Dominick Street in Galway is bustling with an old-school glow. The chief carries a tray full of eggs from one cafe to another. Beer kegs meditate on the sidewalk in front of a yellow door with a rustic knocker.
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May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back.
Irish proverb
Summer in Ireland has 14 degrees, and rain is usually on hand. However, there is some unusual feature of this country that always makes me feel that I am on the way. Because when I discover new beaches, various types of flowers and grasses, and visit fishing villages like Kinvara, I experience the magic and the weather does not determine it.
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When the sun is shining, Connemara looks like a fairy-tale land. Lush green spills onto the road like a cocktail of parsley and kiwi. It mixes with navy streams and sea-pink Armeria Maritima for several dozen kilometers. Magic mountains reign under the sky, and at their foot the most beautiful turquoise I have ever seen is glazed.
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I sit down on a stone by the R336 in the Maan Valley. The asphalt is quiet. Along the side of the road, one sheep walks. Thin black legs wobble slightly on the grey rocks. I take a sip of coffee from an orange mug. Brown giants – Maamturk watch me gently. A moment ago I have doubted the sense of being. Now, I contemplate a magical or ordinary fragment that is just happening.
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A few years ago, I got an idea for a book about middle-aged women who consistently work with passion. In Ireland’s humid and changeable climate, I met many self-satisfied women, and they made me love my graying hair. I made interviews to find out how they keep fire in their hearts and shape into action. However, when I wrote seven chapters, I locked them in a file for four years. Not because I didn’t want to continue with this idea, but simply because I didn’t organize my time to work on the book.
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There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing
Alfred Wainwright
The force of the wind on the Beaufort scale is nine, a little tree knocked over on some balcony in Galway. I prepare sandwiches and pour coffee into tourist mugs. We put on hoodies, jackets, hats, I take gloves, even it is May. Dauntless sneakers are ready for the adventure. The songs by Polish band T.Love sound in the car, so memories mix with the N59 road, and beige hills with newborn sheep hug their mums on the fields. Long before Clifden, we turn right to the Connemara National Park. The direction is three beautiful beaches.
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The world is full of magic, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper
W.B. Yeats
I admit as poet W.B. Yeats wrote. Although sometimes I think that I would hide inside myself, and not to look anymore, or dream. However, life goes on and it does not care about my concepts, plans, and fears. It just wanders and catches my hand with it every day. It gives me flowers on the meadow, charms me with the warm rocks on which I can lie like a lizard with the emerald ocean around. It brings me happiness in the rays that appear only for a few minutes. Do you think May is such a month that reminds us of the magic of life?
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Don’t think, man, what your life might be, otherwise, it wouldn’t be yours.
Czesław Miłosz, The Issa Valley.
Where are you from? – I have heard this question a thousand times in my life. And I always wondered what should I respond: where I come from or where I am currently live? When I lived in Poland, the answer seemed simple, because I was born in this country. Although I landed in the world in Warsaw and after years I moved to Wrocław.
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When I walk along the main thoroughfare of the city of Galway, a huge seagull flies over my head. Then I feel that not only people live in our city. Until yesterday, I had no idea that taking fallen leaves out of the park can destroy the ecosystem. And what exactly the animals in Galway need?
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The third lockdown in Ireland lasted almost half a year. We could only move to five kilometers. Recently, the restrictions have been relaxed a bit, and we are allowed to move within one county. Missing Connemara, I could finally visit her. On April 16, the afternoon had a warm gray color, and we went with friends to cut my Birthday cake on the hills.
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