It has been an interesting week. The work week was relatively uneventful, though one of our fellow interns hosted an awesome Connector Party through her workplace. Very fun, and at a very kick-ass venue. I also got to do some more research regarding my summary project, and will be meeting with some interesting folk in the next couple of weeks to supplement my work.
On Thursday, my relationship ended… via email. Good times, I know. So I spent that day at home, shedding tears to a select couple of loved ones through a webcam. And then I drank a bottle of wine on the lawn with my fabulous roommate. The love was on the rocks, but does anyone deserve to be broken up with via email when they’re across the planet? Really? But, being the ragingly independent soul that I am… I’m fine. It was really good when it was good, but obviously not meant to be. Though I truly thought it was initially. More reinforcement in my mind that my lifestyle and perception is just not conducive to a serious relationship, at least at this point in my life.
Moving on…
On Friday morning we hopped on the train to Galway, and then on the bus to Lisdoonvarna. Holy effing motion sickness. Lisdoonvarna is a tiny tiny town at the top of the windiest ‘mountain’ I’ve ever been hauled up in a 50 passenger bus in my life. I thought I was going to have to barf on the poor driver if we didn’t get there soon. Thank Dramamine we arrived, and made the short trek to our hostel. Our reason for this journey to the middle of nowhere? The Cliffs of Moher. If you don’t know, Google it. On Saturday, the hostel hosed us out of an all day tour, so we got on at 1:30 and headed to Doolin, the tiny town 15 minutes away from Lisdoonvarna that serves as the gateway to the cliffs. We bought some tasty treats in Doolin, and headed up another hill. Please note, more people die each year from being BLOWN off these cliffs than from all the crime in Ireland. A 24 year old boy died 25 weeks before we came apparently. All the words I have at my disposal cannot do justice to the magnificence of this natural creation. Please see pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/enger.emily
There is a rock wall where people aren’t supposed to go because its private property, and where people die, but of course everyone goes anyway because that is where the best experience is. They are so large, and so high, and so effing scary but so serene and calming at the same time. God was on our side that day, and graced us with the beautiful sun that we have seen so rarely since our arrival. What a perfectly beautiful place to plop down, breathe in… and just let it all go. And that is exactly what I did.
Kim the amazing roommate brought her SNUGGIE, so of course we had to take the most epic picture of all time of her in the Snuggie majestically braving the wind and cliffs. See pictures for the amazingness. After we got our fill of pretending to fall off the cliffs and meditating, we cruised back over to the land of legality and safety and headed to the little castle on the other cliff. This is when the wind picked up, and when I totally understood how people get blown off the effing things. People were literally leaning 45 degrees and not falling. A poor little doggie was struggling just to walk. I had to plant my feet almost 4 feet apart just to take a steady picture. It was madness.
The next morning we hopped on the bus back to Galway (I took the motion sick meds beforehand this time) to catch the Galway Horse Races. The bus to the races never came, so we just hung out in Galway and watched the Gaelic Football match all day and drank. By the way, Gaelic Football as well as Hurling, are a million times cooler than any American professional sport has ever been or will be. No padding, no stopping the clock every 10 seconds, no steroids, no cocky attitude and arrogance, no absurd amounts of money, no endorsement deals, no crediting a product for your ‘performance’, no bragging unless its about another teammate… just all around BETTER. How do I know most of this? We accidentally hung out with 4 players from Co. Kerry for an entire weekend and it was the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here. These men are real athletes, I’m just sayin.
At 6:15, we caught the train back to Dublin for some much needed showering and sleep. Today (Monday) is a bank holiday (we still don’t know what that means except that we don’t have to work) so we headed to the pub for the Dublin/Kerry match… and watched Dublin get their asses handed to them by Kerry. Back to Shanowen Square to do some laundry, lay in the lawn and read, and have a tasty meal cooked for us by our Spanish neighbors. Blissful long weekend, I must say. Tomorrow we head into our third to last week of work, and to Belfast on Friday for the Black Cab tour. Don’t forget to check the pics!
Love and real football,
Emily Jo
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