Mullingar, Ireland
11:30pm
Ohhhhhhh kay! So it's been a while since I've given an update, but to all of you who are wondering, we're doing GREAT! I haven't had good internet or opportunity to write anything since my last post. After that post, the next day we went into Dublin again, and had A LOT of fun! We took a while to get going (as it has most days, just because we're feeling lazy in the mornings. lol!) then we left the hotel about 11am and we caught the Dublin Tour bus, which was awesome because it was a "Hop-on, Hop-off" bus, so at any of the stop points, we could get off and explore. One of the first things that the tour bus guide told us (he was live and VERY funny) was that a lot of people just stay on the bus for the first round, and then go on the tour again (the ticket is valid for 2 days) and get off at the places that they want to go! Pretty awesome, right? So we went around to a bunch of different places, which he told us about like St. Patrick's Cathedral, a number of museums, the Guinness Distillery, the Zoo, and a number of other places. The tour guide was really funny with his occasional quips such as saying a different name for himself every time new people would get on the bus ranging from Sean, to Paddy, to Greg (which he SAID was his real name)and also saying jokes like "What do you call a zoo with no animals?" "A shih-tzu." haha! Craziness... but it was great! :) So we went through the whole bus tour, except for the last few shops because we wanted to stop at a souvenir shop, where I proceeded to buy all the souvenirs that I needed for everybody! It was awesome! Grammy also bought a few things, as well. We decided then to get back on the bus (which dropped off right by our hotel) and go back to our hotel room, but by the time we were done doing that, the bus was almost done doing it's rounds. So we thought that we could just walk around O'Connell Street a little more. So we went down to what I think was called Henry Street, which was a walking street. We ran into some street performers and a farmers' market which was cool!! We also got a pay-as-you-go phone, too. Then, later that night, when we got back to our hotel, we packed up and got ready to leave in the morning.
The next morning, Sunday, April 1st, we went to a church in Dublin that was recommended to us by our friend, Angie, called Liberty Community Church. Going to this church was seriously so good for my heart. The worship to God was so genuine, it was SO GOOD! :D Everyone was really nice, and really accommodating. I was actually really surprised because when we go there, the greeters just grabbed me and my grammy into big hugs! It was really funny! :D The speaker during the service was actually this guy from South Africa named Dino. He was very energetic, but he really seemed to have tapped into something in God's heart. After that, Angie took us to the Dublin Airport so we could pick up our rental car. On the way there, we saw a BEAUTIFUL cathedral. Not sure which one, though, and then we saw this really heart breaking statue monument that was commemorating those who had fled Ireland during the Potato Famine in the 1830's. I got all choked up when I saw this memorial because I knew that that was probably something that my ancestors did during that time. Once we got to the car rental place, I realized that I had left my back pack at the church... :( Boohoo. (But I just learned that I'm getting it back soon! YAY!) After we let that go, we went to the car rental place, got some food, and then Grammy was psyching herself up for driving even more. I could tell that she was a little nervous, but I seriously am so proud of her because she really was pretty confident about it! Once we got all of our information, we found the car in the "car park" (As they call it) or parking garage (as we call it). We checked everything out, made sure Grammy knew how to adjust the seat, that we knew when the gas pump thing was, how to work the lights, all that good stuff, and then off we went! We probably started off in the hardest places to drive in Dublin besides the city center of Dublin itself, and this is why I was so seriously proud of Grammy! We even went through a round-about almost right away.
After we got through that hairy part of traffic, we were on our way to Galway! The drive there was pretty smooth. I just had to keep reminding Grammy to keep to the left, but not too far to the left. That's something they don't tell you, is that while you ARE trying to stay to the left, you also need to be careful about being TOO far to the left. Another thing, is to look right when you're turning... we've assigned me to look left when we're turning and then Grammy looks right. It really is a team effort. But anyways, after a long drive, a TON of round-abouts (which are still a little freaky, we finally made it to Galway! Once we got to Galway city, we still had a little ways to go before we got to our friends' house. They live up in the countryside, so that means 2 miles of LITTLE TINY ROADS. And when I say "Little tiny" I mean LITTLE TINY. They are so narrow that barely one car can fit through, but they go both directions, so literally every hill you come up on when you can't see the other side, you're going at a snail's pace because you're worried that another car is gonna be on the other side, heading toward you. We traveled on that little tiny road for about 2 miles, like I said, and even thought it was scary being on those little roads, the scenery up there was BEAUTIFUL. I mean, really, it was the countryside of Ireland, and we had yet to really see that. Seriously, it was like the pictures you see of Ireland, or the movies. It was absolutely gorgeous. Once we finally got to our friends' house, we got settled in and hung out with them for a while. I met these friends, a couple who have been missionaries in Ireland for 4 years, in Dublin, CA on the Friday before we left. It really was a divine appointment because I had 1) never met Irish missionaries before and 2) really wanted to go to Galway when we visited Ireland, but didn't have anywhere to stay. So when a fried of my mom's told us that she had Irish missionaries staying at her house, we said that we had to meet up with them. We met up with them, connected immediately, and they said that we could stay with them when we went to Ireland. So awesome!! So when we got there, we talked with them for a bit, and then decided to watch "The Quiet Man" with John Wayne because a lot of the movie takes place in Galway. It was really fun to watch! After that we went to bed, because we were exhausted from the long day of driving! This trip has seriously been so amazing so far, and I will tell more about what happened the day before yesterday and on in the next blog, but NOW I have to go so we can get on the way to ROSTREVOR!! Which is the YWAM (Youth with a Mission) base in Northern Ireland that I am going to do my DTS ( Discipleship Training School) at. YAY!
Prayer Points:
1. That we would continue to have safe driving (PLEASE! haha!)
2. That we would be able to sleep well (that's been a difficulty, lately)
3. My Grammy asks that you guys could pray that Grammy's puppy stays well while we are in Ireland because her puppy has cancer and my aunt is taking care of her while we are in Ireland.
4. Also for our digestive systems, we've been both having some stomach issues.
Thanks guys!! :D
LOVE!
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