Ireland Again!!!

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. When we do have internet, it usually isn't the best connection or I'm too exhausted to post. So, sorry everyone! Here's the Ireland post and pictures.

Where do I start? We felt fairly at ease back in Ireland, feeling like we could get around Dublin fairly well by this point (well, for a tourist anyway). So the first day we were there was errand day. I needed new pages in my passport and we felt that it would be easier looking for an embassy in an English speaking country than somewhere else. So, I looked up the embassy online, got the address, and marked it on our map. Feeling rather sure of ourselves, we decided we could walk, and I just ignored the note on the embassy website that mentioned a bus would take about 35 minutes to get there. We didn’t mind the exercise anyway. Stepping out the door of our hostel we were met with an onslaught of rain!!! Determined to go through with our plans, we whipped out our umbrellas and marched onwards. Freezing cold, soaked through, drenched feet, and an hour later we arrived at the embassy. “You look cold, if you don’t mind me saying,” says the gentleman at security. That’s putting it mildly. And of course, by the time it was my turn the system was down and they couldn’t check my passport in D.C. so we were going to have to wait 2-3 hours. On the recommendation of a security guard there, we headed quickly across the street for some coffee and stayed put in a dry cafe for about an hour and a half. By the time we left, the rain had died down. I got my passport and we headed back to the hostel, not wanting to see another drop of water for at least a month.

That night, however, we went out with Valerie, Emilio, and two friends of theirs. We did see more drops of water, but fortunately, nothing too serious. The following day saw us on the bus to Wicklow, which is supposedly the “garden of Ireland.” It was really beautiful. Cities are nice, but I really love getting out of them and seeing what God created.

Sunday we took the bus to Galway where we would be based for two nights. We really liked the hostel there. As soon as we arrived they invited us down to watch a hurling match and eat pizza. Monday morning we took a ferry to the largest of the Aran Islands. The Aran Islands are a piece of the past, where most people speak Gaelic. We rented bikes and rode around a large loop, seeing a significant portion of the island. It did start raining towards the end of our time, but not too badly.

Tuesday we took the bus to the Shannon airport where we boarded our flight to Paris. That experience and Spain will be in the next post...