For someone who feels most comfortable when her daily activities are scheduled into fifteen minute increments and struggles to sit through a movie without simultaneously completing another task, it was surprising that one of the things I enjoyed most about Ireland was the slower pace. We had an entire week with essentially no plans; our phones remained on airplane mode for the majority of the time and all of our work was thousands of miles away. I was left with no choice but to enjoy the moment. Although there were times I resorted back to my constant desire to be doing something (you can ask my friend Steve about the times we had a few minutes to kill and I was thrilled to sit and write stuff in my planner), in general we allowed ourselves to be relatively relaxed.
We must have taken cues from our environment because everyone we encountered appeared to be way more laid back than we are. When we asked a woman working at the Jameson Distillery to suggest a local pub, she put on her jacket and walked us to her favorite place. When we asked a barber where we could find the local bus, he left his client mid-haircut to step outside and point us in the right direction. After an overnight flight and trek through the rain, we napped for three hours in our hostel's TV room and nobody seemed to mind. We learned to enjoy lingering at the end of each meal and actually having to ask for our check rather than scurrying out after our final bites. Maybe it's always this way when you're on vacation, but time felt different in Ireland. Without lists and spreadsheets and constantly thinking about what we were going to do next, we seemed to do a lot more.
Anyway, while I was busy not doing as much as I normally try to do, I noticed that Ireland has some awesome flowers. They are everywhere: displayed on sidewalk stands, on tables and in the bathrooms of restaurants, in beds on the streets and popping up in grassy fields.
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