Catch-up!!

Alright, hello!  This post will be a catch up of the last month.  For the sake of time, I think I will just post a bunch of pictures (as promised) from my London trip, Croagh Patrick trip, and Dingle Trip followed by a brief rundown?  Sound like a plan?  Good…

London:

               
I went on this trip with my two friends, Mary and Marie. They are both wonderful people who were fun to take a trip with.  We arrived on a Friday afternoon and you guessed it, it was raining.  We wanted to save money, so we decided to walk from where the bus from the airport dropped us off…hmmm…questionable choice.  BUT, I thought it was a great adventure.  It took us about 40 minutes to walk to where our hostel was – and then about another hour to actually FIND the hostel, which ended up being right where google maps said it was.  We did get a chance to meet some of the locals in this search though, and got some interesting directions from them…basically all of them pointed us a different way.  Haha.  Needless to say we found it.

WICKED

               
Wicked was, as I mentioned before, quite amazing.  Connie was meeting her mom in London so she was able to come as well.  The British, Scottish, and Irish accents created a unique performance that simply cannot be achieved in the states. ;)  The various other sights around the city were just as amazing as well.  I must say, I did not expect much from London, but it had a lot to offer!  The fireworks for Guy Fawkes day were some of the best fireworks I had seen in ages!  And, Big Ben was simply beautiful…even though it is only a big clock.  We met several people in the hostel, including our friend Kyle from South Africa who might appear in some of the pictures.  He met us Saturday morning at breakfast and asked if he could come around looking at sights with us.  Sure why not right?  He was a great guy who was an up and coming R&B artist just trying to get his name out there!  Ahh, the life of a musician...  All in all, a very successful trip that culminated with a great dinner of pizza and red wine and delicious chocolate cake at some Italian restaurant in London.  We enjoyed it thoroughly! 

Ohhh..Big Ben!

Tower Bridge!

St. Paul's Cathedral

Croagh Patrick:

                Although this trip was really only two days/one night long, I feel like I could go on forever about it.  When we look back at what we did in 48 hours, Jordan and I just laugh.  The bus ride to Westport (which is about 8 km from the base of the mountain) was around 7 hours with a 1 hour layover in Galway.  And, the thing is: Westport is probably only about 150-200 miles.  Oh, backroads in Ireland…  The bus ride was quite long. Then, when we got there, the hurricane began…haha.  Literally, around 50-60 mph wind gusts that Jordan and I had to attempt to ride our bikes to our B&B in.  Again, an experience to last a lifetime.  The couple at the B&B treated us like kings the entire night.  We were to comfy to leave the house at any point in the night and we knew we needed energy for the next day.   We were just praying for the weather to clear up….AND it DID!

St. PATRICK!!

The last 200 meters...AHH

              
We woke up bright and early, got our gear on – not particularly the best gear for climbing a mountain in frigid temperatures – and biked the 8 km to the base.  It was a beautiful ride but man was it cold.  Then, the hike.  I must say we truly underestimated the mountain.  I believe it is around 800 meters from the base…but it is straight up the mountain side, especially the last 200 meters or so.  Needless to say, it was well worth it!  The pictures do the talking.  We even got a few flurries of snow on the top of the mountain for about 20 seconds.  Simply amazing.

Success

Victory!

Dingle:

          Connie arrived the day after Croagh Patrick.  So…I was tired…haha.  But ready for her!  I picked her up from the airport on Saturday morning, we stopped back at my apt, and then jumped on the bus to the Dingle Peninsula.  And, I don’t think anything could have prepared us for the astonishingly gorgeous weekend we were about have!  Let’s just say if you’re ever in Ireland…GO TO DINGLE!  The B&B was absolutely heart-warming again and we were treated amazingly.  The night we got there turned out to be a beautiful night with a gorgeous sunset.  We walked around town looking for a place to eat and then found Murphy’s Pub (Can’t get more Irish that that right?).  The atmosphere in there was amazing…open fire, pictures everywhere, good food…ahh! 

Quite the sunset?

         The next day we went to a mass in town which was quite unique: parts were said in Irish, English, and even Latin I believe at some parts.  Only in Ireland!  Then, we hit up some shops…I got a pretty amazing hat (or so Connie thinks…I like it too I suppose)  And then we went on nice long walk!  Gorgeous is the only way to put it.  That night when we asked Angela (our B&B host) if we could cook up some noodles we had brought along…she very innocently asked, “and..how do we actually do that?”  haha.  So, we taught her how to boil noodles! Haha!  It was fun! 

Dingle - Berries...hahaha

Our reaction to the scenery!

Ventry bay

Mt. Brandon

        
We left the next day, but once again enjoyed the scenic drive to its fullest.  Then, Connie and I went to campus and she met some of the folks in the Christian Union who really treated her like family.  I truly have met some great people here!  And, the next morning I took her back to the airport.  It really is quite amazing the way we have been able to see each other over these last few months.  I need to remember this!

My Irish farm...

That should catch you up on the last month…I think I’ll wait to the next post to talk about the last week with Ben!  Peace!

p.s. Remember that I have plenty more stories to tell – just not enough time to write them all down!  Don’t forget to ask me when I get back!