we have arrived at a very special place

So far, so amazing. My skin is drenched in beautiful irish air, my lungs are full of it, and my shoes have already been drenched in irish water. I am in love.

After just minor flight delays, we made it to Dublin on schedule. Loaded with our ridiculously heavy luggage, we headed off to hire a car. Uncle Bill (henceforth referred to as UB) was a little nervous because they gave us a brand new car and we can't let anything happen to it. We're being pretty careful with it. Driving is crazy here! Not as bad as it was in Peru, but pretty close. The streets are in general extremely narrow, very curvy, and most people go very fast. Not to mention that UB had to get accustomed to driving on the right side of the car on the left side of the road. But it's been fun.

Once we had hired the car, we drove to Glendalough, visited a beautiful church, St. Kevin's, waved to some sheep, got out our cameras, stretched our legs, and then headed to a round tower surrounded by a really beautiful graveyard. We walked down a path to a stream and decided to get off the path and walk along the stream (hence the soaked shoes) and when we reached a bridge, we realized there was loads of money in the water, so UB, Lydders, and Zach all went fishing. Unfortunately, we didn't get enough to pay for lunch.

Lunch was spectacular, though. We found a small restaurant near Glendalough in the town of Roundwood, managed by a really sweet young lady, and we had an absolutely delish lunch/supper followed by coffee and rhubarb tarts. The people here are so nice! One man came over and just started talking to us like he'd known us all his life. Everybody who came in or out greeted us and we felt really welcome.

Now that we were full and happy, we hopped back in the car and drove to pick up Josiah. My goodness, what a sight for sore eyes he was. Since he was joining us, Zach squished in the back with Lydders, Lynnea and me which was loads of fun and excessively uncomfortable. From there, we drove for a few hours to the hostel near Galway, very squished but quite content, with soaked shoes and numb butts, hungry and sleep deprived, dozing off in-between games of catch phrase without catch phrase, making up stupid raps and singing dumb songs and generally having (literally) close bonding time.

The hostel was very nice; nothing elaborate or extravagant, but comfortable and roomy, with plenty of beds and a shower which of course is a good thing. We were all very happy to have a real bed to sleep in and get clean this morning. We're a wee peckish since we didn't really get supper last night (except for some beer and cider for those interested in having some) and they don't serve breakfast here. But Zach had coffee with him so that is holding us over until we find some place to eat.

Josiah said it hasn't rained here in about a month, and it's not predicted to rain for the next week. The weather was very nice yesterday; I don't know what it's supposed to be like today. We all slept in and are now finishing up showers and such. Today we'll do a little more exploring, perhaps, and then head over to learn the ropes of the boat we'll be taking back and forth to the island; then we'll go to the island tonight.

Signing off for now,
your very happy and content wannabe irish,
Londerz