Rome is a difficult city to sum up. It is so many different things all rolled into one. Ancient imperial city. Seat of one of the world’s major religions. European capital. It is old; it is new. It is, above all, overwhelming, in a chaotic but kind of perfect way. Perhaps no place serves as…
Guided tours are not my normal way to travel. I am someone who prefers to do things on my own, with long periods in a single location leading to a relaxed pace. However, the opportunity came up to travel with Overseas Adventure Tours (OAT) to Ireland with my aunt, so I took it. OAT is…
Few things in the world are more awe-inspiring than a dramatic sea view. And few dramatic sea views are as stunning as Ireland’s Cliffs of Moher. Running for nine miles of Atlantic coastline in County Clare, and rising to a maximum height of more than 700 feet, the Cliffs of Moher have welcomed more visitors…
If Ireland indeed has forty shades of green, they can’t all be found in Dublin. Rather, to get the true emerald experience, one must leave the city behind and head into the Irish countryside. Here, despite the fact that only about 10% of Ireland’s once pervasive forests remain, the greens really begin to show themselves.…
Today was a difficult day for me, and not because of the ever-present Northern Irish rain that has insisted on following most of my trip here. I am in Derry (also called Londonderry, but more on that in a few moments), the second largest city in Northern Ireland. It is a beautiful town, the best-preserved…
From the tip of the stone columns jutting up into the Inner Seas which connect the Irish Sea to the North Atlantic between Ireland and Scotland, it is easy to understand why locals might have thought this to be created by a giant. The hexagonal basalt columns can in places look very much like paving…
Editor’s note: it is such a treat for me that Sam Spector and I were in Ireland at the same time, even meeting for a quick pint in Belfast. My article about Western Ireland will be coming out shortly, and it gives a great chance of comparison with two writers doing many of the same…
As residents and local tour guides are quick to point out, “most ships built in Belfast did not sink.” It’s a funny statement that needs making because, unfortunately, this former shipbuilding superpower’s most famous ship did sink. On April 15, 1912, RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and went down. More than…
It feels wrong somehow that tourism can come out of violence, fear, pain, and death. And yet, here I am on a traditional Belfast black taxi tour joining dozens of other such vehicles, all filled with visitors like me taking photos of a place that only twenty-five years ago was home to some of the…
Editor’s note: I agree with Sam that having an experience with alcohol - or even just places they serve or make it - is an essential part of visiting Dublin. I also wrote about it, and you can read my take here. For more of Sam’s writing, click here to visit his index page. While…