"one night stands" [days five-eight]

so for the past however-many days, we've been doing a LOT of traveling. as my professor called it, we've had a spout of "one night stands," staying one night here and an afternoon there and another night somewhere else. it's been crazy, and it's all sort of a blur, but i'm gonna try and sort it all out, so bear with me. here we go...

[day five]

we started our journey north. after some driving, we took a ferry across a river and drove some more, this time through the burren. the burren is is essentially ireland's desert, with its miles and miles of stone covered ground. thousands of years ago, glaciers formed the rocky expanse into some sort of archaic, petrified swiss cheese. and tombs were built there as an ancient place of worship. we got out for a bit and wandered about, looking at the rare flowers that grow there, and hopping from rock to rock.

we also stopped for lunch at coole park, lady gregory's estate. this is where yeats and other famous irish writers would spend their summers as a source of inspiration. many of them carved their initials into what is now called "the autograph tree." this tree was magnificent, a beautiful giant of burnt red foliage. [note to self: once i have a yard of my own, i will plant a copper beech tree in it.]

here it is in all its glory. see that little white blob to the right of it? yeah, that's a person. (just for a reference to its beastly size).

and some of the signitures on its trunk

the estate was really quite huge and i didn't even see the whole thing. but what i did see was gorgeous and green. ivy wraps around the trees, and grass and bushes blanket the earth, covering up any brown that might exist underneath.

an old courtyard of the estate

there were deer grazing grass in fields and families grazing their picnics in parks. i myself could have wandered around there for a summer or two. good thinking yeats. speaking of the poet, we also stopped at his miniature castle of a house just a few miles down the road, petted some cows, wished upon some dandilions, and hopped back on the bus.

we spent the night in sligo in some college apartments that had kitchens. the town itself was desolate, either due to the fact that it was sunday night or, as some of us suspected, a zombie attack. either way, we decided to make dinner ourselves since the pubs were closed, and ate pizza and pasta as a little family in our little apartment.

[day six]

our last day in ireland! we officially made it to northern ireland. because it belongs to the u.k., northern ireland is technically a different country than southern ireland, which is actually the republic of ireland. from what i've seen i definitely like southern ireland much better. we stopped in derry and went through a museum there explaining all the toils and tension between the city and england. i became much more aware of both sides of the story and learned a lot about the history and present day disputes. but the city and everything in it wreaks of civil unrest, with murals everywhere displaying the battles and marches and struggles for peace. there are so many opinions to be made and so many sides to take about who's right, who's wrong, what should have happened, and what should happen now. my mind could run around in circles all day debating the possibilities. it was, in general, a sad stop. a man told us about how his brother was shot on bloody sunday when he was just 17 years old, and his bitterness towards the british was nearly palpable. needless to say, i was glad to move on to the next stop.

this wall was built way back when to keep the english settlers out of the irish settlement in the middle of town
and here are some of the murals that i mentioned (the happier ones that i saw)

after a few more hours on the bus, we made it to belfast, the capital of northern ireland, and where c.s. lewis was born. we pulled over to take a look around the church he grew up in (his grandfather was the rector). almost everyone was off the bus, except for me and a few others, when all of the sudden...BAM! BAM! the bus shook and a cloud of smoke blew by the windows.

a car had crashed into our coach and blew the back tires. it was a lady from canada fresh off the plane on the way to her hotel in her range rover rental car, who in a fit of panic realized she was driving on the wrong side of the road and swerved into the right lane--it just so happened that our bus was parked there. poor lady. poor us, too. we were stranded at the church for a while. but i must say, it was actually the a great place to be stranded. we talked to the cutest little lady with a boat load of irish sass and enjoyed the stained glass and lovely little church while the music major in our group serenaded us with the piano on stage.

here's the church. it's where c.s. lewis was baptized, and maybe even where the seeds of the ideas for aslan and narnia were planted in his imagination.

the bummer is that while we were waiting for a new tire for our bus, we ran out of time to see the docks where the titanic was built and set sea. now, i love everything about the titanic--the magnificence and grandeur of the ship, the tragic irony of its "unsinkable" reputation, the whole story of the sea-liner from the excitement of its beginning to its premature end. i did a twelve page multi-genre research report on it in high school, and its also in my top three favorite movies. basically, i am enthralled with the titanic and anything to do with it. and i was so looking forward to seeing the place it was born. from what i hear, though, the place isn't in very good shape and the docks are in the middle of nowhere and not much to see. i'm just gonna keep telling myself that, and enjoy the much better mental picture that remains in my head.

on our way into the city we drove past these cranes that were used to build it. i guess that's something too, right?

by the time we got back to our hostel in the city and went out to stroll around town, most everything was closed. so we grabbed some kfc and kicked it in our poly pocket rooms and match box bunk beds (it was really small. oh, and the showers were moldy. that was fun.) okay, so it wasn't the best way to end our time in ireland, i suppose, but it did make me feel ready to see what scotland has in store.

this little park is the only cute part of the city i could find, and the only thing open other than kfc

[day seven]

my alarm went off at 4:15am. yep, great way to start any day--before the day even starts. we had an early ferry to catch that took us across the irish sea to scotland. the ferry was pretty darn fancy, with the cars parked in a special garage below, and above were bars and restaurants and even lounges with couches, perfect for my much needed nap.

three hours later we got to scotland. i didn't think it was possible, but i think that it is even more beautiful than ireland. i mean it's a close tie. and ireland will always have a special place in my heart, dingle especially. but there's just more to scotland. like ireland, it has all the shades of green that god could think up (or at least the ones he put on the earth). but it also has mountains and forests and rivers and lakes. it has everything. i wish i could bottle up all the beauty and take it home with me, because post cards and pictures just don't capture it. not even a little bit.

we made a pit stop at a castle--ya know, the usual pit stop in the british isles. i think it was called the castles of clyde, lots of little castles built into a big hill overlooking a lake. it was actually the last place they took william wallace before he was executed. we climbed some stairs all the way to the top at the look out tower, and whew, it was a work out. but well worth the intense burning sensation in my calves and thighs. the view was wonderful. and yes, i know i must be starting to sound like a broken record with all the the "beautifuls" and "spectaculars" and whatnot. there just aren't enough adjectives. there aren't really even words to describe it. it's just so darn pretty. and that's the best i can do, so get over it. moving on.

some of the castlethe view from the top

so we made it to oban, our final destination of the day, around 4pm. oban is another little harbor town--kind of the dingle of scotland, i suppose. and once again, it's stunning. the isle of mull and isle of iona are right off the shore--these great big green mounds sticking out of the sea. we stayed in another hostel (a little bit nicer than the last one) and the girls that we shared a bunk room with spent their day riding bikes around mull. i think i must have turned as green as the isles with envy hearing about their adventure. i wish we had more time there so that i could do the same. but i guess i'll just have to come back again some day to check it off my list.
we went out for some fish and chips for dinner [side note: i think i have eaten more fish and chips in the last week than i have in my entire life]. after our bellies were nice and full, we set out for an adventure and went to the coliseum that overlooks the city. like the castle earlier that day, it was quite a hike. but again, well worth it. we took in the view of the harbor and watched the sun set over the isle of mull. there was a span of probably ten minutes during that sun set in which no one spoke. there were ten or so of us up there, and not one word. we were all caught up in the beauty and in our imaginations. a lot of us read the book kidnapped by robert louis stevenson this semester, and a chapter or two of the novel takes place on mull and in oban. it was so neat to get a visual of the things we had read--literature come to life right before our eyes. i loved it.

the collesium the town of oban and the isle of mull

after that we headed back to the hostel and played some cards--by some cards i mean multiple hours of nertz, and some of you will be proud to know that i own-pwned. by the time i went to bed, everyone else in my bunk room was asleep and i had to find my way around in the pitch dark, praying i wouldnt trip over any foreigners. oh the joys of hostels. it was our last one, though. and at least it wasn't moldy. so i'm thankful.

[day eight]
that's today! we continued our journey north. up up up the continent to inverness. inverness is the home of loch ness which is, of course, the home of the loch ness monster. and even though we didn't see nessie, we did explore another castle that overlooks the loch. urquhart castle. we learned all about its history and enjoyed the pretty lake. we also enjoyed the first bit of rain (well hail, actually--it's really darn cold here. look on a map, we're basically at the same latitude as alaska. brr!) that's fallen on us this whole trip.tonight we went out to listen to some authentic scottish music at this pub called hootananny's. it was really cool. basically, they just put out the word that any scottish musicians can come and bring their instruments and play. people just kept coming in with fiddles and acordians and guitars and banjos, sitting at the big table in the middle of the place, and joining in on whatever song was being played. i loved the spontenaity of it.

don't worry, mom and dad, it's strawberry cider

tomorrow we start the journey back down south. we'll be in edinburgh for a couple of days and then on to england. i think the internet should be a little more consistant from now on. so don't worry, there shouldn't be any more of these four-days-in-one-post posts. my time in europe is officially half way over as of tomorrow. i'm loving it here, and would love to slow down time just a bit. but whoever you are, dear reader, chances are i'm missing you. hope all is well in the states. i'll be back in just 11 days. and until then, isle be seeing you...