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What are we running away from when we seek places unknown? I’d rather think, I was running to an adventure and not running away at all. To find something unexpected, to return home with a treasure trove of memories, to hold forever. Every destination is easily an adventure for a desert girl who had never seen the ocean until I was 25, it was also the same year I first got on an airplane and stared out the window for the short one-hour flight. I was born to fly! So, when I got on the plane to go to Europe for the first time, I wasn’t nervous about flying, but I had no idea what to expect. As a child, I had traveled far away from my home in sub-Saharan Africa, to all corners of the real and imaginative worlds in books, still, this was a life first. We landed at Shannon airport Ireland and it was cold! I was born in Maiduguri and lived there all my life- that city was built on the same street with the sun! We had hazy cold harmattans, but the sun always came out. Shannon? It didn’t know what that was. It was bright outside at 2 pm as expected but it wasn’t sunny or warm in summer! It was a bit of a drive from the Shannon Airport to Limerick- curious name for a town, perfect for anyone who loved the arts. I immediately knew this was going to tug at my creative strings. It was hard not to remember “The Hills are alive with the sounds of music…”- one of my earliest reference to Europe. The scenery as the taxi drove on was of hills and greenery and castles. The biggest smile covered my face as I thought of all the Grimm fairy tales that could easily fit in here-this quaint seemingly handcrafted countryside. I couldn’t wait to get to the hotel, dump my bags and run outside to see what Limerick had versed out for me. Cobblestone streets, 800-year-old stone castles and cathedrals on every turn. I walked into St. Mary’s cathedral and stood still. There aren’t words to describe the attention to detail in a structure built almost a thousand years ago. The humble pews, a blithe divergence to the magnificent arched ceilings, painted windows and stone Cross. God probably lived here. Outside in the courtyard, I sat next to a century old tomb of a two-year-old. Something I could never do – and would never do back at home. It didn’t feel eerie here, it felt serene. There were no ghosts in this graveyard, only gentle breeze and quietened souls at peace. All the while, as I weaved through narrow streets lined with restaurants and antique shops, I couldn’t help but smile at the accent of Limerick. I couldn’t tell if they were speaking English or Gaelic? For some reason, nightfall wasn’t happening. It must have been six hours since I got here but it was still light out. I checked my phone and it said ‘8 pm' Did it fail to reset? I needed to get back to the hotel and connect to the Wi-Fi. In the hotel lobby were three clocks mounted on the wall behind the receptionist with the usual major cities and one showing local time-8:45 pm. I asked the receptionist what the time was, and she echoed the clock. I was in the land of the midnight sun! I read about this when I was a child and it felt like a fairy tale and here I was under the amber glow of a midnight sun. I went right back out. There was a river behind the hotel and a restaurant had setup by its paved banks, with a white wrought iron and wooden footbridge across it, to add romantic detail, I’d suppose. I sat at a table that matched the footbridge and glossed over the menu, not failing to notice the ducks idly floating on the river. Never mind what I had for dinner; it was the Irish coffee that threw me off. It had whiskey in it! The adventure hadn’t even begun yet.