The Time I Was All Normcore When I Met Henry Cavill

First, we must establish two things:

THIS is Henry Cavill.

henry2

And this…is normcore.  (Gaaa.  So stupid.)

NORMCORE

Since we were talking about Ireland, I thought this would be a good time to bring up the time I swooned like a drooling fool over Henry Cavill.  When I was supposed to be interviewing him.

henrycavillchair

Before arriving on the set of The Tudors, I was told to wear boots because there was going to be a lot of mud.

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I live in Manhattan, I don’t own boots that are good in the mud—we don’t have mud, just enormous lakes of melted snow/slush/garbage three feet deep around every sidewalk.  But no mud.  So I wore my snow boots.  Which are utterly hideous.  And look like elf shoes.  And I wore blue corduroy pants (from the Gap!).  And some scarf that I thought was cool, before I realized it had something to do with Palestinians or protests or whatever.

I mean…is this what someone should wear when they are about to meet the second most beautiful man in the world?!

Shhhh, Ryan, it’s okay, I will always love you most.

Ryan-Gosling-GIF

So this is what I looked like when I met Henry Cavill.

me
And this is what he looks like.

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He walked into the room IN COSTUME, gave me a glorious smile and sat down in the chair in front of me, all ready for his interview.  My entire body turned a nice beat red as I made a sad attempt at some small talk while he was getting mic’d up—something like “soooo, how has the day been going?  Great great…so…how has the day been going?”

I had my very carefully prepared questions in front of me, which were totally useless.  How is a girl expected to read a 12-point font on a white piece of paper when a man dressed like a knight at the round table is sitting in front of her.  How, I ask you!

After a few horrendously awkward moments, I finally pulled it together and started asking my questions like a robot reading directly from my list.  Then, there was this moment when I actually said something…funny.  And he smiled.  Nay, he laughed!  And all I could think was, “HE THINKS I’M FUNNY!  I AM SOOO FUNNY RIGHT NOW!!” And then, of course, I completely lost my place and bumbled around like a fool through the rest of the interview with one part of me desperately wanting it to be over, and the other wanting it to never end.

However, despite my ridiculous behavior I got a great interview from him and he gave me a sweet hug goodbye. (I KNOW!!! I. JUST. DIED.)  And that was it.  He was gone.  And the color faded just ever so slightly from the world around me.

But this is a travel blog, not a homage to my love for Henry Cavill, so here is the travel stuff.  A little outside of Dublin, The Tudors shot their outdoor scenes in the countryside, and if you’ve never seen the Irish countryside, you are truly missing out.

This is what it looks like with men on horses galloping around on it.

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This is what it looks like when they are surveying the land.

horses

And this is what it looks like when someone sets up a medieval war camp on it…

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muddy

camp

And of course here are some soldiers…just having a smoke.  They had lighters back then, right?

soldiers_cig

The Time I Almost Died at the Cliffs of Moher

The 80’s were a special special time.  And if you grew up in this special time you grew up during the golden age of cinema, which utterly distorted your perspective of the world and ruined you for real life forever.

Nothing seemed impossible.

neverending

The underdog always won.

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And the uncool girl always got the hot guy (I will always love you Jake Ryan).

jakeryan

The Princess Bride rates in the top ten films that ruined you for real life forever.  It taught you that there was such a thing as “true love” and “friendly giants” and ROUS’S.  I mean, what girl didn’t dream that she, too, would one day hear these words coming from these beautiful beautiful lips.

as-you-wish-better2

So as you might imagine, being a child of the 80’s, I was exceptionally excited to go see THE CLIFFS OF INSANITY!!!

cliffs of insanity

Otherwise known as The Cliffs of Moher.

cliffs nice

It was a perfectly sunny day, apparently a rare thing for this part of Ireland (or any part of Ireland), and The Cliffs of Insanity Moher stretched out in front of me in their vast, overwhelming beauty.  In my defense for the story I am about to share, there are shockingly few safety rails, however, there are signs.  Like this one.

sign man falling

And this one.

sign unstable cliff

But to someone visiting on a seemingly harmless sunny day, this all felt overly dramatic.  And then I saw this sign.

sign do not enter

And this gorgeous trail.

road less traveled

And I had to follow it.  And then I had to lay down on my stomach and hang over the cliff so that I could take a photo of the tumultuous rocky ocean 700 feet below, because, you know.  I’m a photographer.  With photography skills.  And I needed this photo.

Which turned out like this.

ledge

Needless to say, when I returned to Dublin and proudly told all of my new Irish friends about my amazing adventures at The Cliffs of Insanity Moher, they stared at me mouths agape.  “You know…those cliffs are made of limestone…and…well, if the wind doesn’t sweep you right off the ledge, the limestone could give way and you’d get your close-up of that 700 foot drop.”

Huh.  Well.

So..DO go to The Cliffs of Moher, but DO NOT hang precariously over the edge like a stupid American tourist with a camera.