I am now in Ireland, ancestral home to some of my forefathers and a very pretty nation. I'm in Cork, which is such a funky city. There are more music stores in a small area than I've ever seen.
Irish cities were described to me as younger dominated places. Certainly Cork at forst impression seems to fit this description, and it is very hip and exciting despite boasting only about 140 000 people as opposed to Paris' 12 000 000(???). The country side is gorgeous, and I've been driving down highways, small country lanes city streets and seen lakes forests, grass so much greener than anywhere I'd seen and thankfully lots of cows and sheep (seems foot and mouth has been kept out thus far.)
The train trip up to Beauvais in France set the pace as I saw much greenery along the way. My previous experience of Euro country side was either the white or grey of late winter, or spring in metropolitan Paris. Though I knew the leafless trees indeed contained life, it was hard to visulise. Same with hot weather in France. (Yes I know Moiraine) I thus have seen the wet lush Europe that I always visualised. Ireland is indeed an Emerald isle.
To understand this you must understand that Australia is very dry. I spent time as a child on the edge of a desert which impacted me substancially. Rain was rare, and soft grass an illusion of distance. Up close it was harsh, dry and very prickly. Riverbeds were often dry and rain something you went out and played in. Also no native Australian tree loses it's leaves in winter. The trees around Sydney and other cities that do are introduced European plants.
Thus it was interesting seeing "native" trees of Europe in there proper context.
I found this the same with the Irish people. Straight away I was given a very Australian-like recpetion from the first lot of Irish I encountered. Leading me to ponder on how much the Irish immigration in Oz has affected the collective psychology of Australia. Something I was again aware of in theory, but with experience seems more real.
It's so unusual standing in a land where ones people originate. Certain things make sense, certain truths become apparent. I'm not Irish, I'm Australian, and the differences emphasise that; but the sense of homelike belonging is pretty powerful.
I shall head off to the western coasts and do some writing. As soon as I drove out of Dublin the latent fiction writer in me started awakening. It's almost like one expects a Sidhe or Fomorian to be over the next hill.
Loving it. I can't believe it's taken me this long to get over here.
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I am the walrus!.... er, no hang on....
A fair dinkum laughing Hyena!