today, my mother and i traveled from england to ireland.
we arrived at manchester piccadilly and panicked when our printed reference number was rejected from the automated machines. it was my seven year old cousin anna who figured out our rookie mistake. typical, really, of her to save the day after i had been teasing her for days about miley cyrus being my best friend and high school musical being true to life for all american students. i had underestimated her.
we rode fifteen minutes in the quiet car until we arrived in crewe and changed to a shinier train that would take us to north wales where we would catch the ferry to ireland. a gas leak in the train ahead of ours delayed us an hour, but a nice man with no teeth and tattoos on his hands kept pulling tall cans of dark irish beer out of his duffel bag and telling me stories about "the real dublin", so the time passed quickly.
the united kingdom looks the same from most angles. but i think my favorite is from a train window. sheep with tails that wag like dogs. churches with tops that look like crowns, castles. water that changes from bahama blue to mermaid green when the coastline curves.
when i was expecting staten island, i was surprised with a cruise ship. everything was named after james joyce. there were bars and plush seats. a movie theater that was showing the new "star trek". and families of loud red headed, freckled children who would punch their baby siblings in the throat when they snuck sips of their mother's guinness.
now i am in the house of an american embassy employee, drinking tea with milk and missing my dog.
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