Ireland – It’s an Irresistibly Interesting Island of Intrigue: Introduction

Welcome! Thanks for pausing here! This is an introduction to a series of posts about our trip to Ireland, an irresistibly interesting island of intrigue. My goal is to create a series of short stories about the magnificence and laughs and to share the lessons we learned in case they can help anyone else enjoy a similar kind of adventure.

If you read my last post, you know that I was hit hard by jet lag. Thank you, sincerely, for your prayers and encouragement! I’m happy to report that I’m feeling better.

My mind and body have been recalibrating. Shout out to K.L. Hale from Flannel with Faith for giving me that wonderfully appropriate word. I’m putting together mostly coherent sentences again and I’m so excited to write this introduction and everything that follows about the intrigue of Ireland!

Introduction

How the Ireland trip came about

I work for a science and technology company with offices all over the world. The team, of which I am currently a part, is based in California, Massachusetts, and Cork, Ireland. And then there is me, working remotely from Arizona. (If you missed the miracle of how that happened, you have to read this post!)

With pandemic restrictions lifted right now, my boss decided to have our October team meeting in person at the Cork site. To be honest, I was nervous to travel so far by myself and took a few days to pray before I responded to the invitation. I have never flown internationally.

My husband suggested he accompany me. He didn’t want either of us to miss what might be a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit Ireland. Once I received permission for him to tag along, my hesitations were greatly allayed.

Our ideas for our introduction to Ireland

We decided to go a couple days before I needed to report for work. We purchased my husband’s tickets on the same planes on which my company had reserved my seats. We booked a hotel room for the extended portion of our trip. We even planned to join a tour bus to see some of the sights.

I have so much to tell you – good, bad, funny, and sad. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! The next several posts here on the Back Porch will be dedicated to sharing my experiences.

Ireland is an irresistibly interesting island of intrigue. Thank you for praying for my travels. Join me next time to hear about our first lesson learned so you won’t make one of our most preventable mistakes. Talk to you then!

“Among the gods there is none like you, Lord;
    no deeds can compare with yours.
All the nations you have made
    will come and worship before you, Lord;
    they will bring glory to your name.
For you are great and do marvelous deeds;
    you alone are God.”

Psalm 86:8-10, emphasis mine