We’ve been pounding the cobblestones for four days straight, negotiating Dublin’s busiest thoroughfares to the point that students have started comparing their iPhone pedometers to see how far our daily travels have taken them. So today we did the natural thing and hightailed it out of the city to Howth, a coastal village bordering Dublin Bay. We rode the DART out, watching the city slip behind us as the water and sky–the Ireland students perhaps expected–emerged ahead. There was, as you might imagine, a lot of photography.

In a selfie-taking lull, students discussed associative thinking and lyrical essay form before drafting their own thematically-linked mini essays. This kind of thing really works up an appetite; luckily, among Howth’s better offerings is Beshoff Bros takeaway, home of the best fish and chips we’ve ever tasted.

We like to think of the Howth visit as a kind of field trip preview of what we’ll soon be encountering on the western island of Inishbofin. We leave Wednesday morning, and return Saturday afternoon. A note, dear reader: we will not have wifi access at our hostel on Inishbofin, so blog posts will likely lag a bit, then drop in relatively quick succession upon our return. In the meantime, we’ll try to sneak an Instagram or two from our dinner restaurants. We couldn’t be more excited for our pastoral writing retreat!