Few Days in England/London
After the two weeks in Scotland we kept visiting my in-laws, but as it was summer time, there were so many plans and parties that we were bouncing from house to house like a ping pong ball!
The day we waved goodbye to Claire and Co, we landed in Essex, England, with Kev’s brother, Martin, for a couple days; just enough to catch our breath and move to Gerard’s Cross where a big family reunion was happening. The days we spent with Martin and Tiffani, Martin’s wife, were very relaxing, and were perfect to catch up a bit with wedding preparations and with our lives in general. We spent most of those days at the British library; reading and writing, and just enjoying that amazing place. However, the Burkitt’s summer festivities were underway! A Party held by James, one of Kevin’s English uncles, was happening that week, and all the Burkitt siblings were coming. We were happy to be there, we generally miss this Burkitt’s summer event due to distance, but this time we were here to partake on it.
After a successful party; full of laughs, soccer, and great food, we embarked in “the ultimate road trip” with Susie, Boris, and Peter to make our way to Donegal, Ireland, for another family reunion, but this time, with the Irish side of the family.
So from Gerard’s Cross we went to Wales, and spent a night there. There, in Wales, we had an amazing time exploring the city, and the next day we took off to Ireland.
I am proud to say that I’ve been in more parts of Ireland than most Irish in a record time. We started in Wexford county, and the first night we stayed with Martina. Martina is Kev’s aunt, and is one of the kindest woman that I’ve met. Her voice is so soothing, and her presence is very comforting. But that was just the start of my good luck; Kev’s Irish family is so fun and nice, and Donegal is such a magic place!
But let’s step back and go chronologically, so we are back in Wexford. From there we went to one of the most iconic Irish/celtic sites, so on our way to Donegal we stopped at Clonmacnoise. Clonmacnoise is a beautiful Irish site with a bunch of history, celtic crosses, and a very well conserved Irish tower, where the priests would hide during the viking raids.
But of course, it could not be an epic road trip Susie style if we did not tried to make the most of the day, so after learning of Celtas and Vikings, we made another full-day-type-of-stop. This time we found ourselves at the Burren, and against all the predictions -that we would be either: too tired or too late to climb to the top- we made it to the top in record time. Well, I did not because I stopped every 5 min to take pics, but Boris pushed everyone else to do it very fast.
Oh! my mistake, I have not introduced you to Susie and her two explosive kids! Susie is Kev’s sister, a good hearted, full of energy, and contagious laughter woman. Boris and Peter are her two little gentleman; who are full of ambition and desire for what the future will bring. Two little boys eager to grow up to be the smartest, most creative, and fun men in the world. It will be and adventure just to see them growing.
Again, back to the road trip. From the Burren we made our way to Carmel’s house (Kev’s mom), in Galway, where a delicious dinner was waiting. Carmel is a lady in all senses of the word; she keeps a bit of mysticism and you can never know what is really going on in her head, but you also know that as long as good manners are observed, everything will be alright. In her lady like person, she is a great cook, all her food and deserts are heavenly, but of course, she keeps her modesty about this too.
After a family night, catching up and planning, the following day we embarked to Donegal.
Donegal and Family Reunion
At last, we made it to Donegal, where the highly anticipated cousins reunion would take place, and oh boy, it did not disappoint! Walking on the streets of Donegal we started to say hello left and right; it seemed like the town were inhabited only by the Moore’s. Every restaurant, bar, beach or the street itself held someone that was related to Kev somehow. It was very surreal. The evening we arrived, after saying hi to a bunch of people, it turned out that everybody was in the mood to start the party earlier than it supposed to (there was a main party that was to be held in honor of Kev’s grandmother), so we met at a bar.
When we arrives to the bar it was only Kev’s direct family: Susie, Claire, and Martin. After an hour or so people started to arrive, and I started to get introduced to the Irish relatives, whom I haven’t met after 5 years of marriage! So at the beginning, I was trying to keep up track of names and who was whose father, daughter, boyfriend, girlfriend, husband wife, etc., but after only half an hour I gave up; suddenly there were more than 50 people, and at the time we left, people was still just arriving.
The following three days happened as a blur; all the Irish family was together, mornings at the beach, visiting granny’s house, exploring beautiful Donegal, and more sneaky pints at the surrounding pubs kept happening. The last day, the main event occurred. A beautiful reception held for granny’s 90th birthday. Everybody looking very smart and happy, knowing that this event may not happen in another 20 years or so.
Continuation
If you thought that Susie’s trip finished here, you don’t know her. She has energy to share and store! So, after this epic cousins’s reunion she kept going up north, passing trough Giant’s causeway with destination to Belfast, where we caught up with her again.
There we said bye to her for a while and she went back to England while we made our way to Dublin for a few days, to visit some friends, Ciara and Eoin, and back to be bouncing from place to place! From Dublin we went back to Galway, then Dublin again, Tiptree followed, and last back to Essex and to Sussie. But that is a whole other story in itself.
De Camino 