Tales from the Motherland

So I'm going to attempt to blog our whole trip in one sitting...for real. ;) For those of you who don't know, my friends Sarah and John Morgan decided last January that they were going to take a week-long trip to Ireland. They started asking people in February, and I was one of them, if we wanted to go with them in November of this year. I initially turned them down because of work and lack of vacay-time.

3 weeks before they were supposed to leave, Sarah told me they had another spot open on the trip. It would cost me less than $800 for the WHOLE trip, and I had vacay time available. So I went. And these are the happenings...in order. =)

Thursday, Nov 5 Rebekah Schwab, Luke Holger, Damaris Wells, and I spent the night at the Morgans and our plane left around noon on Friday. We got into Dublin around 10:30am their time on the 7th. Janelle Leach met us in the airport, we picked up a rental van (no small task) and drove into the city for a few hours. Might I say that Janelle was SUCH a blessing to our group...from the very beginning! She brought her GPS (sat-nav) with her so the first few days of navigating were significantly easier!

We walked around Dublin taking pictures for a while, ate lunch at a McDonalds (I know. FIRST meal in another country and we go to the golden arches!), and then went in to Carroll's (a souvenir shop) and bought some touristy treasures. We stopped at Trinity College to walk around and were going to do the tour of the Book of Kells but it required money and time that we didn't have. So we moved on to the Guinness Brewery. We took the abbreviated tour so that some in our group could take a class in how to appropriately pour a pint of Guinness and receive a certificate for this feat. Then we went to the top floor which was called the Gravity Bar, if I'm not mistaken- floor to ceiling windows so we had a 360 degree view of Dublin. It was lovely, but we wanted to get on the road because we had to drive across the country (should've taken about 3 1/2 hours) to get to our cottage. We stopped in a city called Athlone and ducked into Sean's Bar for a few minutes to hear some musicians. But they didn't have food and our group was famished, so we left. We finally got into Doolin around 8pm and had dinner at Fitzpatricks. The food was AMAZING there! I had some sort of creamy tomato pasta dish. =) John followed the owner of the cottage out there while we sat and ate our food. He unloaded the ENTIRE van by himself and THEN came back to get us. We were very grateful!

As soon as we pulled up to the cottage, all us girls started shrieking and giggling. It seriously is THE most adorable cottage you'll ever see! So we unpacked and went to bed. =)

Sunday morning, Anne knocked on our door and had us follow her over to her family's castle: Ballinalacken Castle. This was truly THE MOST beautiful castle I've ever seen in person. Absolutely breath-taking. We spent about an hour just roaming throughout the castle ruins, taking loads of pictures/video and admiring God's handiwork. We thanked Anne for taking us there (the castle isn't open to the public), and then we left for the Cliffs of Moher (the cliffs of Insanity- from Princess Bride)! We spent ALL afternoon on the cliffs. There are no words to describe the beauty we beheld, standing at the edge of the steep cliffs, watching the waves crash into the rocks hundreds of feet below us. At one point, we were walking, and noticed that the wind had carried bits of foam from the ocean way down below up onto the path in front of us. Very bizarre for us Floridians. ;) Yes, we trespassed, along with a dozen other tourists, but it truly was well-worth the risk. Most of the time my mouth couldn't even form words to express what I was seeing. I just drank it all in in silence...for the most part!

We begrudgingly left the cliffs so that we could hit the local market and stock up on groceries. We drove into Ennistymon and stopped at a SuperValu...this store became our friend, for the next five days. =) We bought the goods and drove back to the cottage to make spaghetti for dinner.

Monday, we drove into town to go to Doolin Cave but it was closed. =( So we drove into Galway and went shopping, ate lunch (fish n' chips) at McDonaugh's, went to the famous Claddagh Jewelry store (the lady gave us a history lesson too, very interesting!), did some more souvey shopping, and then went to Kingshead Pub where Janelle and I shared Irish Tapas. Yum! We hadn't had our fill of 'live irish music' yet, so we walked over to Taffaes Bar and stayed for a while. *insert several stories here from the rest of the group*

Tuesday we drove Janelle to Shannon airport and said our goodbyes ::sniff::. Then the remaining 6 of us drove to the town of Dingle (berry!) and toured the "PREHISTORIC Beehives"...which were really just old...not prehistoric. ;) But they were still cool and we caught John on video trying to herd sheep. *grin*

This town had some of the most beautiful coast-line I've ever seen. I actually got tired/frustrated of saying "wow" and "oh my goodness" because around every corner, every bend in the road, just when you thought it couldn't get any MORE spectacular...it DID! =) We even saw a 'complete half' rainbow! ::sigh:: It was amazing.

Then we drove back and stopped in Limerick to have dinner at a 'posh' restaurant. Rebekah and I each got a Ploughman's Panini, Luke had Cottage Pie (similar to Shepherd's Pie), Damaris had 'bangers and mash', and...John got a burger. =P I forget what Sarah had..? Good food though.

Wednesday John woke up really sick and Rebekah wasn't feeling well, so we all slept in, and then Damaris, Luke, Sarah and I ventured out into the countryside on foot. =) WHAT a glorious time! We ended up being gone for four hours! We made our way down to the rocks by the shore and took tons of pictures along the way. Again, the view was breath-taking! The waves crashing up on the rocks, water seeping into every nook and cranny around you...then quickly slinking back into the sea...then returning again just as quickly as it left...it was simply splendid!

We got home around 4pm and made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup...MMMmmm!!! Then we decided to have 'movie night' so we popped popcorn (one of the highlights of our trip) and watched a movie called "This is My Father"...I wouldn't recommend it. We had to fastforward a few scenes, but our intent was to watch a typical irish film. And this movie was set in Galway. =) So we all gathered 'round the very small tv with our popcorn, cans of coke, boxes of Nerds, Whoppers?, and blankets and ended our night in front of the telly. ;)

Thursday we drove into Ennistymon to go to the bank and use internet at Ooh La La Cafe, which had only just been open 4 weeks by a girl around my age, sweet as can be! While we were using the internet to check email and send the last update to our parents, some of us got hot chocolate and I got a nutella/banana crepe! Mmm!

After that, we stopped at SuperValu and got peanut butter, jam, and bread to make sandwiches for lunch. We drove to Killarney because Luke said that a friend of his has a family castle (Ross Castle) in Killarney National Park; so we drove to find it. =) We parked outside a beautiful cathedral and Sarah and Damaris ran to find a bathroom, John and Rebekah (still both not feeling well) stayed in the van, and Luke and I opened up the boot of the van and made pb&j sandwiches for everyone (also not an easy task, as their slices of bread are much larger than in the U.S. and we ran out of jam quickly).

We all walked through the cathedral, quietly taking pictures. Then we went in to the National park in search of Ross Castle. It was REALLY windy and cold, but we didn't care. We just kept walking. Along the way we saw 2 deer, a couple dogs, and a leprechaun. John tried to chase the leprechaun down but he was too fast and magically disappeared into thin air! As we neared the road to Ross Castle (it was a BIG park!) a couple walked past us saying the road was flooded. Now in my mind, I'm thinking a few inches deep, and maybe several feet across...or maybe there would be a way around it if we got off the path. Silly Stephy. Sarah and Damaris had their wellies on so they decided to brave the flooded path. Then Luke decided to go too, since it was his idea to come here...even though he most definitely did not have wellies on. ;) The water came up above their calves in the deepest parts, but the path was flooded for at least a couple hundred feet (maybe more?) and there was no way getting around it. So obviously, Luke's shoes got soaked through but he kept going. The 3 muskateers took a few pictures then trudged back. Meanwhile, John constructed a make-shift bench for Rebekah, me and him to sit on while we waited. Since none of us had phones, we had no idea how long it was going to take them. After a short while, we saw the crazy girls rounding the corner...CARRYING Luke! Hah, that only lasted a few feet though. So we walked back to the van, the trio took their socks and shoes off to let their feet dry ;) and then we drove in to Ennistymon for a few more groceries. We stopped at a 'fish n chips' joint for dinner (but John was really tired so he stayed in the van and slept) and then walked over to Daly's to hear some local musicians play...it was GREAT! By this time though, our entire crew (except for me and Damaris) was sick so we went home after a while and had 'picture time with Luke' before going to bed.

Friday we drove into Ennistymon one last time, then drove over to LaHinch (a surf town) and walked around, admiring the waves crashing on the rocks...and the Sarah. ;) We grabbed lunch at a little 'glorified gas station' and then Sarah and Damaris made Irish stew for us...on our last night. ::sniff:: After dinner we fixed popcorn and hot chocolate and had our 'last picture time w/ Luke'. But then I think none of us really wanted to go to sleep that night cuz we knew we'd have to leave. So we all fell asleep in the living room (only for a few hours). Then gradually...one by one, we all went back to our rooms to sleep until 3am when we had to leave for the Dublin airport. The drive back was long and miserable because none of us really wanted to leave. None of us were ready to get back to 'real life'...and all the busyness it entails. None of us were ready to split up the little 'irish family' God put together specifically for this trip. But alas, our jobs and bio-fams were calling us back to the states. ;)

It was such a lovely time in Ireland, and I plan to go back again...very soon. =)

By the way, I WILL post pictures...after this.