another year, another slice of cake

I don't think I'm a birthday person. They make me squirmy and uncomfortable. But despite all my grumbling, this was SUCH a nice one.
I think I got the best birthday present I could ever have asked for. A road trip across the country with the best person ever. This meant we could pop into Galway, a gorgeous city on the west coast of Ireland, probably one of my favourite places in the whole country.

Clearly our main priority in Galway was finding (birthday) cake, so we were in hot pursuit of baked goods when we found found this place.

Amazingly, the weather has been absolutely beautiful for the last few days. Last year I spent my birthday curled up inside watching snow fall down so spending this birthday wandering around castle ruins in the sunshine is just way too perfect.

This was a birthday that made me feel both sad that I couldn't be close to my friends and family, but so very grateful to receive so much kindness from so far away. Balloons and flowers and chocolate and so much love. I'm not sure why I was being such a birthday scrooge in the first place!

And the best part of the whole birthday thing? I got THREE cakes this year. Oh man. Best birthday ever.

ar ais go héireann

Coming back to Ireland has been really exciting, but a bit sad too. I lived in Ireland from the end of 2012 until January 2014 when I went home to Australia for the first time in what felt like forever. I loved living in Cork, it's such a beautiful city and it will always be home to the person I love, but it was so nice going back to my own home in Canberra too.

We're only in Cork for the next two weeks until we start all over again in beautiful Edinburgh. We're just getting over jet lag (4am is an awful time to be wide awake!)and spending some time with John's family before we leave again.

It's been really nice to come back to Cork after nearly two months of being away. I've said it before but being away really opens your eyes to what is right in front of you.

Ireland is such a beautiful country and I'm so grateful to it for being my adopted home.