In High Places

(Ireland part 2)

Don't be too distracted by the AWESOME first picture on this post. It's one of my favorites and from one of my favorite days. I'll tell you all about it . . . Later. (I don't mean to tease, I just couldn't figure out how to move it to the correct place. It wouldn't move for some reason!)

You don't have to look close at the above picture to see my white knuckles bulging from my hand. It's because I was rocked to the core while on a boat tour of the Cliffs of Moher. Normally I am all for feeling that whirl in your stomach. You know, the one you get when you go on a roller coaster. I'm just not for it when it seems never ending.

I would have taken a picture of the waves crashing up on the boat and completely soaking the people on the lower deck, but I could hardly stand up without being thrown over board. I think I probably would have enjoyed the Cliffs so much more had I not been sicker than sick. Note to self, an hour tour on water like that . . . NOT A GOOD IDEA!

Once we got off the boat and felt like we could move again we drove up to check out the Cliffs by foot. As we came closer to the cliffs edge, we were greeted with all kinds of funny signs. This one was my favorite! Apparently the winds are so strong up there that people have been pushed right off.

I was a little skeptical of that to be really honest. I mean wind blowing you right off the edge of a cliff? It's hard to imagine . . . until you reach an area that is open on all sides and the wind practically picks you right up!

After a long day of exploring the beautiful Cliffs and the little surrounding towns, I was relieved to head back to a GREAT bed and breakfast. Seriously, B&B's are the way to go. This is me, tired but oh so happy to be in a CLEAN, COMFORTABLE bed.

Every morning we were greeted by the lovely Bridget (not pictured). She would feed us unbelievable amounts of food, make sure we knew exactly where we were going and wish us well as we went on our way.

Really, it was just like staying with your grandmother. I loved every minute of it.

The next day we bravely jumped on another boat and trekked across to the Aran Islands. Again, not the most pleasant boat ride of my life. People actually screamed this time when the boat would come crashing down but at least we were covered and not hanging out on the open deck.

Mary and I jumped into a little tour van with the cutest old man ever and he showed us the entire island. The roads were so narrow that we would have to pull over occasionally so that people could get around us. Every time we pulled over I couldn't help but get a huge grin on my face. He knew everyone and would take off his hat and smile and wave as they passed by. It was adorable!

One of our stops was at this old fort. It was believed to have been built back in 200 BC. It took about 20 minutes to hike up to the top and let me tell you . . . it was a hike (see picture below). Mary and I were a little skeptical and didn't really know what we were even going up there to see. We were delighted by the little leprechaun house (that's what we decided it was) that we found on our way though. (above)

Once we reached the top, I can honestly say that my breath was taken away. No . . . literally! The wind was blowing so hard up there that I was shocked not to see those silly "careful or you'll get blown off the edge" signs. The fort was great, a big circle of rocks. I probably should have been more interested, but I was mesmerized by the cliffs that lay in front of me.

I was in heaven! It was absolutely beautiful up there and so peaceful. I will admit, I was a little nervous at first, seeing how there wasn't a barrier or anything from keeping people a safe distance from the edge. But the longer we were up there, the braver I became.

I asked the guard (one guy dressed in jeans and a T-shirt) if anyone had ever died. He assured me that no one had accidentally died, however 4 people had died by choice. He then laughed and said that people are pretty smart and proceeded to the edge in much the same fashion as me. That would be army crawling . . . yes, it's true.

I could have stayed up there all day!

(Sadly that is all I can show you for now. My camera died on the trip, so I shared a camera with my friend and I'm now waiting to get the pictures from her.)

!!! Su Pah Fast !!!

(A brief interruption from the Ireland adventure)

Last Sunday I raced with the Stat Dragons from South Cove Medical Centers in my first ever Dragon Boat race.

(Can you find me? Look really hard!)

We arrived at 7:30 a.m., received our uniforms and had to get changed for our first race. Not wanting to change in the nearby port-a-potty we used what we had and made our own fitting rooms.

Teams come in to Boston from all over the place and get pretty serious about it. I snapped a picture of this team, practicing on the lawn. WHAT!

You are crazy if you think that worried us though. While they were practicing . . . we were sleeping. 7:30 am is too early for us Stat Dragons.

Here we are, all ready to go for our first big race. I'm sitting on the right side of the boat, fourth row back . . . just in case you needed a little help spotting me. :)

We raced a total of 4 times, so between races we killed time by napping, playing cards and my favorite, forming back massage lines.

The Charles river was lined with all kinds of great food and fun things to do. A stage was set up in the middle of everything where different performances went on. We had a great time exploring and even found a tent giving away free tattoos.

We did really well all day as far as the race goes. We made it into the finals for our division and really kicked some trash. Going into our last race, we were pretty sure we didn't stand a chance. Our best race time for the day was 2 minutes 52 seconds while the teams we were up against had times of about 2 minutes 45 seconds. However, when it came time to race, we gave it our all and blew the competition out of the water, beating them by 4 seconds.

Below is a video someone took of that last race. We are the boat on the far left. I'm sitting in the back on the right side of the boat. You can actually see me for a second at the very end of the video.




If you are wondering why we don't look excited at the end, it's because we didn't know we won. We were so focused on rowing that we didn't realize we won until we were out of the boats and on dry ground.

I had such a blast and can't wait to do it again next year!

The Beginning of an Adventure

We arrived in Dublin at 7:00 am on Saturday. I honestly had never been so tired in all my life. Staying awake on the red eye flight proved to be a not good idea, I literally fell asleep while walking around the city. How does that even happen? Needless to say we were not able to enjoy Dublin quite as much as we had hoped.

Despite our lack of sleep, crabby moods and hungry stomachs we did see a few really cool things. there were a lot of brightly decorated bars, including this one (above).

We visited a nearby park where we frolicked and saw some great statues including this one (below).

I even tried my hand at balancing on this tiny fence. (I'm sure that fence was there to keep us off the lawn and just look at where I threw my bag. I kill myself sometimes!)

Trinity College was absolutely stunning. The buildings were so beautiful and there were cobble stone walk ways everywhere.

After spending a good day in Dublin, we ventured off to Kilkenny for our first sleep over. Kilkenny was a cute little town, but again, we were too tired to really enjoy it.

We stayed in a hostel the first night just out side of Kilkenny . . . in a castle.

It was pretty cool on the outside and even had this great hobbit like front door. I'll admit I was pretty excited. I mean how many people can say that they've slept in a castle?

My excitement turned to almost tears as soon as we entered and I took one look at where we would be sleeping.

It was a dirty room with 14 beds in it. There were HUGE spiders crawling on the walls and the bedding was not even close to being clean.

It was NOT what I had in mind for my first night in a castle, in Ireland. Luckily I had a blanket to cover my pillow with and long pants, long socks and a hooded sweatshirt to cover the rest of my body with. It was not a good nights sleep, but I survived.

The next morning we took in The Rock of Cashel. It was a castle that was turned into a church and dates back to the 12th century. We took a free guided tour where the girl explained all kind of crazy things that they use to believe. My favorite was that if you could fit your arms all the way around the remains of this cross, you would never have another toothache.

Of course I had to give it a try. I was so excited when my monkey arms came through for me and I was the only one who could do it. Hurray, no more toothaches for me!

This is the abbey that you could see from the Rock of Cashel.

I thought I would leave you with one of my favorite pictures from the trip. It's in the grave yard of the Rock of Cashel. Stay tuned for more from Ireland!

Just a little preview . . . for now

So I am back from Ireland and I just gotta say, it was AMAZING! We basically went on one big road trip across the country.

I have so many awesome pictures to share but haven't gotten all of them back from the girls who went with me. So for now, please be patient. I'll get them up as soon as I can.

Until then, enjoy a preview of the pictures I took (above) and my great hair cut story (below). Yep, that's right, I cut my hair . . . in Ireland!

Let me introduce you to Trevor, also known as the Silver Fox. Seriously!

Trevor was the funniest Irish man ever. He was all about the "art" of cutting hair and went on and on about all the shows he had done. He told me that he weaved girls hair on top of their heads to look like hats and got so excited telling me, that he grabbed portions of my hair to pile on my head so I could get a better idea. (I did get a referral for him and was told he was the best in Galway in case you were wondering)

He really liked to talk and even felt the need to be my counselor at one point. He was interested in what cutting my hair in Ireland meant about me and was convinced that there were big changes going on in my life. When I told him there were not, he assured me that there were and I just didn't realize them yet. It cracked me up how serious he was about it.

We talked about everything from Manchester United to E. I. (emotional intelligence) to religion. Through the course of talking the Silver Fox decided that the most important thing for me to do was to stay in Galway in order to find myself. How cool would that be!

Any way, after 2 hours of talking, counseling, and hair cutting, I walked out looking like . . .

. . . This! I'm still not so sure about the baby bangs, and it's a little Asian for me but the experience was SO worth it. It was quite possibly the funniest 2 hours of my life!