My Final Solo Adventure

Date: Wednesday, 19 November

Location: Charleoi Airport

Destination: Dublin, Ireland!

Well, to put it lightly, I went out with a bang! My adventure to Dublin was quite unlike any of my other trips for so many reasons! Hang on!

I took a bus from the Brussels train station to the airport about an hour away, a small but clean building that Ryanair flies out of. Ryanair is a college students best friend - my round trip ticket cost me only 30 Euros, or maybe...$37. Not too shabby, huh?

Anyway, this is the point where my trip got interesting, but you all need some background. As a student staying here for more than three months, I needed to obtain a student visa, which doesn't expire until 1 January. As I am leaving well before my visa expires, my resident director advised me to not register at my commune and obtain a resident card, saying it would be a waste of my time and money and that as my visa is a multiple entry visa, I would be just fine to go back and forth out of the Schengen states (Belgium, etc.). This sounded like a good deal, and so I followed her advice.

That whole saying " be careful what you wish for " also comes into play here. See, I had recently been complaining (to myself, at least) about being ready to go back home. Well...read on.

I was going through border control, and I don't know if the guy was just grumpy or what, but he informed me in a very gruff way that I might be having problems on my way back into Belgium. This left me in an...unhappy state, letting my imagination run wild with thoughts of being exported back to the States without having been able to finish my exams, which would result in me failing my classes here and losing my scholarships. At the end of the night, I was living in a van down by the river a failure and disappointment to all.

I think I'm a bit of a worrier.

Anyway, the plane ride was uneventful. What was neat was that it was cloudy as we were flying over Belgium and the cities lit them from below, making a patchwork quilt of lights and clouds. Quite beautiful!

Arrived to my hostel - the Abraham house. In case you've been wondering what a hostel looks like from the inside, behold! A ten bed female dorm.

Actually, where the pile of stuff is on the floor is where I made a weepy phone call home - thanks for talking to me, mom, it helped! I had some good prayer time - funny how being in a bit of a pit helps open those communication lines to God, right? And then I went to bed.

Morning came as usual, and I enjoyed a complimentary meal. Ireland believes in peanut butter. I share this belief, but Belgium does not. Ireland also believes in toast. It was an exciting breakfast.

I spent the rest of the day inside Dublin. My first stop was the Trinity College library, where the Book of Kells is located. This book is a 1200 year old manuscript of the four gospels and some change. Neat to see - I guess it's made on vellum, meaning that 100+ calfs had to die for this book. Not too bad.

The best part of the library, though, was the library itself. It had over 200,000 volumes of their oldest volumes, was composed of two floors with ladders and marble busts of folks like Aristotle and Plato and Milton and Locke. I felt like Belle from Beauty and the Beast walking into that room - the smell of old books saturated the air. The only way that moment could have been better would have been if I could actually have selected a volume and read it.

After this, I continued walking down the main stretch and came across the castle. Since I was there, and since it was there, I figured I needed to go and tour it. Sooo cool! We first toured the apartments of the castle, which were not as elaborate as others I've seen, but were of course none too shabby.

Funny story for this table - it was made for Queen Victoria by prisoners. Their hope was that she would like it enough to let them out early. Unfortunately, they carved demonic figures into the wood...not a good move. As it turns out, she didn't like it, left the table in Ireland and the prisoners in prison.

And here's the ballroom where the presidential inaugurations are held every seven years (at least I think it's seven...). I was surprised to learn how young the country of Ireland is - things only started really shaking there after World War I! It's weird that a country with such an old heritage and rich history should be so young politically.

So after seeing the pretty part of the castle, we went down into the bowels.
Check out the underground river that once formed the moat around the place!
And, also - remnants of a viking wall! (The pile of rubble on the right of the picture - the guide said that the vikings weren't good with building walls as their mortar was made out of things like horse hair and eggs.)

I wandered around the city for a while, then headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral. The history of Saint Patrick is pretty cool - he was taken as a slave to Ireland, I think, and after he was freed felt he needed to go back.

I didn't know this until I got there, but Jonathan Swift served as a dean at St. Patrick's, and his remains are in the walls (a practice I still find...creepy). I actually want to read some more Irish literature when I get back to a place with an English library - starting with A Portrait of Dorian Grey, just for kicks.
That evening, I wandered through the shopping area, laughing at how much money people are willing to spend on jewelry and clothing. Too much. Way too much. I did find a book store, though, and contented myself with looking over some "coffee table books", including a marvelous collection of Ansel Adams photography! He was a pretty neat guy, took some incredible shots of the American West, and worked to preserve the natural beauty of places like Yosemite. Maybe some day I'll pick up one of his books.

Anyway, after my browsing, I went out for dinner to a place that performs live, traditional Irish music every night along with a step dancing show. It was pretty neat, although a three course meal by ones self is kind of lonely. While the dancing was neat and I'm glad I got to see it, I loved the music! The guy on the flutes and bodhran (the Irish drum) was more than a mere player of music, he was a musician, and it was cool to see.


Friday I decided to hop on a bus and get out to see the coast. I really didn't have much more than a rough idea of where I was going, I just knew that I needed to follow the coast line north until I got to the town of Howth where I could get a bus back to Dublin. I discovered a trail that went right along the edges of the cliffs and was even able to get down to the water at one point. For this part, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.








In a word: beautiful. I found myself talking to Ireland while I was out there, saying things like "you're so beautiful!" and "Oh, Ireland!", which in retrospect is a little peculiar, but oh well. Less strange was me commending God for His handywork - He did a pretty good job in designing the coastline, I think.


And so I'm now safe and sound back in Brussels (border control was no problem at all - no living in a van down by the river for me just yet), happily reflecting on the last of my solo adventures.

There are a few local things to report on, but that will have to wait for another day!
Love from Belgium!
Gracie