Journeying in the Emerald Isle

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Apr 20 2025

Thé trip to Ireland sandwiched between my UK work trip in 2025 almost did not happen. Based on our time honoured principle to get maximum mileage of work related trips, we planned for me visiting aditi for a few days during my UK trip of meeting my teams.

In London on the eve of the trip, there was a major electrical outage at Heathrow which shut down the airport completely and it was looking very bleak that my trip will carry on without hitches. Many of my colleagues suggested cancelling my British airways tickets and find an alternate way to get to Ireland. However I was somehow intent on finding the best outcome possible and bet on the airport authorities getting flights running on time.

I had booked a hotel near to the airport and made my way frôm central London to the airport hotel by paying 80 pounds for the cab transfer in the late evening. It was a regular chain of hotel and I checked in and also deposited some extra luggage and slept hoping for everything to be miraculously allright in the morning.

My flight to Dublin was at 6.30 am in the morning and I was at the airport early in the morning and yea it was an absolute joy to see that the flight was scheduled to be on time. As time passed by the indicators changed frôm sceheduled to confirmed and my mood got elated on meeti g my darling baby at 9 am in Dublin.

I settled into the flight seated next to two teenage girls on their way to Dublin for the weekend chattering away about their plans and also sought my help in taking some selfies. I happily obliged and also shared photos of aditi with them. It was a short ride to Dublin and as I made my way out of the airport - there was Aditi in à jeans and brown jacket waiting to hug me. It was an absolute pleasure, privilege and I was so grateful to see her there and then embarking on a driving trip with her in Ireland.

She already had a plan in mind and we decided to go through the ring of Kerry. We started on the drive and here is a visual journey through everything we saw through the trip.

We stopped at à castle, took breaks when I was getting tired , and aditi was fully alert all along and guiding me through the dreaded roundabouts frôm 2023.

Highlights included thé surprise stopovers, thé Kerry cliffs, thé monadonahoe look alike, thé pub in Waterville, and the breathtaking views all across the ring of Kerry.

We drove back from Killarney - went to a shopping outlet that aditi wanted to go to, purchased some clothes and then went back to her hostel. I spent another day with aditi meeting with her friends, going to her college, to her favourite places which she gladly took me to and also went on a dinner date with her friends.

I was so overcome with joy of being able to do this and felt really connected and fortunate to be able to do so and have so much fun with aditi.

It was a fantastic trip overall and in my opinion one of the best trips of my lifetime yet. O have had thé good fortune in my life to hve many wonderful trips and this was another memory that will stay with me forever.

Thank you to the universe for making this happen.

Our Irish journey ! In photos !