I have returned from the Emerald Isle after a week of gorgeous scenery, lovely lodgings, ancient stones, and foot-tapping music. Also, really REALLY narrow roads and some high-stress driving. And lots and lots and lots of tea.

I’ll post a real trip report (I scribbled down the previous day’s events in my special Moleskine travel journal each morning since I regularly wake about two hours earlier than Bob) but for now here are a few literary highlights:

Quite often we felt as if we had stepped into the landscape of the Lord of the Rings. Apparently Tolkien did spend some time in Ireland teaching and there are some who claim he drew inspiration from the rocky Burren for some of the landscapes of Middle Earth. But for me, the strongest Tolkien vibe (aside from the Hobbit-like breakfasts of eggs, tomatoes, bacon, sausage, toast, etc and the Prancing Pony-ish pubs) came from the hill valleys in Connemara, which brought to my mind Rohan. The landscape had such a strong pull on me I had to get out and explore it. I think if I hadn’t had a husband to call me back to the car I might have just kept walking up into the hills:

Our favorite part of the trip was the time spent in the town of Dingle, for many reasons: the brightly painted storefronts, the availability of Indian food and good desserts, the proximity to the gorgeous Slea Head drive, the squat tower overlooking the harbor that looks disturbingly like a giant Dalek (it even has a big arrow pointing out the side 2/3rds of the way up, just where an extermination rod would be). I also particularly liked this:

There were a bunch of other plaques along the wall beautifully carved with quotes (in Irish, so I don’t actually know what they said) by Irish writers.

And you may have guessed what my preferred souvenir might be: foreign editions of books! I found myself a copy of R. J. Anderson’s Knife with the lovely shiny fierce Brian Froud fairy cover. Yay! I only wish I’d been able to find editions of a few more of my favorites! But we didn’t go into any of the really big towns (this I found in Ennis).

Lastly, if you need to add a bit more angst to your writing I know where you can go to fuel up your emo-engine:

I also did bring along four books as reading material for the trip, and apparently it was just the right number. I finished three during the trip (The Morning Gift, Crown Duel and A Coalition of Lions) and started the last (The Name of the Wind). All of them were excellent too, so thank you to those who helped me pick from my to read pile!

I particularly enjoyed Crown Duel and it’s left me in a mood for something similar. I’m impatiently waiting for my copy of Elizabeth Bunce’s StarCrossed to arrive at the store as that seems a perfect follow-up, but if anyone has suggestions for other fantasy books with intrigue and adventure of that sort I would love to hear them! I’ve already read the Beka Cooper books…

Tags: ireland, reading, travel