A Very Colorful Week

My goodness! It has been a very eventful week here in Dublin. The traditional Irish music festival was grand or "great craic" as they say. I also got to go on a great hike/walk along the east coast between Bray and Greystones.

I am excited to tell you that this posting will have lots of pictures!

I guess to start out I'll tell you a bit about our hike. Twelve of the students met up to take the DART to Bray around 11. After waiting in a small cafe for coffee for about an hour, since there was only one woman working, we finally got underway.

To begin the hike we walked along the boardwalk and we could see what was ahead of us, little did we know it wouldn't look like this the whole way.

We didn't make it very far before we needed to stop for some breakfast. Katherine, Emma and I had stopped for thick cut chips (fries) before our hike began and the boys helped themselves as well. There were way too many fries for just us girls anyway.

After getting a little nourishment in our bellies we started to walk. One of the first things we ran into was the foundation of a really old, stone house. It still had a stairway up the side of the mountain but it didn't have any windows or a roof left. Katherine and Aaron were brave and walked up first. Once it was confirmed sturdy, several more people joined.

Continuing on the road we began to pass large bends and rock walls that dropped 100 feet or so to the train tracks then about 100 more feet to the ocean. There were so many different types of plants and lichen and flowers growing on the walls, which made for a very beautiful blanket covering.

Due to the twists and turns of the coast we were frequently walking in and out of the shade and sunlight. The sunlight was always welcome as it was an absolutely beautiful day out but we were walking straight at it and sometimes it was difficult to see. However, in the shade, which was a nice opportunity to cool down a bit, there was actually still frost on some of the plants from the night before. I was awed at how delicate the frost was and how it clung to the individual veins of the leaves and the tips of the blades of grass. In comparison our Vermont frosts just glitter and make everything crunchy when you walk on it but this was so soft it melted if you touched it. Pretty cool I think, must have something to do with the salt in the air maybe?

About half way to Greystones, which is about a little more than 5 miles, Aaron and I passed this sign:

We called our friends to ask if they also passed the "Danger Danger" sign or gone up the path that led up the mountain. They had walked right by it without even knowing. However, some of our other friends turned up the mountain and proceeded to get lost on quite an epic journey consisting of lots of trespassing, sheep and pricker bushes. Aaron and I opted to stick to the danger danger route and took the advice of a man who told us to walk through the field when we got to it instead of along the path where the land was collapsing and muddy.

Thank you mysterious gentlemen for possibly saving our lives!

Our path continued on quite rockily, like this:

For another mile or so until we found a small outcropping where we were able to stop for a beautiful picture. I asked Aaron to take one of me and I took one of him.

We met up with our friends Rob and Chris, who are quite the camera men and had been walking slower to take lots of pictures. Fortunately for all of us the next leg of our trip was like a springtime wonderland with lots of little waterfalls and lush valleys all around us, very surreal, like in the movies of Ireland. But this time it was for real.

After wandering through this little piece of heaven we came upon the field the man told us about and just in time too it was getting very slippy (they say that here too!) and muddy. As we approached Aaron proclaimed he was going to frolic all up and down this field. The rest of us agreed it was necessary and an intense amount of frolicking happened in the next 20 minutes or so. Here is Chris frolicking happily and Rob close behind him.

It was nice to revisit childhood for a brief moment and forget that everyone else in the field probably thought we were crazy.

After frolicking we took a moment to turn around and look at back at the length we had just walked. Though we couldn't see Bray anymore we did catch this amazing glimpse of the coast

As I'm sure you can tell by looking at the above picture, it was getting a little bit late in the day and we were nearing the end of our walk so we decided to walk along the beach of Greystones and rest a little. Aaron definitely found the best seat in the house.

I personally think he looks a little like a bird on a nest but quite comfortable nonetheless.

We made it to town shortly after where all 12 of us met up at the Beach House restaurant and shared stories of our adventurous day over delicious seafood chowder (my first experience with the soup...quite tasty indeed). By this time the sun had set and we were all ready for our nice, warm beds. The ride home was quick as was our walk back to our apartments. I am pretty sure almost all the hikers were asleep before 10:00 that evening. Not too bad for a Saturday.

The next day I woke up around 11:00 (Yes I slept that long). My roommates and I, Claire and Tom went to the Anna Livia parade down Dame Street. The first group that walked by were these giant prawn, a native species of Ireland's own River Liffey and Irish Sea.

These prawn, however, wore moon shoes and bounced around and their tails wiggled. By the way, they have prawn cocktail chips here, your immediate reaction to how that might taste is actually pretty accurate--kinda shrimpy kinda salty--different to everyone I suppose.

The next group was very Dr. Seuss themed and this gentlemen asked me if I needed a "recharge" and then "shocked" me with his giant foam plug! I was definitely awake after that!

There were seahorses jockeys and women running for the giant train float as well as a little kid nearly 30 feet in the air with a big dress on. I don't know the significance of that one but it was pretty cool either way.

Then came my personal favorite part of the parade. The traditional Irish marching band from St. Mary. I have a little clip here. It's a little loud so be careful when you play it. Definitely worth listening to though, bagpipes and drums are quite moving if you ask me and I can totally understand how they would inspire unity and motivation in troops or any other group in early Irish history! Also, if you look closely you can see a few women playing the pipes! You go girls, that's some serious lung power!

Following the parade, our group had a quick lunch and there was a band playing traditional Irish music on the first floor.

This photo is really for my Uncle Wayne who said he loved the accordion players. Here you go!

We finished lunch and headed to the Ceili (pronounced kay-lee) which is basically a large dance with a large band. Here is a picture of the band:

The band played traditional songs and lots of Irish people step danced with very specific routines. Then our Irish friend Darragh dragged our group out onto the dance floor, right to the very middle. We clearly didn't know the steps so we just hooked elbows and danced around in circles. It was hysterical and really fun, I'm glad we went for it and didn't run away. When in Dublin do as the Irish do right?

Most recently our school had a guest speaker from the United Nations Refugee Agency come to talk to one of our classes. However, since the school is so small they often invite us all to attend these special presentations and we got to listen to him tell us what his job was about. It was interesting to learn that America accepts hundreds, well thousands really, of people every year solely because they are refugees unable to safely live in the homeland or return there. Also, that we, as well as many other countries, signed a document saying we would do this and would not turn someone away unless we had a drastic rise in the number of people, then we would ask another country, like Canada to share the number of people.

Ireland is also one of the countries where people can seek refuge or asylum, though they are only able to accomdate a few hundred every year. Larger countries generally accept more people, but it also figures in political factors and population density before committing to a number. Our speaker, Stephen O'Brien, quizzed us with scenarios and I guessed that in one of them we would let the person into the country on asylum or refugee status even though they presented a fake passport. For that I won a UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) hat! We decided that the person may have had to go to drastic ends to escape from their country, even if that meant they had a fake passport when entering the country.

One of the coolest parts of Stephen's job, I think, is that he gets to help people reintegrate into the homeland if they voluntarily feel comfortable returning. For example, if a war broke out in the in Vermont and we all had to move to Florida, Stephen's job is to help those of us who would want to go home to Vermont move back as long as peace had been restored. I like that part of their job the most because they are never forced to go back but if they want to they will have help and a lot of times this means reuniting families!

Today I got to go to Collins Barracks, just across the Liffey from our apartments. This place was massive! Absolutely gigantic. We walked into a courtyard that measured longer than 100 paces and it wasn't even the largest yard area. Collins Barracks was originally used by the English Army to train and live in order to control the Irish in the 17, 18 and 1900s. Then the Irish army garrison occupied it after becoming a free state in the 1920s. They stayed there making it the longest occupied barracks in the world until the 1990s. For a few years it was basically the largest storage place in the world as lots of artifacts owned by the National Museum of Ireland were kept there. They then moved part of the museum there as well as several administrative offices. For our class we wandered around the inside learning about the people who lived and served there for so many years. There was even a section where you could hold the old rifles used for training and battle. They were bolted down though so no danger could happen but I could still feel how heavy they were and how time consuming it was to load them. We also saw the evolution of weapons used by the occupants and their uniforms. Overall, it was a great way to spend a class learning about a huge part of the English occupation here and the number of soldiers it took to control the Irish.

Well I'm sure by now you must wonder when this post will ever end. Here we have it mates. Another post done this week. I hope the one I have for you next time will be just as interesting. I am headed to Howth this weekend, for the fishermen's market where they sell, you guessed it, fish! Lots of fresh fish right off the boat. They also have a little market and lovely cliff views so maybe a little picnic will be in order.

Sending lots of love vibes across the Atlantic to all of you!

Annie