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Who knew celebrating Earth Day would be so much fun? Who even knew it was Earth Day weekend? Either way, it being spent in Derry, Ireland was fantastic! It was awesome to catch up with a friend, see a familiar face, and learn all about more of England's history. It's crazy how everything is related is some sort of way.
I set off at 12:30am Friday morning on the bus and landed by plane in Derry at 8:00am - it was a long night or morning rather. I arrived to the Stansted airport two hours before I could do anything with my life, so I people watched - my specialty. It amazes me at the number of people who go in public looking like what they do, or the number of "families" that treat each other so horribly. Either way, I watched it all unfold at about 4am. I finally arrived to Kourtney's at about 8:30 in the morning. The taxi driver couldn't believe I was still functioning after a night full of traveling, and once Kourt opened the door, he couldn't believe she was able to do so. :)
Kourtney is my friend my Manchester who is studying this semester in Derry, Ireland. We first met when we were both juniors in high school at Hoosier Girl's State where we were floor mates, then we both end up at MC on the same floor, and now abroad for the semester.
When I first got there, we hung out a bit just chatting it up and figuring out what we were going to do with our weekend. The weather was raining on and off, and everything we wanted to do was outside. We finally got ready and set off a bit after lunch time. She showed me all around Derry and informed me of the history - how incredible. It's official name is Londonderry, but most refer to it as Derry. There is much controversy between the political and religious aspects as well as Ireland v. England as to what name they use. The city is split in two and refer to Derry differently. You can tell by walking through the different parts as well by the color of the sidewalks, murals, flags, and various graffiti. Even if you can't experience it first hand, it's interesting to research about.
We walked around the inner and outer city bits seeing the different churches, murals and paintings, the Peace Bridge, and the newly renovated parts due to Derry receiving the Top 2013 City (I don't remember the exact title). The city has beautiful views from different high points, and the giant hills are incredible to look at. Northern Ireland was very pretty and vibrant with natural colors. For dinner, Kourt invited a few of her other American friends over, and we make pasta with chicken, broccoli and white sauce, a salad with homemade dressing, and bread with butter. We attempted to make homemade croutons, but we put them in then forgot to check on them - haha, they turned out like charcoal. The rest of the meal was amazing though. For dessert we enjoyed a chocolate cake from Tesco along with a few ciders. We planned on going out after we partied inside a bit, but we got carried away with drinking, talking, laughing, and watching Jenna Marbles videos that we didn't end up going out til after midnight. We went to a pub, this was an actual Irish pub. It was filled with older men and a few women drinking nothing but Guinness and whiskey's. I had my first Guinness though, and my first encounter with Irish men. They recognized that I wasn't from Ireland but couldn't figure out where I was from. I then chatted a bit with them and they loved the way I spoke. They kept asking me to repeat things, and then once they figured out I was studying in Cheltenham, they basically told me I was s***. haha. It was quite entertaining. They were super sweet old men.
On Saturday, Kourtney and I went to the Giant's Causeway and enjoyed a little hike over the rocks and up the humongous hill, aka a mountain! We packed a picnic lunch and sat on the rocks over looking the water. The sun was shining, and it was a gorgeous day. You'll have to look at my pictures. Words can't describe this day. At the end, we grabbed some ice cream and waited about 80 minutes for the bus to take us back to the train station. Once we got home, we just stayed in and watched a movie with her housemate, who's also American. We just stayed up talking all night and then realized we had to wake up early.
On Sunday, I went on a BCA trip with them. There are only 4 BCA students in Ireland, so their director drove us around in a little car. He took us to places that I didn't even know existed. We went to the county called Donegal which is the northern most part of Ireland. It was beautiful! The landscape went on and on forever. We saw loads of cotton balls, aka sheep, and cattle and random homes and rocks. We visited a few beaches and sea fronts. At one of the beaches, we met a man who lives there and he was with his two dogs and a goat. He was telling us that he had found her in the side of the hill right after birth and he had bottle fed her until she was strong enough to be on her own. She is like his pet. She goes in his house and he treats her like a little dog. He was a super nice man. Along the way, I saw many thatch houses that people still live in! I was amazed. We stopped for a late lunch at a little pub/restaurant/hotel along the water. We enjoyed fish and chips and Guinness. We went to the northern most point of Ireland and it was beautiful. The view out to sea was so blue and it was up so high that if you fell down the cliff it was done-zo for you. That night we had Chinese takeaway, watched Hey Arnold and played a few rounds of cards.
Monday morning, I was up and in the taxi by 6:45am. I had a lovely time in Ireland with Kourtney and her house mate. It was a beautiful place, and one day I will visit again for longer. It felt so good to see a familiar face and share stories that each other knew about. The weekend in Ireland was very chilled, laid back and relaxing - exactly what I needed after two long weeks of traveling. :)
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