I have been absent for weeks from my blog. First, we had a beautiful autumn trip to Italy, Germany, and France, gifted with all the warm colors of autumn, misty mornings, sunny days and dear people. Then, when we came back, the renovation works in our home started- they have been keeping me away from my laptop as well as from my home actually. While I am planning to start publishing posts on our spring trip to Japan, beginning with the town of Takayama, and even writing a bit when I catch the time between running about paint stores, choosing the tiles online, negotiating with the renovation workers, trying to remember to eat fruit between the quick fix lunch solutions, I am also reading when I find a moment of rest. The theme happened to be Ireland these days, and it made me wish to visit someday. For those of you who might be longing or even planning to visit Ireland, here is what I’ve been reading.

First, I read Emma’s post on her summer-more like late autumn-courtesy of Irish weather trip to Ireland. Emma is a rare find, a travel blogger with a true gift for writing- witty, funny, sincere. Everything is not perfect on her trips, it is what it is- the rain would interfere with their plans more often then they had imagined, the restaurants would close just in time for dinner, and she did not love Galway as much as she expected, but still they enjoyed a rainy evening in a pub in Doolin listening to live traditional music, experienced first hand the Irish hospitality, enjoyed the landscape even in the rain (and they have some beautiful photos as proof)… You might want to read it, she tells it better than I can anyway.

Then, I went to the library, wandering between the shelves of English language literature, giving a chance to every book with a little Penguin in the orange frame on the covers. And so I pulled out Patrick Kavanagh’s “The Green Fool”, a story of his rural upbringing in Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century. I loved this book from the first page, laughing out loud in the cafe where I escaped from a renovation work mess at home. Kavanagh’s writing is intelligent and funny, he is a keen observer of people and things, his remarks are to the point, his recollection of poverty so sincere and the needs of people that surround him so modest that it makes me feel warm inside.

To finish this Irish story, I’m adding a bit music, from a band that we heard almost ten years ago live in Zagreb, when Zagreb was still a place where interesting musicians would pop over from time to time. I read in Emma’s blog post that Doolin is center of traditional Irish music, and then I read today that Mairtin O’Connor’s Band played there at a festival last year. I hope I’ll catch them someday somewhere in Ireland, preferably a pub, but a stage would do as well. Here is a song from their Crossroads album that I love.

What have you been up to lately? Please share. :)