offered me his charger and so I could watch my tv shows for the rest of the trip. I finally arrived around 11pm and was picked up at the station and taken to... a pub.

99% of my Ireland family reunion was spent in various pubs around this tiny little village. The Irish sure know how to drink! The weather most of the weekend was FREEZING and switched between pouring rain/sleet/hail.

Friday, 2nd November '12
After waking up in the night to the joyous sounds of my cousin throwing up, and then at 7am the following morning to the dulcet tones of the fire alarm. I enjoyed an extra crispy croissant and we proceeded to spend the day celebrating my cousin Tom's 18th birthday. We had a reservation at a hotel for lunch, but before then, enjoyed a wee little walk around the town.

Afterwards, once more we visited a pub and then Cosy Joes (it wasn't sure if it was a club, restaurant OR bar), and then another pub... (are you seeing a pattern?) I ended the night in a pub where some diddly dee (random Irish from the town bring 'trad' instruments, to play 'trad' music in their 'trad' little pubs. It was adorable). It was quite amusing that, while standing with my aunt, she pointed out how every person entering the pub had a possible link to our family. "Yeah that person is related to us, that person might be related to your grandmother etc etc". It was crazy.

I was dead tired though and soon walked back to the

Saturday, 3rd November '12

 The big day has arrived! We spent the morning taking a trip in a family owned tourist van around the little village. The tiny roads were scaryyy. We started at the church my grandparents attended.

Afterwards we went to the shed where my grand-dad was born. That's right... the shed. He shared the shed with his some 6 or so other siblings... and the animals they owned. It was classic. There's a house there now that my relative lives in... and he has an amazingly beautiful white dog. That dog was majestic. Majestic. I took a lot of pictures of the dog... sue me, it's my blog, ok! 

After that we went through a small town and then for a drive up a hill where we got a nice view of the countryside and the local mountain. 

We then had a jolly old time... in another pub! This time it was a pub... that was ALSO a grocery store! Good on you Ireland. :D 

Eventually we headed back and started to prepare for the big reunion in the hotel's convention hall. I spent the first of the afternoon playing tech support, uploading pictures of my family and extra to the family tree... only to realise nobody else had posted pictures. It was amusing to note that the entire album was entirely pictures of my immediate family. Oops.

We had lunch, drank (they drank beer/guinness, me lots of tea) and reminisced over photos and met a whole other branch of the family I'd never known of. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Afterwards, I'm sure you'll all be shocked to know that we moved on to more pubs. 

Sunday, 4th November '12

After a fat and greased filled Irish breakfast, we said our final good-byes to most of the family, as all the various factions broke off on their journey back home. I wasn't leaving till the morning after so I decided to stay back at the house and cuddle up on the rocking chair to watch MLG. It was freeeeeezing and I tried as hard as I could to light a fire... turns out I am shit. There was no kindling anywhere, just lumps of coal... so I guess I can be forgiven.

I eventually gave up, put on all the clothes I own (not much since I brought next to nothing with me on the flight) and struggled to follow MLG (the net was super unstable).

When the sun is starting to go down, I am surprised by a knock on the door and window where I'm sitting. I open the door to find three (or four I don't remember) foreigners asking me if I knew the number of the landlord. Of course, because I'm an absolute idiot, reveal to them that I'm in this creepy, big-ass house all my by myself. GREAT MOVE MARY. Just tell a group of strange men that you, as the young, tiny, vulnerable girl you are, is home alone! I AM SO SMART. Anyway, my paranoia just escalates from there, and since I don't have any phone credit or numbers to call, I'm live tweeting my paranoia and am eventually rescued by my uncle who was called to the rescue by my aunt, who I assumed was told by my cousins who follow me on twitter. Good work, twitter.

From there I went... to another pub! With a brief stop over at a Chinese place for dinner. 

And that was my trip! I highly doubt anybody will read this this far, but I want to put a big shout-out here to my uncle Peter for organising the whole trip, he did an amazing job! Also another huge shout-out to my aunt who sponsored my trip there, much love. I'm super grateful I got to experience this! Love you guys!