This was all nearly a month ago now….but I’m finally sitting
down to write about our last week in N. Ireland. I had written about the first
two days in the plane coming back, but I lost my tablet that had that on it. So
that’s part of what’s been holding me back – I hate writing things a second
time. :P
If you want to see pictures from our time in Ireland, almost
500 of my 1,300 pictures are posted on Facebook! Mostly with detailed captions J
Day 21 - Tuesday, June 18
Tuesday was our big sightseeing day. We started off by visiting
Carrick-a-Rede, a rope bridge that used to be used by fishermen to get from the
mainland to an island. The bridge has planking that is less than two feet wide,
with a rope mesh extending maybe another foot or so to either side. The sides
of the bridge are intersecting ropes that come up about four feet to the rope
handrails. The bridge is over a chasm which is almost 100 feet deep and 65 feet
wide. So crossing it was a bit of a stretch for height-sensitive me. But it was
totally worth it!
We hung out for quite a while on the island reached by
crossing the bridge. Tons of gulls and
guillemots were flying around the cliffs of the island, probably trying to get situated
for nesting season. Their calls were so loud that I was looking around for a
big group of seals! I actually lay down on the grassy top of the island and
just watched the birds for a while, so that was fun. Most of us ate our sack
lunches as a picnic on the island as well.
Next, we stopped at a coastal town (don’t remember which one…)
to do some shopping. Several of us went to a used book store and found some
neat old hymnals. I also got an old copy of C.S.Lewis’ book “That Hideous
Strength” and a devotional on 1 Corinthians 13 that looked interesting. Just
started reading the latter this morning and am SO glad I got it! I also liked
walking around looking at the architecture of the town. At a bakery, I tried a “fifteen
tray bake” and liked it! They’re evidently a traditional Irish treat, kind of similar
to what many people call magic cookie bars in the States, but with marshmallows
and cherries instead of chocolate and nuts.
Later in the afternoon we went to Giant’s Causeway. It’s
this amazing geographical formation on the coast, probably formed by volcanic
activity as Ireland separated from Scotland. Basically, it is a VAST structure
of thousands of usually hexagonal columns of varying height that fit together
like a giant puzzle. You’ll have to look at my pictures or Google it to see
what I mean because it’s hard to explain. Anyway, the structure runs from the
base of a mountain out into the ocean as a peninsula – and it’s great fun to
scramble around on and explore!
After we looked around there for a while, we hiked up the
shepherd’s trail to the top of the mountain overlooking the causeway. Part of
the trail used switchbacks, but the last part was a steep 162 stairs! We were
glad to reach the top. Once we had enjoyed the view, we followed the trail
along the ridge back to the visitor center. Everything was so green and pretty,
and out on the Giant’s Causeway I loved watching the waves crash onto the
pillars of stone J
That evening we were on our own for dinner in one of the coastal
towns, so a couple of the other girls and I ended up at a hamburger place
actually. The inside was decorated in a ‘50s American style, with a poster cut
out of Elvis and such. We were fairly amused J
We had the best sweet potato fries I had ever tasted though!
After dinner, we reunited with a couple of the other team members
and waited at the meeting place for the rest of the team, including the
drivers. They were late and it was chilly…so we ended up crowding seven of us
onto one park bench. Folks driving by us were staring and waving…and we ended
up watching and laughing at some pigeons that looked like they were wrestling
up on a balcony ledge. Once we got back to our youth hostel, one of the gals
and I took a walk on the beach watching the sunset. It was a good chance to
talk J
Day 22 - Wednesday, June 19
That morning I hustled down the beach for about 30 minutes
so I could get back to the place where we had been Monday evening. I climbed up
onto one of the island-ish rocks and just enjoyed sitting there with the wind
blowing around me and the birds circling and calling. And the sound of the
waves crashing. It was wonderful – good time for reflection too.
After breakfast, we got all of our stuff packed and loaded
up. We still did some sightseeing around the area before heading out though.
First stop was Dunluce Castle, now an old ruins that may date back to the 1300s
and was occupied until one day in 1639 the kitchen fell into the sea! According
to Ireland’s National Trust website, these ruins may have served as C.S. Lewis’
inspiration for Cair Paravel! We had fun
going a little ways into a cave/tunnel right under the cliffs the castle ruins
are on. We didn’t go into the castle itself, because we would have had to pay.
But we had fun climbing on the rocks around it!
Our next stop was at the small town of Ballintoy. Looked
into a pretty church there, then went down, down the hillside to the coast where
we scrambled around on more rocky outcroppings. Then back to the van for sack
lunches and time to bid farewell to the beautiful Irish North Coast. After
driving a couple hours, we stopped at Glenariff Forest Park to go hiking, but
sadly the main attraction—a hike to a beautiful waterfall—was closed because of
winter storm damage. We still hiked around though.
We had planned to go to a lighthouse near Belfast, but
traffic delayed us too much. So we ended up eating at a tiny restaurant in
Belfast that had an interesting mixed menu of pizza/Italian and Chinese/Asian
food. It was delicious though! And then it was back to the home sweet home of
our cottages…at least for a couple more days.
Day 23 - Thursday, June 20
The next day we literally had nothing planned. I’m pretty sure
that’s the only day that happened on the whole trip! It was wonderful. We just
hung out, played games, relaxed, etc.
That evening after dinner I went out to the observation deck
on my own. I had a lot to think about. The trip was fast coming to an end, and
with it my time at JBU was truly concluding. I’d known for a long time that I
would cry about graduating and having to say goodbye to that place and
everything it had meant to me for four years at some point. I expected it to
happen in May, but it didn’t. It happened that night in Ireland instead. God
was really gracious through that, reminding me of some important things. Later,
one of the gals and I took a walk up Joe’s mountain and just talked about stuff
– so that was good and helped me process things some more.
Day 24 - Friday, June 21
Spent a good part of the day in Belfast. A couple of us went
to the Titanic museum together. The ship was built in Belfast, and the museum
is located near the area where the gigantic ship was created and first put off
into the ocean. It has an interestingly broad range of topics, clear from the
early industrial history of Belfast all the way through the science of deep sea
exploration. So it has relatively little on the crash of the Titanic, and more
on the ship’s complete story from beginning to end. Quite interesting!
Once we got back into the Belfast city center, we grabbed
some lunch and ate on the lawn of the city hall. Then we went together to go
shopping at Primark, Ireland’s version of a department store similar to Macy’s.
I wasn’t in a shopping mood though, and felt very out of place in the crowded
store. So I meandered my way back to a coffee shop. Watched some street
performers on the way, and just spent some time writing the previous Ireland
Update and a few post cards.
When it came time to meet up with the rest of the team to
ride the city bus back to Lakeside Manor, where we had parked our van, I was in
full-fledged shut down mode. I’m still not sure completely why. In a way I
guess it was culture shock. I just felt very very out of my element. After
being in small towns for three weeks and almost exclusively with our small
team, to suddenly be in the big city surrounded by hundreds of people really
put me on edge for some reason. It’s not like I don’t know how to function in
cities….spent my whole life until college in Dallas, and lived in D.C. for two
months last summer without ever having that feeling. But that’s what happened.
I just had to crawl in my shell for a while. Once we had ridden the bus out of the
city center into the more residential area, I started doing fine again. It was
pretty odd.
Day 25 - Saturday, June 22
Another very chill day – lots of playing table games and
such. That evening, the owners of the cottages where we stayed hosted a BBQ for
a ton of their friends. They invited our team too, so we went over for a while.
Got to talk to an Irish gal and hear about what God is doing in her life – it was
really good! It rained some during the evening, and we saw a *gorgeous* double
rainbow that went all the way across. It was so very pretty!
Later, all of the main people we had worked with in
Killyleagh – Wally, Heather, Samantha, Sam and Craig – came over for one last
time. We just had a great time hanging out, including a dance party for most
people. But then we had to say goodbye to our Killyleagh teammates L
Day 26 - Sunday, June 23
Went back into Belfast for a day of seeing C.S. Lewis
related sites. We started by attending a service at St. Mark’s Church, which
has a number of Lewis connections:
- ·
Jack’s grandfather was the pastor of the church
during Jack’s childhood
- ·
Jack’s parents were married in the church
- ·
The baptismal font where Warren and Jack were
both baptized as babies is in the back
- ·
The pulpit is the same one which Jack would have
watched his grandfather preach in
- ·
On the door of the parsonage is a doorknob with
a lion’s head
- ·
One of the stained glass windows was given to
the church by Warren and Jack later in life in memory of their parents
It was SUCH a beautiful church – just loved it! After the
service, a guy who goes there gave us the C.S. Lewis tour of the church, during
which he explained all of the above. He also pointed out various things about
the symbolism of the church. I enjoyed it all J
We also stopped by the house where Jack and Warren lived as
children – Little Lea. We couldn’t go in, because it is now privately owned…but
it was still neat to see. Our last Lewis stop was at the statue of The
Searcher, commissioned in honor of the 100th anniversary of Lewis’
birth. It shows a man looking into a wardrobe, and on the back of the wardrobe
there is a copy of a letter Lewis wrote to a young lady asking about the
Christian symbolism in the Chronicles of Narnia.
After that, we went to St. George’s Market in Belfast, which
is basically a large building with a whole collection of vendor booths –
everything from food to vintage stuff to handmade items. It was fun wandering
around it J
That evening was our last one together as a whole team. So
the leaders took the time to get each of us a coke bottle with a Gaelic name on
it and make up a definition for the names that had something to do with what
each one of us had contributed to the team. It was a time of lots of laughter,
but also of encouragement. Sam came back for one last time, and a few of us
ended up staying up until 4 a.m. because going to bed meant saying goodbye to
Sam. We watched the sky turn light, since the sun comes up super early there.
Day 27 - Monday, June 24
The next day we spent the morning cleaning the cottages and
packing up all of the JBU equipment that gets stored at Lakeside Manor during
the year. It went by super fast, so that was nice. I also got my own stuff
packed up. Before lunch we took one last hike up Joe’s Mountain to bid it
farewell.
After lunch we went to Castleward, the former manor home of
a rich family. They turned it over to the National Trust fund when they were
too in debt to pay their taxes, or something like that. Now it’s basically a
museum. It has lots of interesting architecture and artifacts. After getting a
really great tour of the house, we walked around on the property for a while,
and found some really fat pigs in the farm near the lough.
That evening we went back to Strangford for a final team
dinner at a nice restaurant, the Cuan. After we finished, we went to Asda to
buy any foodstuff we wanted to take home. Then it was time for our team to say
goodbye to three of our members, who had to go to Belfast because they were on
different flights out of Ireland.
Day 28 - Tuesday, June 25
We got up early that morning to finish up last minute things
at the cottages and depart for Belfast. It was a long day of traveling. We flew
from Belfast to Newark to Houston to XNA, the regional airport in northwest
Arkansas. In Newark things got really stressful and crazy. Long story short,
our layover was too short for everything we had to do, and half of our team
didn’t make it onto the flight to Houston. I did, but in the process I accidentally
left my backpack behind, and it’s still lost. We were worried that the other
half of the team wasn’t going to make it to Houston in time to catch the flight
to XNA – but amazingly they made it just in time. We were all so relieved when
we saw them get on our little three-seat-across plane to go up to XNA. Then
once we landed in XNA it was really time to say goodbye.
The End.
My parents had come up to Siloam Springs to pick me up. We
stayed in our tent that night at the Arkansas welcome center, though I didn’t
sleep very well. Lots on my mind, plus jetlag. The next day the three of us
spent the day at Natural Falls State Park. That was fun. I got to show them a
few of the places where I enjoyed spending time during my day-long excursions
out there on my own. Then we drove back down to Dallas, back home. But as much
as that will always be home, I have a lot of places now that feel like home.
And I miss the places and the people that make each so special. But that’s what
life is….moving on, saying goodbye, but holding tight to the memories and the
lessons.
Speaking of lessons….if you want to read about what I learned
over in Ireland, in a spiritual/reflective sense, check it out
here.
Thank you to each and every person who partnered with me in this trip through
prayer and through financial giving! I couldn’t have done it without you.
