MerakiMoon

One of the big days for travel was today with my family. We had planned an eight-hour tour of the Wicklow Mountains, which I was not mentally prepared to be in a bus again for that long, but woo! We met our tour guide at 9-ish by the Molly Malone statue, which I hadn't seen or at least noticed until we actually got there, and it just breaks my heart every time I see her because of the wear on her statue, on very specific parts. After that, and briefly talking to my dad about the statue and more of its history, we set off with the remainder of the group to the bus to start the tour. We started out going about an hour out of Dublin to Glendalough, where we did a short tour of the seven churches area. It was really cool to see some of the older architecture again, more towers and older buildings from another lifetime ago, which is a crazy thing to think about. We talked about Vikings and their influence on the area and the architecture as well, and then we stopped in front of a rock t...

The last portion of the tour that my family and I went on deserved it's own post.  We signed up to go horseback riding at a small farm up in a hillier area, and it's safe to say that everyone was excited to go. My sister and I used to ride when we were younger, and we used to compete in small equestrian shows in the summers. As life goes everyone got busy and we weren't able to continue, but that didn't stop either of us from looking forward to this portion of the tour. My poor dad though, he might be a little spooked by horses since he had a bit of an experience when my mom used to ride and they went on a trail ride together and my dad's horse decided that it wanted to take a quick run to the other side of the trail. It was a bit chilly in the area since it had been raining all day, but for the moment it seemed that we might get off the hook and have a dry ride. They brought the horses in and they were so gorgeous, the one that I got was named chocolate, and she ha...

Today, I had a couple of things on the roster. A lot of it was on a bus, which was not great for my motion sickness, but it ended up being okay. Early in the morning, before we got to the waterfall and the estate, I had to register for classes, and I got most of the ones that I wanted, which was great. Then, after a little while, we ended up getting to the waterfall, and it was gorgeous, the surrounding area was so green it was crazy to me I had never seen anything like it in the States. Getting up to the waterfall, it was much bigger than I thought it was going to be, and there was a little platform where you could get cute pictures. Some people went up the stairs, which was, I think, an hour-long hike, whereas the part we were on was only a five to ten-minute hike back to the bus, and it was very enjoyable. The poem I thought of for this trip was the one that Margaret read, I n Gallarus Oratory by Seamus Heaney, it made me excited to visit the oratory and it was nice to hear the poem...

Today was the bus tour of the Ring of Kerry and Dingle. Dingle, out of everywhere else, was honestly one of my favorite places on this trip so far, the environment around it was so gorgeous I was absolutely obsessed. The town was very homey and colorful, and it just felt so nice being so close to the water, too. If you can't tell, I'm a sucker for seaside towns. We took the bus around the peninsula for a couple hours and stopped along the coast every so often to take pictures and do some sightseeing. My favorite spot was Dunmore Head Hill and the beach below it. We walked up the hill before going to the beach, I ended up trucking along and going up ahead of the group just because I wanted a little bit of alone time to enjoy the nature around me. It made me very happy to do that, though, because I felt like I was a lot calmer and at peace than I had been for a while. When I got to the top, the surrounding landscape was absolutely gorgeous. While I was walking and looking around,...

Today, we drove about an hour away from Dungarvan to the small seaside town of Ardmore to meet a tour guide. Although most of the visit was spent walking around and trying to take all of the information that the guide was telling us, I was able to really appreciate my surroundings, and I was very happy to be near the sea. We walked up to Declan's well, and the guide had us do an exercise that had us put down our phones, close our eyes, and listen to the nature around us. I really liked doing this, and I was happy when he told us to go explore and sit for ten minutes and take in everything around us. After that, we did a couple more things to finish up the tour, and then we headed to the beach for bathrooms and then back towards the bus stop to get ice cream or milkshake things. They were super good, and I would so go back to get more. I felt incredibly connected to the earth during this trip because I was forced to take a while off my phone and appreciate the life that I have in fr...

I went for another walk today, just before sunset, while the sun was still out. It was pretty cold but I bundled up so that I could be comfortable while I was going because I've been tending to make these walks longer the more I go on them, just because I really enjoy the time I take with myself. I was extra paying attention to my surroundings, and towards the end of my walk, the sky was turning darker blues and purples, and the air felt cool but not too cold with all of my layers. Before the sun set I followed the sidewalk past the horse and I kept walking to a willow tree that me and Trip found a while back, it is so gorgeous and it has the cutest little bench under it. Walking back I heard a few birds were singing, and I stopped to listen by the water. There were cars now and then, but mostly it was quiet. I didn’t have a plan for it, I just wanted to move and breathe and not think too hard even though I was still thinking about life. Getting back to the water in front of the h...

Surprise, surprise, I went on another walk during golden hour. These have become my favorite things to pass the time, and I look forward to doing them almost every day. yesterday, the moon was out earlier, and you could see her almost all day, so it was nice to be able to see the moon rise and the sun set during my walk. During these walks, I like to try and plan. So yesterday was planning the Fall semester and all of the things I'm gonna have to run around and do to keep busy. I was able to get a pretty good headway on what my plans were going to be like, so the rest of my walk was just enjoying the weather and the sky. I ended up stopping at one point to sit and look out to the water, which wasn't really there cause the tide was so low, which was surprising because the last time I wrote, the water was super high. But it was still pretty to look out for, there was a lot to look at, and it was different from what I usually look out for. I watched birds walking out and picking u...

On our trip to the west, one of the last stops was Blarney Castle, which houses the Blarney Stone! Dr. Reed had told us about his trip and his experience kissing the stone, which did freak me out a little thinking about hanging upside down to do it, but I ended up braving it and getting the gift of gab, although I don't think it's quite kicked in fully. The grounds around Blarney Castle were so pretty, it was definitely one of the prettier estates that we had been to, I really enjoyed how much of it felt like a hike and how green and floral the grounds were. And the tree in the front of the estate was my favorite part it was so gorgeous, and the flowers smelled so lovely. I could've spent the whole day walking around the area, but we ran out of time and had to head over to the Jameson Distillery for a tour. I honestly can't tell which distillery I liked more, this one or Guinness, because I liked them both for different reasons. But this one was really cool, and it felt...

Thursday Our trip to London started on Thursday after class. We went back to make sure we had everything and left for the bus to take us to Cork for the airport. The bus ride was fun, we talked about how we were excited and then relaxed for the rest of the time we were on. Getting to the airport, we were very, very early, which is better than being late, but we sat at a little cafe outside of the check-in and hung out and talked for the hour that we needed to wait. Going through the rest of the airport was insanely easy, I think we went through it in maybe ten minutes. So we sat at another cafe to wait for the gate to open and then got to get on the plane by the tarmac!! Which I've never done before, and I felt like a celebrity. Although the flight made me think that I was going to die because of the turbulence, I was bouncing, and the whole plane was shaking, and I got so motion sick it was crazy. Kinda fun now that I look back, but jeez. The rest of the trip was travel to the Air...

Yesterday, I decided that my workout at the gym wasn't enough, so around 7, I decided to go for a walk. The second I left the townhouse, I knew it was a good choice because the sunset was absolutely gorgeous.  I walked out of my townhouse, and the sky was a very pretty orange and yellow, and the clouds were wispy. I wanted to walk around the corner towards the horse to see if I could get a better view, but it ended up changing. I walked to the corner and turned around to see the water was blue, purple, and pink, with the colors reflecting from the sky, and since the tide had rolled in so high, the clouds looked like they were so close to the water. I ran into Margaret on my way back toward the park, and we chatted for a minute about how gorgeous the night was. I kept walking around and thought of walking across the bridge to the abbey side so I could see the sunset better. So I walked up past the roundabout and turned around to see the sky in bright oranges and reds and all of thes...

Today, we took a trip to the cliffs for a couple hours. They were absolutely gorgeous and so much better than I had ever heard someone describe. We walked around the path to the right for a little bit and went up to the tower to get some more pictures. I went to the top with a couple of people, and it was really cool to see the cliffs from a different and higher perspective. We walked around for a little while and ended up going to the shops inside the building and the little ones on the outside. Grace and I got these cute little puffin stuffed animals. Hers is named Fin, and mine's name is Puffie. I had him sit in my scarf for the rest of the walk around that we did. We did the 4D experience since we had time before the bus left, which was really cool to see a completely different perspective of the cliffs from a seagull's view, it took us around and down by the water, then under the water and changed to a fish's perspective, then back to the seagull's where it took us...

One night, I decided that I was going to go on a short walk by the park to look at the stars and the moon. This is one of my favorite ways to destress at school since there's a good spot to stargaze and moon-watch on campus. I figured I would try my best to do it while I was here since I've been missing home a lot recently, and the scenery around us is too beautiful to not take advantage of. On my walk, I listened to some instrumental pieces, some that I played in high school when I still played the violin, and some from my favorite movies and animation studios. It was incredibly relaxing, and I spent some time standing by the wall to watch the water. I ended up running into our cat friend, that I named Sox, the group has adopted the name for when we see it, too. Very, very sweet cat, it always chirps when it sees me and runs up to get pets, which makes me miss my sweet boy at home. Calcifer has been quite chaotic, I've heard from my parents. For this one, I pulled a couple...