Hello everyone!
I have a few things to update you on. Last week was Easter Sunday, and it was really hard to be away from home. We couldn’t celebrate here how we usually get to celebrate with family and friends, but we improvised. We went to mass and then my American friends and I died Easter eggs and played tag and other games outside because it was pretty nice weather. Maggie’s sister and her friend were visiting and the only thing she knows how to make is tacos so that’s what we had for our Easter dinner. It was a lot of fun to celebrate together. I got to talk to my whole family on Skype and even though it wasn’t the same as being there, it was nice to see everyone. At least that was the last major holiday that I have to be away for. I have less than three weeks left!
Last Wednesday, my friends and I went to Wicklow to see the Wicklow National Park, where P.S. I Love You was filmed. It was a really rainy, windy, cold day, so the pictures didn’t really turn out and we didn’t get a good feel of what it looks like. It’s too soon in the season for it to look like it did in the movie because the flowers aren’t in bloom until June. We got to see a 6th century monastery started by St. Kevin. Then we walked through the woods behind it, and got a great view of the mountains. It was very beautiful, even though it was foggy. I wish we could have had better weather, but I suppose if you wait around for a nice day of weather in Ireland, you’ll be waiting for a while.
Pictures of Wicklow:
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=330065024/a=157881010_157881010/t_=157881010
The rest of the week was filled with getting some papers done. I’m done with my two final papers, so now I just need to get to work studying for my two final exams. I can’t believe that in a couple weeks, I’ll be done with my Junior year!
Yesterday, Melissa, Maggie and I went to climb Croagh Patrick. It is in Co. Mayo and it’s where St. Patrick banished the snakes from Ireland. It’s a very religious place, in fact thousands of people climb it every year to make a pilgrimage for St. Patrick. A lot of people climb it on Easter and then have mass on the top of the mountain. The really hardcore pilgrims climb without shoes on! When we got there and started climbing, we thought we were climbing to the smaller of the two mountains, but when we got there, we realized that we were climbing to the big one. It wasn’t too bad, but at parts it got really steep. Towards the top, it was basically a complete vertical incline. There were a lot of loose rocks that made it a little trickier, but the challenge was great. On the way up, I stopped to catch my breath for a little bit, and looked over and there was a sheep standing right next to me. It stared at me for a while, and then started running down the mountain. I wish I had my camera with me to prove it ☺. It took us 2 hours to climb. When we made it to the top, the view was extremely beautiful. It was such a warm, sunny day, and the skies were so clear, we could see out over Ireland. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful. There was a small church on top of the mountain, but it was locked, so we couldn’t go in it. Then we started the climb down, which was almost harder than the climb up, because of the loose rocks and the steep path. Melissa and Maggie fell down a few times, and crazily enough I didn’t fall at all. We all lost our balance a few times and we took a lot of pictures and laughed a lot. It only took about one hour to get down, though. We met so many cool people on the way up and on the way down. Everyone was so friendly and encouraging. We got on the bus to Westport which is the nearest town to the mountain, and realized that we read the bus schedule wrong and there were no buses leaving that night back to Galway, so we had to ask a bus driver and he told us to take a cab to a town that was 20 minutes away so we could get on that bus back to Galway. It was just frustrating because it was an added expense that we hadn’t planned. But oh well, we got back to Galway safe and sound. Then we went to Monroe’s and had pizza and watched Irish dancing. I only have one more night at Monroe’s left!
Pictures of Croagh Patrick:
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=330489024/a=157881010_157881010/t_=157881010
Other than that, things are going really well. I’m trying to get everything in now that I only have a couple weeks left in Ireland and one week in Italy. I’ll be coming home on May 12th and I can’t wait to see everyone! Love you all and see you in less than a month ☺
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