Ireland: Part 2

Day 3: Sunday. We woke up and prepared for church and then walked the little jaunt (~20 minutes) to the Finglas Ward building. The missionaries and a YSA member spoke. And it was a nice little meeting. The other two meetings followed suit in the same pattern. I am so grateful for the knowledge which I have and throughout my trip I thought over and over again how grateful I am for the lifestyle I lead.

After church we walked home with Ivanna. She told us the story of why she was late to church after watching a man steal a girl's purse and politely asking him to return it to her while at the bus stop... once the girl found her purse missing and Ivanna told her where it went the scene got out of control and the girl went nuts, ripped the man's pants, and the Garda (police) showed up for an arrest and statements... so she was late for church. I still love the thought of this cute girl walking over to the man and saying, "Excuse me. What did you just do?" Getting a blank stare and then saying, "Give it back to her please." Man such courage! Such politeness.

The rest of the day was relaxation and watching of President Boyd K. Packer's fireside. I really enjoyed it and will probably listen to it again soon.

Day 4: Maria and I were up and out bright and early to meet up with Caroline McCoole from McCoole family tours. She told us a little about the city and sent us on our travel bus to Galway. There we met up with our bus driver for the day who took us to the farm, the Cliffs of Moher, the seaside, and Dungaire castle.

The farm was super. We saw the sheep, the green pastures that only grow grass due to the rock not too far beneath them, and we went on a "gentle" (so they called it) hike through the family owned part of the Burren.

 

 

We then headed to the Cliffs of Moher (also known as the Cliffs of Insanity as featured in The Princess Bride).

Oh what majesty. They are SO big. So beautiful.
Pictures really can't do them justice.

 O'Brien's Tower sat on top of a part of the cliffs looking super.

And the visitor's center reminded me of Hobbits.
There were more pictures but on Maria's camera so I'll feature them later.

The coastline we stopped at was also quite cliffy.
And beautiful.

 

And for the record it was VERY cold.
We made sure to get a few pictures without coats on though.

The last stop of the tour was Dungaire Castle.
It was quite dark, but I managed to snap a picture or two.

We got home fairly late so it was off to bed.

Ireland: Part 1

Ready? Prepare for lots of words at first. Then some pictures. Any questions?

Day 1: This Thursday and Friday in my book as my trip really started on Thursday when my mom drove me down to Salt Lake and I went off on a plane to Chicago, but it's not a very exciting day. I had been told by several people that in Chicago people weren't friendly. I didn't find that to be the case - but they weren't very good at telling me the most important part of the directions. Luckily another lost man and I worked together for a moment and then I found almost where I needed to be.... After that apparently I looked slightly lost because a random man asked if I needed help - I was headed in the right direction but he confirmed it. I reached my terminal and just sat for while. Then I was on the almost 7 hour flight to Dublin (where I didn't sleep at all).

I arrived in Dublin and waited for my friend Maria to arrive. It was happy. We rode the bus into Dublin, got settled in a little, went grocery shopping, and got poured on (YES! Irish rain the first day). We then relaxed (but I wasn't allowed to sleep - this was a good plan as I didn't have much jet lag while there). Later we went to the church and met some of the YSA and picked up a crock pot for dinner the next day.

Day 2: This is where I actually have pictures.
Maria and I woke and met up with the bus to the Wicklow Mountains tour.
On the tour we stopped at The Black Lake:

Due to the rain the day before it wasn't as black in color as usual.
This land is privately owned. What?!?!
Man, I want to own a lake and valley in Ireland.

Gorgeous.

The next stop was the bridge featured in P.S. I Love You at Sally Gap

I loved the water.

We stopped at Glenmacnass Waterfall and enjoyed the valley there too.

Then we enjoyed time at Glendalough.

Pronounced Glen-da-lock
(they said things weird, or I guess maybe justspelled them weird)
;)

BEAUTIFUL.
The bridge.

The Monastic ruins (we struggled with saying that word)

 The Upper and Lower Lakes

 

 The trees and waterfalls and scenes along the trail

Loved this tree.
And I loved that once we realized that it was a lot higher
off the ground than we originally thought
we had someone to boost us up into it.

 

We also stopped in Avoca,
and watched people weave some of a blanket on a loom (cool I tell you),
and enjoyed some food at the local pub
where the TV show Ballykissangel was filmed
(randomness and I kind of got the feeling it was quite like a soap opera).

We returned to Dublin,
finished last minute touches on our pot roast dinner,
greeted the elders and sisters (missionaries),
and enjoyed some magic tricks.

It was a grand two days.

Dropping a dime

I can't remember the actually saying a I want so you are stuck with that one.
I PROMISE pictures and tales from my adventure will appear soon.
Hopefully tomorrow.
I'm in a weird blogging funk - you may or may not have noticed.
BUT I'll do something about it come tomorrow.
Yes indeed.

p.s. Random thought involving dimes, I was helping to clean the house the other day and I found three sets of a quarter and a dime... is there a significance in thirty-five cents? I don't know. But I do know that I am  now $1.05 richer. 

Today I logged on and was looking at my last blog post an the playlist was funny colored and stated "some or all of the tracks may not be available for playing due to laws."

I was so confused to as to why they worked before and not now....
then I remembered that I was in a different country.
That makes a difference.

I hope you had a wonderful 11/11/11 yesterday - I saw it all before you and mine was great....
A little rainy and VeRry tired but great.

And go AGGIES!

Also hugs from Ireland! :D