Trip to Ireland

Well, another long overdue post but hopefully this one is quite full of information. I make no promises but I'll try to get it all straight, in order, and just hit the highlights. Otherwise this would be far too long. Days are given according to "Stillwater reckoning" and probably do not coincide with Frodo's days.

After a few months of anticipation, the time to take a trip to Ireland to visit E ("Frodo" hereafter I suppose) had come about.

The day before the trip was relatively busy. I had a few things to prepare at home and was swamped with tasks to do at work. My employer was realizing that I wouldn't be there for the next week and a half and wanted a few things done. I got everything done and was in bed by about 10:00.

Day 1:
The alarm went off at 3:00 AM and I was up and getting ready. The N's showed up around 4:00 and we drove the hour-long drive to the airport.

Going through security was interesting and not as strict as I had imagined it to have grown. We had to take off our shoes but there wasn't really a strip-down or anything. My bag was subjected to a careful look through the x-ray machine and I suspected that the Pringles can may have been the cause of concern.

The flight to Newark was pretty smooth. I always enjoy the take-off part. The feeling of sudden acceleration combined with the moment you first gently lift off the ground makes it quite the thrill for me anyway. I was seated next to an older gentleman who sounded Middle Eastern and we didn't talk much.

Once at the airport in Newark, I happened to notice that my sticker for my luggage only said Newark while the other two had luggage which said Belfast. So I checked and it was a good thing! My bag came down the chute and would have been sitting all by itself in the airport. The attendant said it was strange and it should have gone all the way to Belfast.

Anyway, the most exciting part was when Laura and myself got on the bus and took a trip to the Empire State Building. The traffic through New York City was horrendous and I was glad for the experience though I think that if I were to try to drive it myself, I'd have a heart attack! Lanes were disregarded, pedestrians tried to push their way in front of traffic and traffic tried to push their way in front of the pedestrians. Even stoplights seemed useless as the traffic going one way blocked traffic going the other way. At one point it took about 15 minutes to go two blocks distance! Let me walk the rest of the way, please!

But we finally made it. Walking the streets was fun, there were interesting shops everywhere and a hot dog/pretzel stand on just about every corner. I bought one for each Laura and myself on the way back. We made it safely to the building but it took about an hour and half to get to the observation deck on the 86th floor. Elevators took us from the 2nd to the 80th floor in about 45 seconds and we then had to wait around for another space of time until the stairs opened up and we took those the rest of the way.

The view was fabulous. There were rooftops with gardens, one even had a small house on top of a skyscraper that was covered in ivy. The city is amazing and it's incredible that men had the skill to design and build it. It reminded me that God has endowed us with great gifts and we should use it to subdue the earth as He has commanded.

The trip across the ocean was interesting. The plane was very nice and the back of the seat in front of every passenger had its own touch screen with a selection of movies to watch, games like chess, checkers, solitaire, and sudoku to play, and music to listen to as well as relative position on the globe and flight path. I ended up just going to sleep for about four hours amidst the drone of the plane.

Day 2:
We arrived in Belfast fairly early. After going through customs and being asked if we had any plants or foodstuffs and getting our passports checked we were greeted by Frodo! It was so good to see her again and she looked quite well. She took us on the bus to the town central and then we walked to Renwick. I was excited to meet all the friends I'd heard and read about.

We went to the Zoo that afternoon. It had been quite some time since I'd visited one and this one had a beautiful setting. It was on a hillside and all the pens had grass in them rather than the concrete that I had been used to seeing. The favourite site for me was probably the black Spider Monkeys who put on an impressive show for us. The tails grabbing on like a fifth hand looked very useful.

I talked with Frodo for a while that evening and then took a walk to clear my mind before bed.

Day 3:
This was Friday and Philip was arriving so we looked at the botanical gardens briefly and then went to fetch him. It was neat to see brother and sister reunited as they hadn't had much contact the past nine months apparently.

I don't recollect much further from this day aside from Dean visiting and he's quite the interesting fellow. He told us lots of tall tales and the joke of the night was "Did you get that off of Wikipedia?" He apparently edits Wikipedia articles to his own liking, regardless of whether it's the truth or not ;)

I took another walk this evening. Being in a city rather crowds me.

Day 4:
Saturday. We took a trip to the M's dairy farm. We first got on the train and rode it out to where we were picked up by Mr M. I liked him immediately. He was very quiet but very friendly. He drove us out and when we arrived, we were treated to tea and scones (for us Americans it's kind of like biscuits, only better). I put some jam on my scones and he told me I needed some cream so he very nicely helped me to some :) It was delicious. The two boys (twins though they look absolutely nothing like each other) joined us later. I liked Reuben a lot. He reminded me of one of my younger brothers. They had a scattered assortment of guns and swords on the lawn which I thought was the way it should be: one should never have to walk more than a few steps to reach a good weapon.

Reuben showed me the ranch and while the rest were jumping off of the wall onto the trampoline (Mrs M said it would be all right), he and I did some "superman" jumps off the wall. I was kind of sad to leave them, we'd only just met!

But it was on to the Giant's Causeway. Apparently lava cooled and crystalized into these hexagonal pillars about a foot across so you have something of a stairstepped landscape. Some stick out farther than others. It really is an amazing site. It was good to be on the coastline again, I think it had been some time since I'd been to the ocean. Maybe four or five years.

We also saw Dunluce Castle which was built on a cliff and pretty impressive. I really enjoyed seeing the structure and marveling at the ingenuity and skill of those who had built it. The cliffs in this area were really neat because they were rocky and sheer yet there was grass growing all over them as well. It gave it an old and other-worldly feel.

The drive home (the M's lent us their van) was rather exciting, though I'm sure Alan would disagree. Driving on the opposite side along /very/ narrow coastline coastline roads must have been very nerve-wracking. We made it safely however.

I did not go on a walk this evening.

Day 5:
This was Sabbath and another very wonderful day. We visited Shaftsbury Square church in the morning which mostly consisted of small old ladies who welcomed us quite nicely but didn't seem to remember Frodo (who had been going there throughout the last two semesters). Frodo confirmed that they never seemed to remember her and always asked the same questions. We also met a homeless chap named Cliff that Frodo and some of her friends had been able to minister to throughout the year. Oddly enough, the first night I went for a walk I saw him and he asked for money. I was the wrong person to ask for that! I had nothing!

In the afternoon we went for dinner to the W's house and were fed quite royally. The Irish food was a bit more plain than I was used to (more like potatoes, meat, gravy and cauliflower) but it was all quite good and Mrs W kept serving more and more! I didn't want to refuse so I ended up eating quite a lot. We then went on a walk and afterwards sat talking until it was time for the evening service at Trinity.

Pastor D was preaching and I had heard one of his recorded sermons before so I felt somewhat like I knew him. It was a great evening but the best part was a Psalm sing (or "Sam sing" as I found out). I loved being in the room singing praises with the other believers in there. The men's voices were booming and it seemed so easy to follow the baseline with that sort of backing. We got home late that night and went to bed.

Day 6:
This was the day that we took a hike to Cave Hill. It wasn't a long hike and the cave was rather unimpressive (more like a spot that some people dug out of the rock) but the view was great from up at the top. It was a relatively clear day so we were able to see quite a lot. Frodo was very joyful at this sight. It was fun to watch her run from place to place.

We ate lunch down on the lawn and went back to Belfast. Frodo joined me for a short walk that evening and then we all went to bed. This was quite possibly one of my favourite days (though it's hard to choose!) and I'm sorry I don't have much more to say about it.

Day 7:
We took a look at the Botanical gardens and also took a trip to the local Cathedral. It was very impressive but with the organ music playing it was also a bit eerie. It seemed as though everything was shrouded in mystery and in darkness. Like a going back to the shadows of the Old Testament. Humanly speaking it seemed so right, so reverent. I thought about asking one of the attendants if they truly thought God desired to be worshiped in this manner, yet I knew that the answer would probably be "of course! What else could it possibly be?" It seemed right, yet was so uncharacteristic of the light of the gospel and the simple glory and majesty of what God has revealed. Men unnecessarily shroud and confound it. It made me rather sad. Maybe I have some Reformer in me. The building was beautiful though and the stained glass was absolutely spectacular. The colors were incredibly rich and the details even on cloth was amazing. It made me glad that men tried to honour God with their skill and artwork and it must have been a beautiful place to worship, yet there was still that element of darkness that just didn't seem right. It did give me reason to think about it for a while.

Oh! One of the best parts was a stop to a bookstore on the way down town. It was an evangelical bookstore but they had, without a doubt, the best selection of theological books I had ever seen. I could have spent hours looking at all the old used volumes of Brooks, Owen, Hodge, Brown, Watson, etc. Some were quite beautiful volumes too! But all rather expensive unfortunately. We had tea in a little shop (Clements, or something like that) on the way back. I actually had a milkshake, Laura had a smoothie, Alan had hot chocolate and Philip had coffee so I suppose Frodo was the only one who actually had tea. Earl Grey in fact. The stuff that Mrs W would call "absolutely horrid" because it was scented. I had tried and didn't really mind it, though it didn't quite seem like a "manly" tea, if one can consider drinks to be manly anyway.

Frodo and I went on another rather brief walk then I went to bed.

I should also mention that she did a lot of the cooking and was our guide for most of the time and I greatly appreciated all the work she did for us. We must have been quite a burden but she bore it heroically. Thank you so much!

Day 8:
We took a trip to Dublin, about a three hour drive on the bus either way. The first stop was Trinity college and a look at the book of Kells. It was very impressive that the monks who had worked on it could do it all so well without any kind of "technology." It was beautiful and the care that was taken for each page was quite amazing. They clearly had a reverence and respect for the work they were doing. The Book of Kells is a Latin translation of the four gospels.

We went up the stairs and I thought we were exiting but was astonished to find myself in what was called the "Long Hall." It was filled with many thousands of huge, old, leather-bound volumes in racks that stretched up to a high, vaulted ceiling and on the second floor. Now /there/ is a place I would have liked to have stayed in for a while longer! They had a neat display of books and artifacts that I enjoyed looking at too. We also visited a museum which was very interesting too. The artistry of the old Gaelic people was very impressive. Some of the gold filament work was astonishing. Such care was taken in just about everything they had there, from swords to bronze arrowheads to artifact and relic holders. I really enjoyed that museum.

That evening the folks at Renwick were having a "Disney night" and watched Mulan. I don't particularly like Mulan and I was feeling rather claustrophobic that day after Dublin so I excused myself. I needed time to think as well. I thought about asking to leave the house but only three possibilities were presented:
1. Leave and try to get let in later (but I didn't want to disturb the movie)
2. Ask Frodo for a key so I could let myself in. I poked my head in the door but the room was very crowded and she was on the opposite side and I didn't want to disturb the movie that way either.
3. I could climb the back wall and get back in that way but it was raining and the slate roof was rather slippery.

So I just stayed on the back stairway and stared out for a while before finally turning into bed. Frodo, if you read this I hope I didn't seem mopey, I really wasn't. I just couldn't be in a crowded room after being in a crowded city and needed to be out. I'm not a city guy, that much is obvious.

Day 9:
Last day in Ireland. We took a trip to Slemish, a small hill out in the middle of the countryside. It was a fairly steep climb and it was fun to get to the top. There are a lot of sheep in Ireland. Frodo was something of a mountain goat, urging Emmaline to hurry it up. Emmaline's defence was that she had spent the past few weeks revising and getting no exercise.

We also stopped by a forest. For more of a description of that, see Frodo's blog. But it was very beautiful too. Quite different from what I was used to with all of the green undergrowth.

Frodo joined me for another brief walk and then I went to bed.

Day 10:
We took off fairly early to let Philip off at the airport. Emmaline was driving this time which I think Alan was grateful for. The roundabouts especially seemed to be annoying for him.

We all said goodbye and got ready to get on the plane. As we left and I took my last look at Ireland, my biggest thought was that somewhere down there was a good friend whom I appreciate very much.

It was a very good trip. I was glad for the opportunity. Ireland was really neat, the people were very welcoming, and the sights were beautiful. That's about all. There is much more that could be said but I'm sure not much more that could be read ;)

Good night.