We moved to Ireland in large part to travel, and are trying to visit every Irish county and many European countries.
I can be a bit of an achiever, and Marisa loves cute decorations and collectables. These attributes collided in our procurement of a set of pin maps, one for the lovely island we have been calling home and another including the continent we hop over to whenever we have the chance. The objective is clear: fill it up!
Travel is more than just stepping foot in a place, and we do try to make space to revisit places and people that are meaningful to us. As I am writing this we are on our way to Amsterdam for our 3rd time in a year to see Skyler who has been living there. But a bit of motivation to see new places, even those without much to see (ever heard of County Longford?), helps us to keep things fresh and feel accomplished before we board our final flight back to the States next year.
The Baseline
Neither of us had spent more than 3 days in Ireland before we moved to Dublin. We had, however, spent a few months studying in Europe and travelling at every opportunity around our respective host countries and across the continent. These trips and one more with my family became the initial set of pins in our Euro-map, colour-coded by the cities each of us visited on our own and those we travelled to together.
Most of those previous trips were quick weekend hops to capital cities between our classes during the week. We just got a taste of the countries and places we visited, and have more recently enjoyed “filling in the map” on top of adding new countries to the list.
Europe
We each visited 10 or more countries in the short 4-5 months during our study abroad experiences. We have not added that many new countries again since moving to Europe, but have made it to a number of new cities and went back to other we enjoy for different reasons and with different people.
In total over the last 2 years, we only have visited 4 net new countries: Andorra, Portugal, Scotland, and Luxembourg. The majority of our travels have instead been around Ireland and to new cities in the same countries, particularly those in France and Germany to ski, visit Christmas markets, and see family and friends.
The Key
The logic started simple, but we have gotten creative over time.
- Green: Visited together
- Dark Blue: Both visited, not together
- White: Marisa visited
- Black: Michael visited
- Purple: Marisa’s sister trip
- Light Blue: Wild Atlantic Way trip
- Red: Christmas markets trip
Ireland
Our top priority while we are here living in Ireland is to see as much of this beautiful island as we can. Specifically, we are planning to visit each of the 32 counties (26 in the Republic and 6 in the North) to experience the variety in culture, landscape, and people across Ireland.
We knocked out a large number of the counties on our Wild Atlantic Way trip last year, and have been incrementally visiting more often through day trips or short overnights. We have now made it to 20 of the 32 counties, and will need to average at least 1 new county per month to visit them all before we return to the US next year.
My favourite part of the experience has been talking to our Irish friends and coworkers after visiting a random county in the middle of Ireland. At this point we have already been to more counties than most native Irish we know!
The Key
- Green: Leinster province
- Dark Blue: Munster province
- White: Connacht province
- Yellow: Ulster province
- Light Blue: Wild Atlantic Way trip
- Silver: Half Marathon
- Gold: Full Marathon!
Where Next?
In our final year living in Ireland, we have a few travel-related plans and goals:
- Visit the remaining Irish counties
- See additional Ireland sites: national parks and historic locations
- Continue to fill the Europe map with new countries and places
As we wrapped up our study abroad trip years ago we went on a 2 week “finale” trip across a number of European cities. We are hoping to take advantage of the time between wrapping up in Ireland and arriving back home for a similar type of trip!