Dublin, Ireland (June
12-17th)
Well, here I am on another Ryan Air flight, leaving Ireland
and heading to Germany. Dublin was amazing. It was so nice to have everyone
speak English; I can’t even describe it.
Being able to ask a random guy on the street where the bus stop is,
ordering food and asking a question about it, asking for directions to the
Dublin Castle…. people could understand me and I could understand them. I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed that!
Anyway, my first night here was actually a little rough. I
came from Sweden, and didn’t book a place to stay. I decided I’d just wing it.
So I get off the plane, woo hooo Ireland, and hit up an ATM. I put my card in,
and it tells me I have “insufficient funds,” and won’t let me take out any
money. I knew Sweden was expensive, but I didn’t realize I’d spent ALL my
money! So I’m alone in Ireland, no place
to stay, and all I have in my wallet is 20 Euros, a bunch of leftover Swedish
coins, and a debit card with “insufficient funds.” Shizaa. I took a bus into the city, got off when it
looked like a good street, and started wandering and looking for a hostel. I
had no idea where I was going, but finally I found a hostel. I went inside,
exhausted, so ready to lay down, but nope- they were full. He told me of
another hostel to try, so I went there- full again. Next one- no beds left.
Fourth hostel- booked. I started
freakin’ out, making all these plans in my head for what to do if I couldn’t
get any place to sleep. I could stay up
all night and take a nap in the park tomorrow, or I could go into a hotel lobby
and at least I would be warm… your mind automatically starts going into freak
out mode. So I went to the Spar, bought an apple, took a deep breath, and kept
walking. Finally I did find a place to stay- good old “Budget Accomodations,”
18 Euros for the night. I stayed in an all girls room, with 12 bunk beds of
sleeping travelers. The place had free WiFi, so I was excited to get on the
internet and call my mom and make plans for the next day. But my laptop was
about to die, because I’d used almost all of the battery watching episodes of
Grey’s Anatomy on the flight. So I go to plug it in, and the adapter I have is
only for Europe, not for the UK, and it doesn’t fit in the outlet. So I have no
way to charge my phone, camera, laptop, anything. Shizaa again. I crawled into bed kind of
wondering why I do these things to myself so often, but I knew it would all
work out. It always does.
The next day I checked out of the hostel, and went on a free
walking tour of the city. We went to Dublin Castle, the Temple Bar, walked the
main streets, and were in Trinity College, when I got lost from the group. I
was just taking a picture, or maybe a few pictures, and when I turned back
around the group was gone! I walked all around and tried to find them, but
never did. So I went into the school, and into the library, and even sat down
in a classroom and listened to part of a lecture. That afternoon, I explored
the city, went to an internet café to call my beautiful mommacita, went to
Phoenix Park (very similar to Central Park in NYC), and stopped by the National
Museum of Ireland. The inside of the museum was closed, but there were tables
that you could sit at within the castle. So I sat for a few hours, and finally
spent some much needed time with God. I read my Bible and prayed and listened
to worship music, and realized how drained my spiritual life has become lately.
You can travel anywhere you want, but nothing in the whole world can fill up
the place in your heart for God. When you neglect spending time with Him, you
can feel it, from deep within you. Although sometimes it’s hard to face God
when you realize you’ve been far from Him, it’s comforting to know that His love
for you never changes. Nothing I could ever do could make Him love me any more
or any less than He already does. His love is unconditional. That doesn’t mean
that I treat Him however I want, and don’t expect Him to get angry. The Lord
does get angry. But God is Love, and He cannot disown Himself.
Wednesday night, Stina arrived in Dublin. It took us forever
to meet, because neither of us had credit left on our phones. How do you find
each other in a huge city without a phone? Well, good old Carmen pulled through
for us again. Stina made it to the city, found a place to get internet access,
got ahold of Carmen on the internet, and Carmen called me to tell me where
Stina was. Seriously, she always helps
us, even when she’s not with us! Crazy. But
I was waiting by Ha’Penny Bridge for a few hours, before we met up. I heard a
story about this homeless guy, begging on the bridge. He had with him a dog and
a rabbit, and would always sit on that bridge in the same spot, asking for
money. A lot of times, the children would pet the bunny and the parents would
give the guy a few coins. One day, a little boy was petting the rabbit, when he
stole it and threw the rabbit into the Liffy River! The guy turned around, tied
up his dog, and dove into the river to save the rabbit. He saved him, and a
bunch of people saw the whole thing, and the guy became kind of a local hero.
The story was in the Dublin newspaper, and the city supplied him with a
lifetime supply of dog food and carrots. Anyway, I saw that guy on the bridge with
his rabbit, and went over and talked to him for a little while. It was really
sad, because I could tell that people don’t talk to him very often. He was so
surprised when I stood next to him and began to talk. He told me his rabbit’s
name is Maxy, and he’s had him for about 8 months. I was hoping to keep talking
to him throughout my stay in Dublin, but that was the only time I saw him.
That night, Stina and I “couch surfed” with a guy named Dom.
Couch Surfing is a website, which links people in different cities. You create
a profile, and you can host travelers who will be in your city, or request to
couch surf with someone in a city that you will be traveling through. People
offer to let you sleep on their couch for free. You definitely have to be careful,
and really read the references that people leave, since you’re just staying in
some random person’s house. I’m sure there are some bad stories, but I’ve heard
a lot of good ones too. Stina and I had a great experience with Dom and
Stephen. We met up with Dom at a bank,
and were a little nervous, until we met him, and could tell right away that he
was a good guy. One of their roommates moved out recently, so the room is
vacant, and Stina and I actually got our own room, our own keys, and just made
ourselves right at home! Both guys were pretty cute, and so nice. They helped
us with everything, let us wash our clothes there, gave us blankets, the whole
deal! Seriously awesome.
Thursday, Stina and I spent the day in the city. It was
rainy and cold, horrible weather. That made it not quite as fun, but we made
the best of it. We walked the city, and went to the National Museum of Ireland.
But inside, we were actually really bored, so we left after looking around a
bit. They had old silver and furniture and things, but it just wasn’t really
our style I guess. Thursday night, we watched the Ireland-Spain Euro Cup game
in a pub. We got all decked out, wore Ireland headbands and stuff, but Spain
creamed ‘em 4-0. Worst team with the best fans. The Irish people were still so
fun to watch and listen to. They get so into it!
Friday was my favorite day. We took a bus tour across the
whole country, to the Cliffs of Moher. We started in Dublin, on the East coast,
and made our way to Galway, to the West coast. We stopped at a few castles and
things along the way, but the highlight was definitely the cliffs. They’re one
of the “Seven Wonders of Ireland.” On the bus ride, we passed miles and miles
of stone walls with green fields. A few hundred years ago, there was a terrible
famine in Ireland, and more than half of the population was wiped out. During
that time, the Brits helped provide the Irish with food. But they didn’t want
to just give them the food for nothing, so they made them work. They built
stone walls along the streets, through fields, and through rocks. Many of them
are “roads to nowhere,” which divide rock from rock. It was just something for
the people to do to earn the food. So that was pretty interesting. And we saw
lots of sheep and cattle in the fields, just like you’d imagine it.
The cliffs were absolutely stunning. The drops are huge,
right into the sea. Apparently, people go there from all over the world to
commit suicide. So when you walk in, there are many signs from a group called
“Samaritans,” which give a number to call if you need to talk. Interesting. Our
tour guide told us that a lot of people have also been killed on the cliffs
because there are such strong winds, they literally get blown off. Kinda scary!
But our whole group survived J
Saturday, I went for a 10 mile run at Bushy Park in
Terenure, close to Dom and Stephen’s apartment. Stina and I made breakfast and
tea, and then went to a coastal suburb of Dublin, about 40 minutes from the
city center. We walked along the coast, and explored the area. There happened
to be a group doing Zumba on the pier, and we started watching them. The Zumba
instructor saw us watching, and started waving at us and telling us to join the
dance! So sure enough, we put our bags down and took off our coats, and started
dancing on the pier. Seriously so fun! My first Zumba class- in Ireland. We
went back to Dom and Stephen’s apartment for dinner. Dom made us a delicious
Italian meal. We had pasta with sundried tomatoes, olives, and tuna, then a
salad to “clear the pallet.” We drank some wine and talked for a while, before
eating the most delicious dessert of my life! Dom cut a papaya into four
pieces, then cut up banana with it, then squeezed lime juice on the fruit, and
topped it with vanilla ice cream. My tongue was dancing Zumba when that stuff
went in my mouth!
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| Dublin Castle |
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| Heck yea He does!!! |
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| finally getting some Word time in :) |
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| Stina and I in a little Irish castle |
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| West coast of Ireland! |
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| admiring God's creation |
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| OUGHHH!!! help!!! |
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| Cliffs of Moher, Ireland |
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| stone walls built during the Irish famine |
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| East coast of Ireland |
This morning, Stina went back to Austria, and I’m now on my
way to Germany. I made a friend on the plane, named Richard. He gave me some suggestions about things to do
in the UK, and we talked for a long while. It’s always fun to see who you’ll
meet on the plane ride. Anyway, I’m excited for Germany. Hopefully I will find
Gudula (my grandma’s friend who I am staying with) easily at the airport. Next
adventure… here we goooo!
