08 May 2008

Ireland Adventure (Short Version)

Caleb and I booked cheap flights to Ireland to meet Laura Ahern and Chelsea Dudeck 2 days before we left. Our train to get to the airport in Italy was cancelled, so we had to hitch there.

We finally arrived in Mestre (right by Venice) and enjoyed the diverse culture. A manly man, yet so peaceful guy from Cameroon with dreads gave us directions to a park for over 25 minutes. It was great! We camped out that night in the city.

We Flew to Dublin and figured out what we wanted to do in Ireland by taking pictures of pretty places in the tourist books for sale. Dublin was pretty cool and we camped out in some woods by a monument declaring peace between Ireland and India.

We headed up north with ignorance that Ireland became the United Kingdom and thus a currency change. This again meant we had to hitch the rest of the way, but the Lord always takes care of us and really nice, cool, or crazy pick us up. Duncan picked us up and took us out of his way to Giants causeway. He offered his house for the night, but we opted to sleep outside in the pretty. And was it ever pretty, I really started crying when I saw how gorgeous it was. We watched sunset, ate our one meal of musli for the day, found a sheep barn for shelter, and had some devos.

In the morning we decided to go to this old rope bride some kilometers up the road. It used to be a bridge for fishermen. An elderly man named James picked us up, along with a girl he had met a day earlier and we went. We were about to depart, when James said get in the car and he proceeded to take us home, find us the right train, introduce us to his beautiful wife, Agnus. She made us the best meal in about 4 minutes and our tummies were very thankful. We proceeded to talk about God’s faithfulness and they had testimony after testimony that truly encouraged us and gave all glory to God. James drove us to the train station and bought us a ticket to Dairy, which is supposed to be one of the prettiest short train rides in the world. Spent the night in some guy’s front yard, cause Galway is not hospitable to the homeless.

We then made our way to the 214 meter high cliffs of Moher, which I misread and we called it the cliffs of the Mother for the rest of the trip. That’s a better name. Or for all you princess bride lovers “the Cliffs of Insanity”… Inconceivable!

That was the most peaceful place. Caleb and I thought it would rain that night, so we made little caves, but ended up spooning for warmth in a soft grassy pit.

The next day we went to Trilee the meet the girls! One of the most random cities to visit. We met a young chiropractor girl from Canada that just moved there. We went to a traditional Irish pub and watched some Irish music, and picked up the girls from the midnight train. And all slept in a B and B.

Dingle Bay was really nice. Robin showed us around, because she used to live there for 4 months. We saw the famous and solo dolphin in the bay named Fungi when we all took a walk in the rain. The hostel that night was great with one group from the states celebrating a 21st birthday and the other walking group of older folk. They made a huge meal, drank, and sang old Irish songs together. It was really great.

Went to Galway, got a hostel for 14 euro. It was cheap, because we took the place of some guys who just got kicked out the previous night for drinking, doing crack, yelling, and jumping in bed with random girls to scare them. They ended up coming back and causing a scene, but the manager Felix handled it perfectly. Ate some amazing fish and saw and Irish Screamo band.

We said our good byes and went home… easier said than done though : )

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