In western lands beneath the Sun
The flowers may rise in Spring,
The trees may bud, the waters run,
The merry finches sing.
Or there maybe 'tis cloudless night
And swaying beeches bear
The Elven-stars as jewels white
Amid their branching hair.
Though here at journey's end I lie
In darkness buried deep,
Beyond all towers strong and high,
Beyond all mountains steep,
Above all shadows rides the Sun
And Stars for ever dwell:
I will not say the Day is done,
Nor bid the Stars farewell.
Hello! I am back. I haven't been keeping to my "one post a week" promise I made at the beginning of the semester, but I have been rather busy. Kyle just left (unfortunately), and before he was here, my family was here. Before they came, we went on another class trip, and before that was spring break, and before that was the West Ireland trip. So, now I'm going to finish the West Ireland trip, and hopefully I'll get to the other things next Sunday.
So, I left off when we were still in Kenmare, on Saturday evening. Sunday morning, we woke up and got on the bus. We were headed to Dingle for lunch, and then back to Dublin. There were many beautiful views:
We stopped at Lady's View, a place to view the beautiful landscape.
Me and Melissa!
Then we got back on the bus.
Look, I'm a ghost!
Soon, we stopped at a place called Inch Beach. I have no idea why they called it "inch" anything. The place was massive. It sits at the end of the ocean inlet between the Kerry and Dingle peninsulas.
It was very beautiful, but also very windy. Here's Julianne and Stacey:
Look at the shells! There were so many of them. They look like little butterflies. I took some home.
We then got back on the bus, and soon we were in Dingle. Someone saw a little structure way on top of a hill, and wondered aloud what it was. I promptly replied, "A beacon of Gondor!" See for yourself:
Dingle is an adorable town. It is in the Gaeltalcht, an area where Irish is spoken as a common language.
We all got fish and chips for lunch. Here's Sam, Jackie, Andrew, and Ryan:
And here's Kayla, Molly, Mary, Melissa, and Sam not looking at the camera. He's ordering his fish and chips.
Stacey and Julianne rode the statue of Fungie, the dolphin that, since 1983, has greeted every tour boat that has gone out into the Dingle bay. We didn't go on a boat tour, so we didn't see Fungie, but the statue was nice.
After another stint on the bus, we stopped at a nice place to look at the cliffs. Here I am, with a little sheep in the background.
Patrick, coming down the steps to the lower level of the cliff viewing area. Melissa is smiling at me in the background, that sneaky person.
Do you see a little, tiny beach nestled in the cliffs in the picture below? Well, guess what we did next?
We went to the beach! This picture is viewing the beach from the opposite cliffs to where we were before.
Just in case you needed to be warned, don't walk off the cliffs.
This is what the cliffs looked like from half-way down to the beach. Very impressive. Note the raised pool of sea water.
Me on the beach!
This beach had a little stream running onto it. I spent the entire time we were at the beach exploring this thing. Water trickled down the cliffs from above and formed little ribbons of water that sinks into the sand as it crosses the beach. It's flowing all the time, and yet it looks like it just ends!
We got back on the bus and continued along the Dingle peninsula. From a distance, we saw Skellig Michael. Skellig in Gaelic means "splinter," and this island pokes out of the water like a pointy splinter. Long ago, monks built a monastery on top of the island, living in beehive huts. You can tour the island today, but it's difficult to get to, and no one lives on the island anymore. Now it's mostly a bird sanctuary. There it is in the sea:
We passed lots of little lambs! Aren't they precious? Kevin even stopped the bus driver so we could get out and have a closer look.
However, the moms were not happy. This mom took her lambs away promptly.
Our last stop of the day was at the Gallarus Oratory, a very old Christian church (perhaps as old as the 6th century). It is built entirely out of stone. It's a very special place, to think that Christians worshiped here in this building, out in almost the middle of nowhere, centuries ago. We spent some prayer time in the oratory. It felt very powerful. Around 40 of us were able to fit snuggly inside. I was near the front door, facing the back and only window.
The front door has two special stones on either side of it, possibly on which one could place lanterns or decorations.
Here's the back window from the inside, with Molly standing by it:
And here it is from the outside. It gets quite narrow.
Kevin told us that any girl who is able to fit through the window will be married within the year. We stood around awkwardly for a few seconds. People looked at me, but I told them that our wedding is more than a year away! I didn't want to mess anything up. Finally, one girl, Nicki, offered to try. At Kevin's direction, some tall boys went around to the back of the oratory to help her get through. She made it easily, and so did Melissa, who volunteered afterwards.
In the shadow of the oratory, there's an area covered with stones. We weren't told what it was, but I'm guessing it could have been a grave.
Here's a close-up of the standing stone:
It's carvings like these that suggest to archeologists that the circles on celtic crosses are something more than just a good way to hold up the arms of a cross. This cross doesn't need any kind of support, since it's just a carving, and yet the circle is still there anyway. The markings below the cross are interesting as well. Very ancient-looking.
So, after this, we got back on the bus, stopped only for dinner at McDonalds (where I did not eat healthy food, sorry Mom), and arrived back in Dublin. All in all, I really enjoyed the Western Ireland trip. It is such a wild, beautiful place. That's why I brought Kyle there when he visited last week.
The end!
No comments:
Post a Comment