In the Place Where the Dark Mournes Sweep Down to the Sea and a City Soaked in Booze

Hey everyone!

I know it's been more that two weeks and I appologize profusely for that. The first week, though, really wasn't monumentally interesting, so you didn't really miss that much. I had classes, of course, and did some homeword- finished one of my five 2-3000 word papers and started another, so there's that.

Oh! And I actually got to go to church two weeks in a row, which was really nice. Plus, I got fed both times- once at a church lunch thing after the service, and once when another beautiful family took me in for the afternoon. I cannot describe how very blessed I feel by Coleraine Baptist Church; they are really a wonderful group of people and I will always be happy that I slept in until theirs was the service I made it to town in time for. Seriously, thank you Jesus. <3

Other than schoolwork and church and happiness, I did have two rather excptional adventures this past week. Before I get into those, though, we're going to take a breif detour into my adventures in cooking, because I was genuinely thrilled with how it's been going. So, last week I decided to get some tomatoes (woohoo!) and there were some discounted peppers, too, so I got those as well. I did not realize just how hot those peppers were, however, until I bit into one and found myself spending the next five minutes furiously gulping water, then milk when I realized that water wasn't a good idea, and then getting some bread and stuff to dull the pain. They were, however, quite delicious, and so I continued to use them for stuff. I've since made some seriously wonderful eggs, pasta dishes, and casadillas, and I just really needed to tell you all that. It's really a very exciting occurance. I can't wait to get home and make some for people, when I have a real kitchen and a full set of supplies and spices and utensils to use.

Okay, now we can get on to what I'm sure you're all actually interested in.

Well, since the weekend before last I hadn't gone anywhere, due to the high expenses of Dublin the week before, I decided that I needed to do something. And, well, I've been really wanting to visit the Mourne Mountains, since I know a song about them (thank you Celtic Thunder) and we'd seen them from  the train on the way to Dublin and they just looked so pretty! So I looked them up, my travel buddies and I did some recon, and Saturday morning we got up early and headed to the train station. You should be aware that basically all day I had that song I mentioned and a Lord of the Rings playlist running through my brain; I basically had background music for my life, except, you know, inside my head. But still. OH! Here, you can listen to that song! Because it's wonderful and it can provide not-in-my-head background music for my blog post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niW6j13TTXQ CLICK ITTTTT

So yes. I went to the Mournes via a train ride to Belfast and bus to Newcastle. The view on the way was lovely, rolling hills leading up to a misty, mysterious mountain range. When we arrived, we found a visitors center, and the nice woman behind the counter informed us that we were about a 5 minute stroll from the beginning of the rout that scales Northern Ireland's highest mountain, Slieve Donard. "Well," we thought, " why not? Go big or go home!" So off we went.

Well, there are a good many reasons "why not." It's exhausting and takes forever, and just when you think you're almost there, you round a bend and see a whole other portion you couldn't before, and you can almost hear the stupid mountain mocking your pain. Then you get to the top and have to hang on tight because you feel like you're going to be blown clear off the other side; I don't know if I'd ever had quite so clear a demonstration of the "fear of God," before, but the peak of that mountain painted a pretty spectacular analogy for me. By the time I was done I was spent; I had blisters, my feet were no longer positive they knew how to function properly, my legs felt like jelly, and I was starving.

And it was completely incredible.

I don't want to be overly dramatic or anything, but I think anyone who has ever done something like this can liken it to a life lesson or something philosophical like that; there are certainly enough songs out there to prove it (ex. "Climb Every Mountain," "The Climb," etc.). Most people have "mountains" in their lives and it's nice to hear songs like that that encourage you through them.  However, actually pounding the pavement, so to speak, definitely gives you a fresh perspective, (as well as a good deal more respect for the characters in Lord of the Rings).

Standing on the top of Slieve Donard, I felt a lot of things. I wasn't kidding when I said I was afraid I was going to be blown away, because I was legitimately terrified; the wind was quite literally pushing me around. At one point it actually knocked me over. I wasn't kidding about the "fear of God" comment either; as petrified as I was of it, I was in complete awe of the gusts' power, and really, genuinely grateful for it the last few feet up the slope, because I wasn't positive I'd make it if not for that push . I also felt wonder; I don't think you can look down at the world from that high and not experience a sense of wonder. This earth is truly a beautiful creation, and this island is a chilly little paradise as far as I'm concerned. Slieve Donard and the surrounding mountains are absolutely breathtaking. One of the biggest things I felt, though, was a crazy sense of  "Wow." Wow, look at this; wow, I'm on top of a mountain; wow, wow, wow, I did it, I made it. I FREAKING CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN GUYS!!!

 I hate to sound clichéd, but it felt like one of those life melodious life lessons to me; I didn't think I could make it, and (with a windy push), I did. I think that says a lot. 

So yes, it was hard; yes, it was grueling; yes, I was genuinely afraid I was going to die (noot even kidding, had a thought-my-life-was-over moment).There were points I wanted to stop and go no further, but I am forever going to be grateful that I kept going. Because, at the end of it all, it was amazing, and so, so worth the trouble. (Here's a whole slue of pictures to see the pretties ^_^)

Hello, noble adversary. 

The forest was so gorgeous. 

Someone told me that the Mournes helped to inspire Narnia for C.S. Lewis... I believe it

This kinda looks magical to me

SO MUCH PRETTY. This is where we stopped to eat our lunch. 

I fully anticipated that elves would start singing at any moment.

Out of the woods

It was in the CLOUDS. It was at this point we were like, "We're almost there guys!! Woohoo!"

We were actually not almost there. I could just hear Slieve Donard being just like, "Almost there? That's cute."
It was a sassy mountain.

We were not almost done, but there was a wall (called the Mourne Wall) which was cool. I decided to take a seat on top of it before continuing. 

Other side of the wall

The higher we got the more beautiful the view got. 

"This doesn't look so bad," we had said. "We can finish this easy."
Slieve Donard: "Ha.You really are adorable."

GHKHSDKFHKDSHKFHSDKHFJ

UNNGGGGGHHHHHHGGJHDKJSKJFKSDHFKSHD

IRELAND YOU ARE FREAKING KILLING ME HERE

MADE IT!!!!!!! Thought I was about be be blown into oblivion, but I MADE IT!!!

My hiking buddies! 

Then we started back down. I mentioned it was in the clouds right? Well, yeah. Needless to say, dwarfs were singing in my head at this moment.

Granted, during the next two days my muscles were giving vehement protest to that sentiment. I was so. Freaking. Sore. And day two of that torture involved nearly ten hours of walking; however, that was my second adventure. 

So, Monday was March 17th, right? Right. Know what day that was? St. Patrick's Day. Know where I was for that? DUBLIN. 

It was craziness. I got to see the St. Paddy's Day parade first. It took us a while to get to a spot where we could at least partially see the parade route, but once we did it was pretty cool. There were vikings and weird costumes and bands and flamboyant koo-koo clocks (it's a thing), and everyone was dressed in green and slightly obnoxious hats and shirts, some people painted their faces and others dyed their hair. 

Okay, I dressed up too. I just have this great red lipstick and green eyeshadow that I never get to use, and the earrings and shirt were just perfect. I couldn't not. 

And anyways, I think I looked pretty cute. 

See, Vikings! 

I think this was a peacock

Oh, look, a pretty clock! 

Oh, wait! Actually there's a flamboyant shiny person inside!
It took longer than I'd like to admit for me to figure out this was a koo-koo clock.

Dragonnnn with green smoke

Not really positive, but I like it

You can't see them, but there were actually acrobat people inside. Honestly, I just assumed because it was Ireland that it was a giant bottle of alcohol. 

Again, don't know what the point of this was, but I really liked it. 

It was also very loud, and I genuinely do not know how the city wasn't just drained of alcohol by the end of the day.

Seriously. So. Much. Alcohol. Everywhere. There were parts of the city that just reeked of booze, and there were sidewalks on the outskirts of Temple Bar (where we did not dare venture) that were sticky with spilled drinks. It was very... Irish.

My companions and I wandered for a bit before splitting off to go find food, then three of us went to Dublin Castle where a music thing was going on. It was really cool, too! We got to go inside the chapel there, and the acoustics made my little choir girl's heart soar.

Plus it was totally gorgeous. 

At night, many of the city's buildings were illuminated in green, which was just fantastic. The castle looked so cool and daunting!

*cackles evilly*

Then, we popped into a surprisingly quiet little pub and I finally got around to trying my first Irish Coffee! Whiskey still isn't so much my drink of choice, but it was a nice little warm drink. It was almost time to go by the time we finished, but a trip to Dublin wouldn't be complete without a stop into a friendly neighborhood Tescos for some giant Rollo cookies. After that we headed to the bus and began a 4 hour ride home, the first good chunk of which included some drunken, off key singing of a medley of Disney songs and oldies from a number of the people on board. Finally I put my earphones in and drifted off to the soothing tones of Josh Groban.

Annnd, those were my adventures! Well, I mean, since then I've also had the thrill of finding out my shower is dripping into another dorm room, so guess who has to use an alternate shower for at least the next two weeks! -_- Oh well. I've also done a bunch of Easter break trip planning.

Anyway, so that's what's been up. It has been incredible. :) Can you believe it- I've been here for two months!!! I'm halfway through the semester! How did that even happen!?!?!! I don't even know. It's craziness. Like Dublin. Except maybe slightly less intoxicated.

So, that's all for now! Talk to you again soon!