VisionQUEST 2: Ireland
Ireland was a last-minute decision for Krista and me. Ireland hadn’t been at the top of my list of must-see countries, but our fellow classmates on The Village — Sarah and Chloe — came home from their own trip to Ireland and told us enough stories so that Krista and I had to too! I’m extremely thankful for their experience and how effectively they shared it with all of us, because my own time in Ireland went on to be epic and unforgettable.
We stayed at the Times Hostel on College Street. It was perfectly located near Fleet Street, Temple Bar, and the city center. We were a five minute walk away from everything we wanted to see and do in Dublin. The hostel was clean, the staff were friendly, and they had a huge kitchen equipped with a stove, oven, microwave, refrigerator, vending machine, tables, board games, plates, silverware, and every Shania Twain album in existence. I think we both felt pretty proud of how easily we found our way to the hostel and managed our navigation of the city. Neither of us could have done this without major anxiety and uncertainty before The Village.
The city of Dublin is great. Historic, charming, hip and fun: Dublin felt like home to us almost right away. Dear reader should you go there yourself, you absolutely MUST go to Elephant & Castle and order a basket of chicken wings, fries, veggies & hummus, and their house-made ginger ale. (It will change your life.) If you go for breakfast, order the Temple Omlette or the French Toast. Krista and I ate there twice in our five-day stay. Our English professor, Dr. McKay (AKA: best teacher ever) treated us to this glorious land of buffalo sauce on our second day in Dublin, before taking us to the National Gallery of Ireland to see the “The Meeting on the Turret Stairs”, a watercolor by Hellelil and Hildebrand. Pictures can’t do the painting justice, but Google it…it’s beautiful. And even better, add a a personal siting of this glorious work to your bucket list. You won’t regret anything on your bucket list that’s based in or near Dublin.
Krista and I took a double-decker bus to the Dublin Zoo. We sat in the first row on the upper deck — the scariest seat on the bus. We got off at the last stop: Phoenix Park, the most pleasant surprise of our trip. As you can see, it was absolutely beautiful. We ended up spending more time here than we did at the zoo, and there’s no shame in that. It was really nice to get out of the city for a little while to take a stroll in one of the most beautiful parks I have ever seen. Birds chirping, ducks swimming, children playing, men reading, leaves changing…unforgettable.
Krista and I took a day trip to The Cliffs of Moher on our last day in Ireland. At the crack of dawn, we boarded our tour coach from Dublin to Galway, where we met our tour guide. We drove from Galway to Doolin, where we stopped to eat their famous seafood chowder and a pint of Guinness. I bought some praline fudge from the fudge shop next door before boarding the coach once again to our next stop Clare, Ireland: home to the Cliffs of Moher.
The cliffs can be described with one word: breathtaking. The bright green wavy grasses sharply contrasted the cloudy, gray Irish sky. The insane beauty of the coast combined with the intense adrenaline rush of walking along a 700 foot drop is unlike any other feeling I have ever experienced. Definitely worth the €40 we spent to get there.
I think we both felt on the way back to Dublin like something magical had happened by the cliffs. The lyrical and pastoral beauty was part of the magic. But something else happened too, maybe because so much of our Village time in Europe was already time we’d lived by then. Because as we drove away, I wondered those things you do wonder when you’ve felt something you can’t pin down but have still felt powerfully. Who would I be when I came back here some day? And then in a fleeting way I thought about some of what I’d learned in History about this country. How was for those millions who’d loved this gorgeous land as the place of their birth when they’d set off to sail away from it, many to the USA, knowing that they’d never come “home” again?
