Snapper: slang word for baby
Noel and Grainne taught me these Irish terms. I love that babies are called snappers, as if they are
Excerpts from my journal: Days 5 and 6
I woke up not feeling well at all. Too many cookies, Nutella, and junk mix yesterday, I think.
We hit the street bright and early to make the bus to pick Michael up at the airport. We became turned around looking for the bus stop because the directions we had told us that it was right next to the tourist information center. Well…. The T.I. was not in any normal old building. It was in a CHURCH. And, at 5:30 in the morning when the sky is still BLACK, one does not expect to walk by a church and have it be a tourist information center. DOINK.
But….. we found the bus and made it to the airport and the reunion with Michael was salty (He brought me wheat thins, not cookies…). I was so happy to see him. We boarded the bus and began chatting and before we knew it, we realized we’d never stopped at Suffolk Street and were driving farther and farther away from the city center. The bus driver GRUMPED at us and took us around the whole route again to get us back to where we needed to be, putting us on the bus for almost two hours. Oops.
We snuck Michael into the hostel. He was not checked in yet, and at this particular hostel they had a security measure where each guest showed their key as they walked in. So Lisa and I went up with Michael’s suitcases, and then I went back down, gave Michael Lisa’s key, let him go in, and then followed him about a minute later. We all felt so guilty as if we were committing some big crime. But REALLY, all we wanted was a NAPPPPP. So we took a small one and made it down for breakfast before heading out to adventure Kilmanhem (spelling anyone?) Gaol. The 18th Century prison was eerie, but its history was fascinating. When it reopened as a museum in the 1960s, the last prisoner to be released who was the current (or recent) Irish Prime Minister, was the one to “cut the ribbon” for the opening! Crazy, right?
After that we walked to the Guinness Storehouse which was very state of the art and interesting. We tried Guinness along the way and I thought it was NASTY, Michael didn’t care for it, and Lisa really liked it.
The history of
We came home and rested before heading out to St. Patrick’s Cathedral which was closed sadly, but had beautiful gardens around it that we walked through.
Dinner was at the Brazen Head, which claims to be the oldest pub in Ireland, dating back to the 1100's. It had a cool atmosphere, or maybe I should say a hot atmosphere because I sat with my back to the fire. MMMM, yes. It also had money autographed from customers from all over the world. Most were dollar bills, however…. Those Americans. We found one that was from Elon! CRAZYYYYY.
Next Day…
I was up at 6 this morning because we’d gone to bed so early last night. I just rolled around for awhile until the alarm went off and we started our long, long day. I can’t possibly write all that we did and the stories or details that went with, but thankfully we video blogged a 30 minute clip of a play-by-play of the day. (I think it is too big to upload to this, or I would just put it up instead of my journal!)
Quick summary of the video….
We went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and toured it, to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, and we went to the National Museum of History and Archeology where we saw BOG BODIES from HUNDREDS of years ago. Some were nearly perfectly preserved, looking like leather people. It was creepy, but interesting. Since they were found in bogs, most of them had met brutal ends and their captors had wanted to dispose of the evidence, so what better way than throwing the bodies in bogs? I won’t give you the gruesome details, but ALL of the bog bodies had been murdered. They became a bit of a mascot for us for the rest of the trip.
Trinity College was pretty awesome as well. The Book of Kells is an ancient manuscript of the Gospels, and it is elaborately scribed. The LIBRARRRRY there was soooo cool. Lisa and I walked in and BOTH of us immediately felt like Belle in
After touring we picked up the rental car... 
...and drove to a little village called Glendalough. We got into our Bed and Breakfast around 5, and immediately went out to this ancient monastic city on a hill that had hikes around it and the two lakes it was situated on. We basically had the place to ourselves because it was late and drizzly, so the experience was UNREAL. If I HAD to choose a favorite place in Ireland, it would be Glendalough. We hiked for 2 and a half hours, arriving back at our car in the dark.
We were sooo hungry, and since Glendalough was a small town, we did not have much selection… There was one restaurant and a gas station, so we went to the Wicklow Heather Restaurant and SPLURGED. It wasn’t SUPER expensive, but it was upscale for starving college students. But, the food was DELICIOUS and dinner was literally a two and a half hour food festival.
Ok… back to the written word of the day…
So, a few things not mentioned in the video:
I love how excited Lisa and Michael were about the hostel. Both came in with certain LOW expectations that were not met but well exceeded, and they were both a little bummed in a way to find that we would be in bed and breakfasts from now on.
Driving on the left side today was a bigger deal than I thought it would be. Renting the car, I had to put a gigantic deposit on my credit card for insurance.... which did not give me assurance (AHHHH). And, it was a big deal because it was my first rented car!!! I didn’t realize how much responsibility it was. It makes me appreciate my daddy.
Glendalough is unbelievable, and I’m so grateful to be here in this place that looks and feels like another world with my two good friends. God is so good. I can feel His peace here.”
Stay tuned.....
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