I’m back from my trip! I’m still a bit under the weather due to jet lag, and I might be slightly ill, but I’m not sure on that front. The trip to Ireland was lovely, and I enjoyed it a great deal. I hope to start the final editing pass of Temple of the Sun tomorrow, and I’m feeling a little out of sorts, so I’ll share a few pictures and comments before resting.

This was one of my first views of Dublin after arriving, from the bridge on the Liffey closest to the mouth of the river. The city was amazingly walkable by my standards, having come from the United States, and we used the tram (luas) a lot to get around.

We visited the Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced the same as jail), which was built in the 1700s and used until the 20th century. The portion above was built in the Victorian era, and before this the cells were much darker and danker. It’s been used for a number of movies, and I learned a lot. I also intend to take some lessons from it for a story idea which may or may not be written.

We went on the Ghost Bus Tours, which was quite enjoyable! The first floor of the double-decker bus was a haunted house, and each time we returned to the bus, the driver had changed masks. One pair of young ladies screamed every time. This church was one of the stops, and my night vision camera did pretty well. I was very pleased the guide mentioned not just Dracula (the author, Bram Stoker, was from Dublin) but also Carmilla, an even older vampire book!

We crossed the country via rail, and for one leg took a slower train (not entirely on purpose… my fault), which I actually quite enjoyed. The countryside was gorgeous, but eventually we reached our destination, and took a bus to Bunratty Castle.

Bunratty had tons to see, but I’m only sharing a couple of pictures here. I explored what I could of the castle, and some of those passages were cramped indeed, and we saw a couple of Irish wolfhounds. The male in back isn’t fully grown, apparently he has a couple of inches left to go. There were dozens of buildings, and I bought a 100% wool sweater from a shop there.

I could say a lot more, but that’ll suffice for now. Soon, it’ll be time to return to editing, then writing. I even started the next Eve of Destruction book while I was there!