I love traveling. I love road trips. I love adventures. So going to Ireland was pretty much the best thing ever, a much needed break from the mundane and a chance to go explore the beautiful unknown.
In case you haven't already been
subjected to regaled with tales from my Ireland trip, one of my good friends is completing a Master's degree at Queens University in Belfast this year. I have decided to implement the rule "When your friend is living abroad, you go and visit" in my life as much as is possible, so I went to Ireland this April while Bobby was on Easter Break. I flew in to Belfast, and we rented a car for a week so we
could road-trip around the country, which was the best idea. Besides having a
grand time driving on the left and not killing anyone, we saw so much of the
country (mostly along the coast) and every bit was beautiful. After we
made it back to Belfast, I got to hang out in the city for a few days, meet some
of Bobby’s friends, and relax. Everything was wonderful, but I have way too many thoughts to tell you about everything, so here were 8 of my favorite things:
2)
The
Cliffs of Moher. When people ask, I say this was my favorite place (although
who could pick a favorite??). On the west coast, green rolling hills end in
staggeringly high cliffs with crazy waves and fantastic views. The angle of the
sun when we were there made it hard to get pictures that do it justice, but the
walk along the edge of the cliffs was breathtaking (a small part of that might
have been the fact that there was nothing between you and the edge… I joked
that the fence-less path would never be allowed in the States and that I like
Ireland better.)
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| Yes, those little things at the top of the leftmost cliff are people |
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| Just winding along this little path here... don't worry, we clearly survived. |
3)
The
company. Surprise, neither of us wanted to kill the other person! Those who know the two of us also know that a week and a half of being together all the time
could have resulted in amicicide ;) Instead, I had a fabulous visit with my
friend, and it was delightful to sing duets from A Very Potter Musical in the car,
take a ton of selfies that “weren’t pretty” (according to our mothers), make jokes
about our personality quirks, and all those things you do with a friend you’ve
known since you were 11.
4)
Newgrange.
This place was so fascinating and mysterious. Built around 3,200 BC (before
Stonehenge and the Pyramids at Giza) its purpose is not fully understood… is it
a tomb? A temple? It’s also impossible to say for sure what the carvings on the
huge stones ringing the mound mean. What can be said for certain is that on the winter
solstice, the sun shines directly in the roof-box window built above the
passage to the center of the mound so that sunlight streams into the center
chamber. The space in the chamber felt sacred somehow, and it made me look
forward to the day when we can ask God questions about the people who came
before us and what they were thinking when they built Newgrange.
5)
Trad
sessions in pubs. Have I mentioned that Bobby is even more into Celtic music
than I am? As in, he is so obsessed with Celtic Woman that I can make fun of
him despite being a fan myself. Also, he plays the bodhran (like, actually
well), and the fiddle (who just decides to pick that up after college?) and
several whistles (which he threatened to play while I was driving the car but ultimately
didn’t because he was too busy screaming and trying to find something to hold
onto). All that to say, we experienced a LOT of Celtic music while I was there,
but my favorite was when I was ensconced in a corner of a pub with a
strawberry-lime cider and my copy of A Game of Thrones while Bobby played in a
trad (traditional music) session with a bunch of
drunk friendly Irish musicians.
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Alas, in this kind of light I got no
decent photos of music sessions anywhere we went |
6) Corcomroe
Abbey. I confess, I do not get excited about visiting cathedrals (which we did
several times thanks to my more enthusiastic traveling companion) but the ruins
of Corcomroe Abbey were captivating. Surrounded by rolling hills with
stone-walled sheep pastures, the ruins stood stretching up until they met the deep
blue sky (the roofs were long gone, but the stone walls remain). A graveyard
surrounds the abbey with graves from the 1700’s up until 2014, and even inside, the ground was covered with gravestones and memorial stones. I loved
the phrasing on the very old stones, things like, “Lord have mercy on the soul
of who departed this mortal life on .” There were
no people anywhere, so it was just Bobby and I with the dead below us and the
heavens above.
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This tombstone in the entranceway was for a Ryan
McCann who died in the 1800's. |
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| "Pray for the soul of Martin Burke and Posterity. 1775" |
7)
Carrick-A-Rede.
Also known as the rope bridge that I made it across without losing my wallet (although it was a close call) and
the island that I almost blew off (thanks for saving me, Bobby). Although not part of the original bridge, someone was considerate enough to add a second handrail so you could hold on to both sides, thus losing a bit of the charm but also saving tourists
from being blown off by the wind. The beauty was totally worth the slight terror.
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| I'm not that bad at standing, it was just really windy. Here comes the storm! |
8) Late
night chats with Bobby’s (quite smart) friends. Who turns down an opportunity to hang
out with cool people and discuss politics, gene by environment interactions, social
justice, education systems, body language, church culture, and college
ministry? The correct answer is: not this girl. While on the subject of things
we did in Belfast, I also LOVED the C.S. Lewis reading room in the University
Library (I want one just like it in my house, which will hopefully also be a
castle), and as always while abroad, I thoroughly enjoyed grocery shopping.
Alas, I took no pictures during any of these adventures.
It was a wonderful trip, and I feel so blessed to have been able to go. I think I could have stayed for another week (or month) and still not been ready to leave.
