The T-shirt Pact that Started it All: Travel Photography in Ireland
- Ashlynn Weeks
- Aug 1, 2024
- 4 min read
Like all hopeless romantics, I was obsessed with the movie P.S. I Love You. I mean, who wouldn't want to get love letters from Gerard Butler while galavanting through Ireland?!? While watching the movie for the umpteenth time with my best friend, Maegan, we realized how much we both hoped to one day tour Ireland. I had never been out of the country before, and the thought of affording international travel on my teeny-tiny college budget didn't seem very realistic. Nevertheless, Maegan and I promised each other that one day, we would go together. We sealed the pact with a commemorative photo, wearing our matching Star Wars t-shirts as we shook hands. We didn't know when, but we knew it was on!
Fast forward a few years, and Maegan and I were ready for one hell of a journey. You know, one of those classic kinds that are mixed with awe, wonder, laughter, tears, a few travel mishaps, and one super gross toothbrush. We started off strong by being scolded by the Aer Lingus flight attendant for giggling too much during the safety demo, but thankfully we landed at the Dublin airport safe and sound. Our 20+ co-ed room at Jacob’s Inn Hostel was quite affordable, but without earplugs and an eye mask, let me tell you, those big rooms are cheap for a reason! We got zero sleep that night. Flickering fluorescent lights, a symphony of snoring, lavatory visits that lacked the sound of running water to wash hands afterward, and even a confident flatulent release immediately followed by the only open window being slammed shut.
The next morning, Maegan and I refueled with lots of coffee and freshly baked croissants. I was already starting to fall in love with traveling and photography. Finally, we were ready to embark on our day tour to County Clare and the Burren. We had booked our tour with Paddywagon Tours (which was by far our favorite tour company out of Dublin) to tour an idyllic family-run farm that had remained within the same family for thousands of years. The farmer’s ancestors had tediously built all of the rock walls you could see in each direction, and their entire lineage could be visited on top of the hill in their family cemetery. The farmer’s wife plunked fresh homemade clotted cream into our Irish coffees and added another soft dollop on top of her great-great-grandmother’s homemade apple pie. Canned whipped cream just isn’t going to cut it anymore! To our surprise, the farmer then started to serenade us with a classic Irish song. I could have stayed there with those delicious apple pies and cute baby cows forever, but sadly we were on a schedule and off to the next adventure!
A quick communion-sized shot of Jameson snapped us back into reality, well that and the extremely gusty wind! Our hair whipped into our eyeballs while we leaned into the wind, trying to keep our footing so we didn’t catapult over the hill. County Kerry was full of bright green rolling hills as far as you could see.
After winding through the countryside, we came upon the itty-bitty town of Sneem, one of Ireland’s winners of the “Tidiest Town Award.” It was filled with family-run shops selling handmade wool items and centered around a small creek trickling through the center of town. Just when you think Ireland couldn’t get any more beautiful, we made it to Wicklow National Park. We drove through the winding hills outlined by handmade stone walls, hundreds of sheep, and bright yellow flowering shrubbery (Gorse (Ulex europaeus) is a common, prickly, evergreen shrub with golden yellow flowers that’s native to Ireland). Then, around a corner, we saw a small stone bridge. This was not just any bridge; this was THE bridge, you know—the one from P.S. I Love You where Holly first meets Jerry, the very beginning of their love story. We stood in awe of the view all around us—no buildings, no cars (well, except for our bus), but instead wide open spaces of lush grass, running water, and clear blue skies. At this moment, there was no doubt in my mind that I had to keep traveling outside of my tiny hometown to see as much of the world as I could.
On our last night in Ireland, we opted to pull an all-nighter before our very early morning flight—it made sense, right? Well, we forgot we weren’t 18 anymore and completely zonked out all night. After we missed our car transport, missed our flight, cried tears of exhaustion, and even applied the 5-second rule to the toothbrush I dropped on the bathroom floor—eww, I know—we finally found a sleeping spot in the Dublin airport under a Burger King booth for 12 hours. Our luck finally turned as a kind employee brought us endless free refills of hot fries before we finally boarded our return flight.
Ireland is where all my childhood daydreams came to life. I spent countless hours as a little girl daydreaming of fairy tale lands, epic castles, charming countryside towns, mysterious gardens with ancient monuments, and acres of rolling green hillsides. During this incredible week, everything came to life right in front of me. I came home from Ireland with thousands of photos (mostly of sheep) and a realization that a t-shirt pact I had made years ago would be the spark that led to many more travel photography adventures.
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