Typically Atypical year This September will be 4 years total that I've lived in Ireland, There was 2006 to 2008 when I lived in Cork City and now 2011 to 2013 that I've lived in Dublin. Of course the giant gap in the middle was filled with 3 years of California.
In the 4 years of living here in Ireland I've been to approximately 28 out of the 32 counties on this island and the 4 that I haven't seen yet don't really have much in terms of attractions to offer. I got quite accustomed to spending my time off from work traveling around here and exploring new places, but in the last couple months I haven't gone outside of a 4-5km radius. I go to work during the week and out with friends on the weekends. The last time I left Dublin was either the last weekend in April or the first weekend in May when I went to Belfast. I think for most people that's not a long time but for me it feels like an eternity. 2013 in general has been a very atypical year for me travel-wise. Going back to 2010 the year I took a 3 week 6 country trip around Europe, I've consistently traveled quite a lot. In 2011 I went to San Francisco a couple times, saw the Grand Canyon, and completed a cross country road trip from San Diego to New Hampshire. Then last year I went to England 4 times and traveled a lot around Ireland.
I started to wonder why is it so different this year compared to the last couple years, and the answer became obvious. In California the last year or so before I moved I didn't have much of a social life in the city I lived in so that explained the traveling, weekends in LA to visit Jay Coffman and other friends, driving to Mexico or to Palm Springs with my flatmate Andrey became the normal thing to do. Then I moved over to Dublin and when I first arrived here I only really knew Daragh who lived in this city. As time has passed I've met a lot more friends and some of my good friends from Cork and Galway have always moved up here to Dublin. So now instead of traveling every weekend I'm usually pretty content to stay right here and spent time with my good friends.   ¶ 1:15 PM