So I don't think I can do separate posts on everything with all my thoughts and pictures and well... How I WANT to do them. It's gotten stale cause it's been too long. Once again I've procrastinated. I've already put up pictures and told the story with the descriptions, I've told numerous people about it, and I'm back now. Other things are happening and life is going on. I find myself wanting to blog about other things but I've got this in the way. Not that I don't want to tell the world about it cause I SOOO DO! But BECAUSE of that, I'm too long winded and it's too much! So I'm just gonna wrap up the rest of the week like this so I get to tell you, but I'm not telling you for the rest of the month about each and every tiny detail (which is probably better for both of us and I'm imagining you breathing a sigh of relief. Good Erin. FINALLY)
So. What happened the rest of the time in Ireland? Well, the next day was our "free day" (day we had nothing previously planned) so we woke up, and decided to take this free tour of Galway that we'd heard about. We wanted to know more about the city and see everything and maybe we'd get a better grasp on where do go and what to do the rest of the time there. Our guide was great and we learned a ton about Galway and I got some great pictures! (this is a famous bridge over a famous river to a famous cathedral... very famous stuff we got here)
So. What happened the rest of the time in Ireland? Well, the next day was our "free day" (day we had nothing previously planned) so we woke up, and decided to take this free tour of Galway that we'd heard about. We wanted to know more about the city and see everything and maybe we'd get a better grasp on where do go and what to do the rest of the time there. Our guide was great and we learned a ton about Galway and I got some great pictures! (this is a famous bridge over a famous river to a famous cathedral... very famous stuff we got here)
After the tour, our other friends weren't ready to meet up yet so we went to a little place called mocha bean for lunch and decided that now since we were such experts on the city, we'd explore it ourselves! We ended up finding a little "hidden" (only to us) path with gorgeous photo shoot opportunities!
and after finding that we weren't meeting our friends until after dinner, we decided to go on wandering toward the ocean. What a good idea THAT was
So then we finished our walk around as the sun went down and ended up eating a quick fast food dinner before meeting our friends at an Irish pub. Now I'm not a drinker.... if you know me there's a good chance you may have just laughed. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go or not, but I thought "I'm in Ireland and I want to experience what the culture is like (which in Ireland is PUBS) so I'll go and taste the famous Guiness (funny story- had no idea what it was and my first thought was the world book of records...ha! (it's a famous beer here cause it's made in Ireland and there's TONS of stores and touristy things about it)) and just hang out and see how it is. If I don't like it, I can leave whenever I want." So I went. The atmosphere in "The King's Head" wasn't at all how I expected. It was more of a chill hang out with friends and listen to music type of deal. They had live music- 2 Irish singer guys that did fabulously. There were als a TON of swiss kids there and they provided some stereotypical bar type thoughts when they sang random chants. oh swiss... anywhoo I tasted a friend's guiness and after listening to a bunch of Irish songs (they were FANTASTIC and I took videos of a few songs) we regressed to our hostel for the night. So ends my cultural experience.
Note: Keep in mind that this thing i'm holding wasn't actually mine haha!
Note: Keep in mind that this thing i'm holding wasn't actually mine haha!
The next day was the Cliffs of Moher tour. This was perhaps the most interesting experience of the entire trip because of, well, SO MANY reasons. I got to go to the scene of the "cliffs of insanity" from The Princess Bride (my FAVORITE movie EVER) and got to see many other interesting spots on the way- It was a day long tour. Also because of this, I got to meet this guy from Alaska and talked to him the entire time. So When we got on the bus, there was 5 of us and I was the last in so I sat across the isle from my friends with this guy who looked really big and burly and more rough and "don't talk to me" than "oh look at the pretty scenery!" (haha) He had earphones for the first few minutes and I was silently a little disappointed that some more talkative woman hadn't sat there that I could talk to a bit and not feel so awkward. I mean, we were sitting together both on a tour and not talking was just.... awkward is a good word. It just is. (and yes. I feel slightly weird about putting this total creeper shot here. But you gotta understand! and it helps my story!)
Well God heard the prayer I didn't pray and I don't remember if he started it or I did, but after asking where are you from, we kept talking for pretty much the whole bus ride and he turned out to be a super fun seat mate! He wasn't at all how I'd perceived him and we laughed and talked the entire day. I learned so much about him and about travel and experiences. Hearing about a stranger's life suddenly opened up the world to me. I could go anywhere. I could do anything. God is active everywhere and this guy's life is gonna keep on going weather I see it or not. God is at work and he will do what he will do. How fascinating! He was about 26 I'd guess and was originally from Jersey but moved to Alaska to work in the oil industry. With that job comes a ton of vacation time and he used it to travel ALL OVER. Like- he's literally been EVERYWHERE. He told me about Germany, Iceland, France, Italy, Cuba, Peru, Australia, ect... turns out this was his last day. He was going back the next morning at 6am and he was pretty depressed after 2 months of traveling around the globe. I mean- he carved a flippin' didgeridoo while sitting on the beach in Australia!!! I mean... WHAT?! But I optimistically said "well going home kind of makes the traveling more important. If you never had to go home, it would lose it's "specialness" wouldn't it?" and he responded with this: "well, when you think of home you think of family right?" "I suppose" I said. "Well I don't really have a family to go home to. I literally work all the time ect... and we proceeded to talk about how you'd better learn to get along with the people you work with and what family is and so many interesting things! (Erin, should you have just recounted that guy's personal life to the world by blog? "well.... I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope he never happens to see this by some weird chance..... but nope! No apologies! This was a huge thing for me and I want to recount important things and why they're important. Also, what I said is nothing that could harm anything by any means for any reason.) So yeah. Gonna share his life (well a bit of it) Back to the thought process: That was probably one of the most thought provoking experiences of my life. Honestly, after writing this right now, it just sounds stupid and not extraordinary at all, so I guess I really can't even explain it- but something changed in my mind over that day of conversation. I started thinking a whole new thought path that I'd never opened up before. Strangers, lives brushing for a moment before separating forever, travel, the world, culture, family, home, the world in general, how God sees it, just- SO MANY subjects and tangents that I could go off on for days thinking and talking about. Anyways... so that's that. Wow. Didn't even talk about the Cliffs of Moher. Certainly can't do THAT without exclamation points!
We drove up there and got out and I was in 2 hours of complete and utter BLISS. Bliss I tell you. It was SOOOO beautiful!!!!!! Gorgeous!!!!! Incredible!!!!! I can't really even describe it other than to show pictures. That would take up a lot of room so I'll put a smallish slideshow and if you want more just creep on my facebook or ask me about it and I'll be MORE than happy (probably freak you out) and show you all about it! (also: I watched that part of the movie and paused it and looked through my pictures and where the movie scene takes place turns out to be RIGHT BEHIND ME in this (and most of) my pictures!!!!!! I kind of FREAKED OUT and almost cried. It was a bit pathetic and AMAZING) Goes to show how God grants us our little unneeded pleasures just to bless us. My God is good- also: he made this....NBD
So... here are some pictures of this amazing place.
So... here are some pictures of this amazing place.
After the ride home and wishing my seat mate luck on his future adventures, we all went together to the fish and chips place again and THIS TIME when I ordered salmon, I actually got to eat salmon..... yay! After that, we kinda just crashed in the hostel and woke up the next morning to leave this beautiful place called Galway. If you ever have a chance to go, do it. So- before the 2 of us who were going to Dublin left, we met all together and had a "traditional Irish breakfast" advertised for 5 euro. It was a lot of mystery meat... but most of it was delicious! Then we caught the bus to Dublin. 3 hours later we arrived and when I stepped off the bus I was struck all the sudden by the presence of the city. I'd forgotten exactly where we were going to. Dublin. I was in Dublin. Ok, alright it's a CITY. Not like Galway. It was bustling and the streets were gorgeous. We walked over ha' penny bridge without even knowing that THAT'S what the gorgeous bridge with all of the love locks on it was! We checked into our hostel and met a girl from Spain who came to Ireland to learn english and look for a flat to live in.
We'd get to know her much better over the next few days. Next we went to go walk around and see a bunch of famous things in Dublin. A few steps out the door, a lady had fliers about a dinner show of traditional Irish music and dancing. It's something I'd wanted to do since we planned the trip and was a good price for a 3 course meal, a concert, and dance show so we decided to do it! In the mean time we walked around and visited Grafton Street, Trinity College, and St. Stephen's green before going back to the hostel to get ready quick. There we talked a bunch more with our Spanish friend before leaving. I LOVE fancy things. So I was psyched when we walked in and it was really nice looking! I finally got my potatoes by ordering potato soup and salmon (again I know- I'm a fan) and then after dessert, the singing part started. The band was great and played/sang lots of traditional Irish tunes that the audience sang and clapped along to. After about an hour, it was time for the traditional irish dancers. I was ecstatic! They were like the river dance I'd seen on t.v. and I was in a bliss for the next hour. It was a very satisfying day. We returned to the hostel to find another girl- from Sweden who'd come! We started talking and this whole experience was becoming so awesome to me!
The next morning we went to see all the rest of the famous Dublin sights as well as the writer's museum and Dublin Castle. On our way to the writer's museum, we saw "the spire" and at the writer's museum, I found out that dracula was an Irish creation, that there is a TON of Irish literature history, and that Oscar Wilde is one of the most prominent writers in Irish history. Then we walked to the Dublin Castle and had a look around. We had a nice picnic lunch and went to the yard behind. We stopped at Christ Church Cathedral (gorgeous) to take pictures and then realized it wasn't St. Patrick's Cathedral.... then we went in search of it. After finding it and taking more pictures, we went back to Trinity College because we'd learned about the book of Kells (4 gospels incredibly illustrated by historical Trinity College) which is in the famous Trinity Library and Paige decided to go see it. I chilled by the lawn (that you're not allowed on-in a college? seriously?) and basked in the gorgeous day. Afterwards we decided we'd make our own dinner and be all fancy and I insisted that I make my signature potatoes :) it was fantastic and made me feel super at home. We had so much food!- I was ready to burst by the time we were done.
The next morning was extremely rainy (how it was supposed to be the whole time- we'd gotten lucky up till now) but we still ventured out and went to the natural history museum (Dublin's "dead zoo") which was awesome! It was like Noah's ark! We speed walked back to the hostel through the rain and talked to the girls from Spain, Sweden, and now Germany (who were all there by now) until our two friends arrived. When they did, it was still raining and one of my friends was sick. We opted not to go to the Dublin zoo like we'd originally planned and instead we just chilled for the afternoon talking to the other girls and being cozy. Last on the agenda was to go to a musical called "Save the Last Dance for Me" in the Gaiety Theater. We got ready and headed through the rain to this great fancy place for dinner (where the waiter did a double take when I asked for "just a muffin please" cause I was a bit low on dinero...) and it was cozy, delicious, and a great place to pass the time till the show. After dinner, we went to the show and it was spectacular! It was set in the 50's/60's and had gorgeous dresses, amazing singing, and incredible dancing! The audience was mostly older people who knew the songs super well and sang boisterously along with each and every one of the songs. The audience was one of the best parts! Afterwards, we were extremely content and wished life was a musical...but alas.
So we talked to our room mates one last time and went to sleep. So ends our time in Ireland. However, I WOULD like to take a minute to talk about our room mates. That and the guy on the Cliffs of Mo'her tour combine to make this grand experience that I've had. I got to know these girls so well in the 2 days I knew them! In fact, the girl from Spain and I are going to go salsa dancing together if she ever comes to Segovia before I leave. I've met some amazing people. Traveling alone, going many places, been many places, at different points in their lives, different reasons for being in the same place, from different countries, speaking the same language, speaking different languages, different cultures, same cultures, music, food, talk..... it's just... crazy to me. I'll always remember this experience as long as I live. These are the days and the things that make you who you become.
We woke up the next morning, got ready, and said goodbye to our new friends. We had to check out by 10am but our flight didn't leave till 5:30 and we had a bus at around 3. We decided to show the other two the sights. We ended up having quite an adventure! First we visited Trinity College again and caught the tail end of a tour by the library. Then we went to Grafton St. to show them the awesome Disney store we found! We ended up in the Grafton Mall (gorgeous) and then went to St. Stephen's green after a gelado snack. When we were walking back from the green, one of my friends decided to buy some bright flowers and hand them out to random people. This was super fun for us as we headed back to the green to hand them out. Interesting the reactions we got. Parents said no and looked at us like we were dangerous, 2 girls screamed in delight and took a picture, and a thankful mother who didn't speak much english. What fun to bless people! Walking back from THAT we ran into a street show where a street performer was doing tricks and juggling fire. He was HILARIOUS and we ended up staying and watching the whole half hour show. Perfect way to waste time waiting for a flight! Finally we headed back to the hostel, picked up our stuff, and caught the bus to the airport. After a plane to Madrid, metro to bus station, and bus to Segovia, I was ready to be home.
Yup. Home. This place feels like home now. So ends my Ireland adventure. :) My dreams became reality. God's reading me the book page by page- day by day- and I can't wait for what's next.
also, I'm quite aware that this did not accomplish my original goal of a "short" recount of my trip without many stops and thoughts. Oh well, I recounted it! I'm now aware that I'm unable to be anything other than long winded.... and perhaps it's better that way :)