Luck of the Irish

It is crazy how fast our time in England flied by. Although I travelled on the weekends, I called my grandparent’s house home for just shy of a month. It was such a blessing to get to spend that time with them since for all my life, they have lived so far away and only visit for a short period of time every year. They were so welcoming to me and Emily and kind in having dinner ready for us every day when we got home from our latest adventure. But at 5am on Friday, February 9^th our time with them came to an end. They were so sweet and got up at 4:15 with us and made us one last cup of English breakfast tea, smoothie, and toast before we headed off to the airport to catch our flight to Dublin.

We had been looking forward to our trip in Ireland, simply because of the nature of the trip. We were ditching all the public transportation that we had come to rely so heavily on and renting a car (or rather I should say a mini-camper van) to travel across the country to the west coast of Ireland for a few days. Now, renting this car was no easy task. Finding a company that will rent to someone under 25, who has held their license less than 5 years was a challenge but after many hours of research, we came across spaceship rentals and Nate was able to book our beloved beaten van. Emily and I were the first ones to arrive in Dublin with Tom and Nate shortly behind us. We were originally supposed to arrive an hour before Tom and an hour and a half before Nate but our flight was delayed and Nate arrived a tad early so we all got to baggage claim within 30 minutes of each other, which was nice. We collected our luggage and were off to take a bus outside the city to Navan to get our rental car. 
The guy from the rental company was supposed to pick up us at the bus stop, but he was 45 minutes late! But finally coming across the roundabout, we saw that white van with the giant orange logo appear- we were very thankful! One of the fears was that the car wont be able to fit all our luggage in it. But it couldn’t have worked out better. We fit all four large suitcases in the trunk and then just dumped our backpacks in the empty space next to Emily and I in the back. The car even had a tiny mini fridge which allowed us to keep our groceries cold during the day while we traveled to a new airbnb each night.

The first stop on the roadtrip was Donegal, Ireland which is where the summer program for Christendom studies every summer for three weeks. We had heard many good things and were super excited. We had a three hour drive to get there but it was spent in good company and quickly passed. Nate did a tremendous job adjusting to driving on the left side of the road, probably since we had all become so accustomed to it while living in London for a couple of weeks. By the time we arrived, it was dark so it won’t be until morning that we realized the true beauty of the area where our airbnb was located. The first place was the cutest little two story cottage and they had the gas fireplace going when we arrived. We had stopped by the store on the way in and quickly made up dinner and then set about planning out our game plan for the next day.

One of the beauties of renting the car, was the flexibility it gave us. Months prior we had discussed places we all wanted to see but we hadn’t really nailed down a game plan for the trip. I had booked airbnbs for each night so we had to stay generally around the areas we needed to end up that night but we were able to hear suggestions from the locals on the best spots to visit and then go do it. So the next morning we were off to Slieve League, based on the recommendation of the homeowner of our airbnb.

We had absolutely no intentions of going here but I think we found it to be one of the best parts of our trip. They are actually the highest cliffs in Ireland, not the Cliffs of Moher but they aren’t really known about. We were the only ones there and got to explore freely; no signs, no railings, just a lot of wind! We were sliding all over the place on our descent down the cliffs to find this random castle tower and all managed to fall on our butt at least twice, some worse than others. It was rather muddy and we struggled to keep our traction. It was rather comical and you also felt like you could blow away at any moment due to the immense strength of the wind. What we thought would be a 15-minute stop to admire the view ended up being a two hour exploration. It was so cool to watch the waves come crashing up against the rocks.

Our next stop on the way to the west coast of Ireland was the Our Lady of Knock Shrine. I had heard my mom talk about it before and I knew that it had been on Tom’s must-see list but other than that I knew nothing about the apparition that occurred in the middle of nowhere Ireland. Our sunshine from the morning had disappeared and it was a complete downpour by the time we arrived and we rushed from the car into the Church. Unfortunately, the older smaller church was closed for renovation and we only got to see the new modern ugly church which was a bit of an eye sore. We stayed for a few moments and prayed before heading over to the museum to educate ourselves more on what actually occurred at Knock. All and all the stop only ended up being an hour long and probably would have been more fun on a sunny day when we felt like exploring the grounds a tad but we were ready to get settled in our airbnb for the night.

We ended up having an early dinner that night and it was a little taste of home as we had prepared a make your own taco night with all the fixings. Our airbnb was only a five minute walk from a Catholic Church that had a 8pm Saturday night Mass which gave us more time for the adventures we had planned for on Sunday. So we went to Mass and then came back for a cozy movie night was a fire roaring in the old-fashioned stove in the living room. Emily and Tom had never seen the movie Shawshank Redemption, so that was the choice for the night!

Sunday had great plans ahead of us, but boy were we in for very different adventures that what we had planned. We were about an hour’s drive from Craugh Patrick and bundled up to climb to the top. But when we walked out the front door we had to clear snow off our windshield. But we were still determined to go. In that drive alone, it continued to snow and even hail. We also originally drove to the back side of the mountain instead of the visitor center so then we had to drive back around it. We arrived to see a big group of mountain climbers obviously prepped for the journey and made it clear to me and Emily, that we were not. The Irish gentlemen warned us not to go up because we weren’t in the right gear. So we compromised with the guys by only going about 1/3 up the trek. It was still beautiful to look back across the valley at the mountains and lakes and watch the snow coming down. We all felt really bad because Tom really wanted to keep going to the top and we didn’t want to be the ones stopping him. Emily and I offered to wait in the car while the two guys went to the top. But they decided we could move on and find something else in the area to go see.

Over the Christmas break, I had done a lot of research of things to see on the west coast of Ireland and had come across this Benedictine abbey near Connemara National park, called Kylemore Abbey. It was only an hour from where we were right then and not far from these islands we also wanted to see so we decided it was the perfect way to spend our afternoon. The grounds of this place were beautiful!! We arrived and I felt like I was back in Austria because the abbey overlooks a gorgeous lake with snow-capped mountains on the other side. The original owner had put lots of money into the gardens on the property and we had a great time exploring them. Once again, we experienced bizarre weather of sunshine and snow alternating off and on for the next hour or so. The manor house was quite something too but it was definitely exploring the grounds that made the visit very worthwhile.

 

Back on the road we headed off to the Oman? Islands which was another recommendation to us from the owner of an airbnb. You can only drive out these islands during low tide and there isn’t even a road, you just drive on the hard sandy beach. It wasn’t quite low tide and we didn’t think we should drive our rental car out just in case so we parked and went the rest of the way on foot. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. We arrived right around 5pm and the sun was setting and casting its last rays through the clouds, crazy winds, and once again snow. Just imagine standing on the beachy shores of Ireland watching the sunset with snow coming down. It was definitely not what I expected to see. There were some loose cattle on the beach that we watched Tom mess around with pretending to bullfight this heifer. It was hilarious! There were just road signs stuck in the sand and you could walk across to this island. The guys went off in exploration while we stayed on the shores for a bit more and a few more run-ins with the heifer sent us running to the car. But that was one of the coolest sunsets ever, with the light snowfall whirling about.

But here is where our evening got interesting. Once back in the car, we had about an hour and a half drive back to our airbnb to collect our luggage before we were supposed to drive on to a friend’s farmhouse to meet up with two other classmates for the night. It was already getting dark and the snowfall wasn’t as light as before. Ireland never gets this much snow according to some of the locals we talked to. We were coming around some bends and curves when our van (which we had affectionately named Darby only moments before) lost its traction and we went sliding off the road. It was like it was occurring in slow motion and luckily we weren’t barreling off the road. We had narrowly missed the stone wall on the side of the road but we were very much stuck in the ditch off the road. Everyone was okay and just a tad shook up. Our car was a little sideways and we climbed out to examine the damage. It was relatively minor to the front bumper. Several people pulled over to make sure we were okay and two Irish farmers saved the day. We tried pushing the car while Nate tried to steer us out but nothing was working. I had walked around to the front of the car to hand him something and realized the the tire was almost completely off the rim on the driver’s side so we weren’t able to get the traction we needed to get ourselves out of that ditch. The two gentlemen drove to the nearest farmhouse and borrow some rope and they hooked it up to their truck/van. So between four of us pushing, Nate in the driver’s seat and power of the car pulling us out we were able to get out of that ditch and it the closest flat part of the hill to change our tire and continue on to the nearest gas station. But it had still cost over an hour of our evening and we were all absolutely freezing.

Luckily before all of this had occurred, I had a received a message from the airbnb the night before offering to let us stay a second night for free because she knew the weather was bad and thought it wouldn’t be safe for us to try to make it all the way to County Clare for the night. We had been considering it before the accident and now we knew there was no question in the matter. We made it back to the airbnb, grabbed groceries to make dinner again and decided on another movie night after the long day. We called the rental company and told them what had happened and they said we could drive on the donut tire until returning the car the next day back near Dublin. Which was good because we had also called several repair shops and no one had the piece we needed for the rim of our tire.

We only had five full days to explore Ireland and it was flying by! It was originally Monday and the last day of our roadtrip before we spent our final day. We finally got to see the Cliff of Moher and spent a good 3+ hours exploring. We walked from the visitor center all the way to the end of the cliffs in one direction, about an hour and a half each way. If we thought Slieve League had been muddy, boy were we wrong. All the snow and rain we had been getting, left quite its mark on the path along the cliffs. I don’t think my sneakers will ever be the same color again, even though I washed them three times afterwards and then accidentally shrunk them in the dryer. We were walking through muck and it felt almost like quick-sand. But the view from all angles was so so beautiful and we had a day of sunshine (at least while we were there)! But we had to kiss the west coast goodbye and head back to the east coast and return our car and get settled in Dublin for the last two nights. We were so ready for our packed ham and cheese sandwiches when we got back to the car because it was way past lunch time. Those simplest of lunches all week had been clutch. Every morning we would pack our ham and cheese sandwiches or just ham sandwiches for Nate, apples, and digestive cookies. Don’t let the name fool you, these cookies are the best things ever! They are like a graham-cracker-type cookie dipped in chocolate on one side.

The car was dropped off, and we were back at that bus stop ready to head back into Dublin but unfortunately we just barely missed the previous bus and we had a 50 minute wait until the next one. But we passed the time with a throwback music sing-a-long. We were staying an airbnb in a pretty central location of Dublin. It was 10pm and we wanted dinner but we struggling to get the stove to turn on. Obviously the logical conclusion would be to go try to find a fuse box and mess with it. But the guys didn’t find a fuse box rather an alarmed electrical box. It took us over a half an hour to get the siren to go away. But we settled on dinner at a pub down the street and finally got to bed.

On our last day in Ireland we explored the city of Dublin starting with the Kilmainham Jail where the leaders of the Easter Uprising where held. Unfortunately, we learned that tickets for the actual jail had to be purchased in advance but we were given tickets to the museum for free. After that we made it back towards central Dublin, found this great Irish pub for lunch and Irish coffees before going to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College Library and then to St. Patrick’s Cathedral for Evensong.

We were all so sad that our five days in Ireland went by so quickly. We loved getting to road trip around the country! I would do it again in a heartbeat and I’m so grateful for our group. The next morning we left our airbnb at 5am to get to the airport and start our journey to Rome! We had a short layover back in London before we finally got to Bella Roma!

I can’t wait to relay everything else that has happened here since the semester started. Until next time!

The Brunette