Ireland/Sweden 2014: Dublin, Ireland: Part 2

Before I left on my trip I had looked up a couple of different walking tours that I could take of Dublin. I only had a few hours, so I wasn't sure how much I could get done. I also didn't want to spend money on tours and such as this was only my first stop of many. It's a good thing I planned that way, as I was in complete sticker shock when I got there. I kept thinking that I was doing my conversions wrong.

 

As I had started at the Dublin Castle (see Ireland/Sweden 2014: Dublin, Ireland: Part 1) I decided to do the Photographer's Walking Tour from Tripadvisor. I highly suggest using these itineraies. So from Dublin Castle and Chester Beatty Library (which I forgot to photograph) I made my way to Christchurch Cathedral.

 

 

Christchurch Cathedral was founded in 1028 and is the oldest structure in Dublin. 1028! That blew my mind, that I was standing taking pictures of a building that is almost 1000 years old.

 

The beauty of the architecture had me wishing I could stay there longer and taking even more pictures as I walked away.

 

I then tried to find Wood Quay. I never really did find it, but I did find these fun Viking ships as I walked.

 

 

This isn't a good picture, but this is the Viking museum. This is the only place in Dublin I wished that I had money and time to spend to see inside.

 

I think Lindsborg needs to put one of these bench areas in one of our parks. It was exciting to stumble upon this.

 

Next stop, Cow's Lane and Temple Bar. I'm not quite sure why Temple Bar is such a tourist attraction. I didn't get a drink there, though I thought about it. Just one more reason to go back.

 

Side note - I saw several Temple Bars in Sweden, but I didn't stop at those either.

 

This was a cute little square that was part of Cow's Lane. 

 

As I was looking for the City Hall and a few other small stops, I saw this art work on some of the buildings I passed. I took these pictures for my sister and the artists I have come to know.

 

After looking for a while and deeming that I was lost, I decided to move on to the Dublin Highlights tour. I was actually slightly disappointed with this one, but I did see more of Dublin.

First stop was the Bank of Ireland.

 

As I walked on I had to snap a picture of the Guinness sign. ;)

 

I then crossed the Ha'Penny (Liffey) Bridge. I was pleasantly surprised by all of the different styles of bridges that were all along this main road.

 

 

I've learned I LOVE water views.

 

An Irish fire truck. I took this picture for my dad.

 

Couldn't resist taking a picture of the Yellow Brick Road.

 

The Ha'Penny Bridge. You can see all the iron work that goes all along this bridge. We have then gotten to our next attraction.

 

 

The Daniel O'Connell Statue. Apparently the four winged sculptures represent Patriotism, Fidelity, Courage and Eloquence. O'Connell was one of the first (or the first) Catholic elected into Parliament.

 

Then I walked down the street to the GPO (General Post Office). It was the headquarters for the 1916 Rising. (I really should look up some Irish history so I know what all this means.)

 While I got quite a bit closer to The Spire, I thought it was more impressive to see it in it's entirety. Something you can't really capture right under it. You can see it in the back ground of the above picture. The tall pointy thing. The Spire is the world's largest sculpture.

 

The above statue was the last of my 'tour'. It's the start of O'Connell Street. The statue is the Charles Stewart Parnell monument. He apparently made quite the impression in his short 45 years, but the description doesn't exactly say what he did.

There were quite a few other monuments on that tour, but none of people that I really heard about, so I passed on taking pictures of them.

 

By this time I only had about an hour left before I needed to make my bus. I tried to meander a bit, but didn't want to stray to far. I sat on bench by the water for a while and peopled watched, but found out quickly that some of my jetlag was starting to set in. To the bus station I went.

 

I had hoped to stay awake on the bus ride to Belfast, but that didn't happen. These are two of the seven photos I was awake enough to take. 

 

Next stop Belfast, Northern Ireland and catching up with Heather and Phil McCollum.

 

 



Ireland/Sweden 2014: Dublin, Ireland Part 1

Many of you know that I was blessed enough to make a third trip to Sweden. Along with Sweden, I decided to make a 1 1/2 day side trip to Ireland. When else would I get the chance to go to Ireland, for just a couple hundred dollars.

 

I had posted some pictures on Facebook, but there are stories that I was unable to tell with just pictures. So here are some of the stories, with more pictures of course.

 

I left Kansas City on May 27. The flight to Chicago went smoothly. I knew I would only have about 30 minutes to get to the next gate, so in Chicago I hustled to get there. I had decided to only take a carry on (messenger bag) and a hiking back pack, which counted as my large carry on. No checked luggage. I'm still not sure if that was a good idea or not. It got really heavy when I had to move quickly, or go up hill, or just anytime really.

 

Back to the flights. I made it to the gate about 5 minutes before they started loading the plane. Whew. As a storm started to roll into Chicago, the plane was delayed for about 30 minutes. Making my supper start late (I wanted to go to sleep as soon as I could, but was starving.) This did however let me watch a movie. Other than the time issue, the flight went pretty well, but I didn't sleep well. That would make for a long next day.

 

I got into Heathrow about 9:20am (30 minutes late), which gave me only 30 minutes to get through the maze of hallways and 4 security check points. At times I was literally running in the airport and that backpack was getting heavier and heavier. But I got to the gate and got on the plane. Yes, I was the gross, sweaty, smelly person on that flight.

 

*Funny side note about flying into Heathrow. I had chosen Ireland over England, because flying to Ireland was cheaper (even though I had a connecting flight in London). Hmmm. I don't get it. I flew over Ireland 2 hours before I got on a flight to fly to Ireland. I think something is messed up there.

 

I finally got into Dublin airport about 11am on Wednesday, May 28. By the time I took the bus to Dublin city center I had about 4 1/2 hours before my bus to Belfast. Luckily the bus station had lockers. I felt so much lighter with out my bags.

 

The main thing in Dublin I wanted to see, was Dublin Castle. So that was stop one. (I mostly used my feet as transportation around the cities that I visited). So off I went.

 

 

 

 

 

Dublin Castle! It was established by English King John in 1204 AD, on the corner of the Viking town Dyflinn. I'm a sucker for this type of history. In this picture you see the Cathedral and one of the towers.

 

 

 

 

The beauty of this cathedral was amazing to see. I could have spent a lot of time in reflection and ah, but I knew I only had a limited amount of time to see more of the city. 

 

 

This was the gardens of the castle. The building across from the garden in the above picture was the stables. I spent some time sitting on a bench (eating my lunch of a couple of granola bars and Slim Jims).

 

 

I was told (and believe it to be true) that it is very rare to see the sky so blue. It was perfect temperature the entire day. Where I was standing to take this picture was in front of the Chester Beatty Library. I somehow did not get a picture of this.  I ducked into the library, and wish now I would have gone up to the roof, but at the time I just wanted to walk around the city more.

 

This is where my walking tour really began. Stay tuned for those pictures.

 

 

Wrapping it up

It's been over two years. I'm going to finish the bucket list, but not the facts. At least I can say I half way finished this project and hopefully I can do better with my new projects.

11. To sing in the Messiah
10. To sell something from my Etsy store (yes, I know I need to actually put things back on there in order for this to happen)
9. Own a Jeep Wrangler
8. Travel to Australia/New Zealand and see more of Europe
7. See the rodeo in Cheyenne, WY
6. Watch a K-State football game from the press box
5. Buy a pair of Jimmy Choo or Louboutin shoes
4. Learn to make Swedish Pizza
3. Complete this blog list (seriously, I don't know why it's so hard to think of 30 things I want to do?)
2. Learn to shoot a bow and arrow.
1. Find the one God has chosen for me, get married and start a family.

Ok, folks sorry this took so long and thanks for sticking with me.

Lucky 15, 14th Party, Flying 13

My number in most of the sports that I played was 15 (or as close to that as I could get). Why 15 you ask. Because that is the number my oldest sister chose to use one time. I wanted to be like my sisters so much that I picked up on these things. I saw that she was 15, so when I got into Jr. High, I chose the number 15 for myself as well.

Bucket List - While I don't really like to run, I would like to run a 5K someday just to say that I've done it.

Having a summer birthday made it hard for me to have regular birthday parties. I really only had one on my 14th birthday. Looking back though, I realize the birthdays I spent camping and at the 4-H fair were pretty amazing ways to spend a birthday. Some of my favorites were camping in the Snowy Range and having a set of grandparents camping along with us, or the time I watched "Singing in the Rain" outside of the Hard Rock in St. Louis, and I'll never forget the birthday spent in Sweden with a visit from my sister.

Bucket List - To go camping in the mountains with friends.

My first airplane ride was when I was a freshman in high school. I was going to be flying on trips during the summers every year of my high school career for either Swedish Dancers or church trips, so to see if I like flying my sister and I flew from Wichita to Denver to meet up with my parents and oldest sister. Luckily I loved flying then and I still love it today.

Bucket List - To visit all 50 states. Have you gotten the idea that I love to travel yet? Blame it on my parents. ;)

Unfinished 17, Sweet 16

As you can tell by my year long break, I'm great at starting projects but horrible about finishing them. Not shocking, but still something about me. :) I am bound and determined to actually finish this project. So I will combine some days and will leave out the pictures. Boring I know, but at least I'll finish.

Bucket list -  To complete the several sewing, knitting, cross stitching, etc. projects that I have started.

Sweet 16 - I love being a part of theater. My sisters got me hooked so blame it on them. That is one of the reasons I moved back to Lindsborg. To be involved in Broadway RFD. And involved I've been. From behind the scenes to onstage to on the board. And it's been great.

Bucket list - It would be a dream if I were to get a lead or a large supporting role in a summer musical. I'd have to take some lessons though before that could happen with all the talent in this area. :)

Dirt Road 18

Growing up in the country had many perks to it. One of the perks for me was that I had endless 'scratch paper' in our dirt driveway to draw on.

My absolute favorite things to draw were floor plans of houses. I would draw the different rooms including doors and windows. I would even draw some of the different furniture pieces and fixtures such as sinks. I would build huge mansions and tiny bungalows.

I would often spend so much time drawing these homes that I would run out of time or daylight to play in them. I often had and still have very vivid dreams about different houses and layouts for them. Designing houses is the main reason that I play the Sims.

I recently found out that my father had once thought that I would be an architect. I sure fooled him. But at least I'm teaching my nephews the values of drawing in the dirt.

Bucket List - Have my dream house built.

Perspective

I know it's been a while and even worse I never finished the set of blogs that I last was doing. I do want to finish those and my reasoning for dropping them of will sort of be answered in the blogs to come, but for now I have a more serious blog to share with you. I'm going to jump around a little in this blog, but if you stick with me it should all make sense by the end.

Five years ago I was living in a suburb of St. Louis and was working at a high school (Jennings) that was boarder line inner city. It was a very different world than I had grown up in. I had been there for a year and a half. And in that year and a half I had thought many times about checking out the Vineyard Church closest to my house, but always made up an excuse not to do so. At one point I had printed off the directions to the church and left it on my printer for probably close to a year. Then I threw it away (only to dig it out of the trash and finally go on Palm Sunday 5 years ago).

I was in a very rough spiritual area of my life back then. So why am I telling you this? Well tonight I had these irrational feelings of uneasiness and anger though it wasn't directed at anything in particular. Five years ago these emotions would have eaten me up alive. I would have gotten depressed or taken my anger out on my pillow by hitting it or throwing it across the room. I probably would have cried uncontrollably as well.

Tonight however, I was able to step back from these emotions and lift them up to God. The only one who could make any sense of them. So I put on my 'Light' radio station and gave into God's truth. THE TRUTH! While I don't have a whole picture of what those emotions were about, I got a brief glimpse of what some of my time in St. Louis was about.

This past weekend I was in a dinner theater put on by our local theater group (Broadway R.F.D) and a newly opened restaurant (The Swedish Crown). On one of the nights there was a large group of teenagers. While it wasn't the most normal group I expected to see there, I wasn't surprised by it either. Come to find out this group of teenagers was brought by their sponsor to help them experience some new things that most of them had never experienced before. Some of them had never been to a restaurant that had pre-made salads. Some had never had the types of roasted vegetables that were served and I'm sure that some if not most had never been to an interactive dinner theater before.

It didn't really hit me what all this might mean to them, or even me until tonight. I had worked in a school where I am positive that the majority of the students had never been to a formal dinner theater, and quite a few had probably never been to a formal dinner where the salad was preset and the vegetables were roasted. And while I never had the chance to introduce my students those experiences, I was able to offer other experiences. Even if it was through them laughing at what a country bumpkin I am.

So tonight I got a glimpse of perspective. I can help offer new experiences here as well as I did in St. Louis. In St. Louis it was bringing touch of the county, Kansas life to them. Here in small town Kansas, it is to bring a touch of the city. And because of my time at Vineyard Community Church, I am able to do what is necessary to achieve this perspective. It's hard to have perspective is you don't look down Memory Lane from time to time.





*I thank those at Jennings High School who stuck with this country girl.
*Thanks to Broadway R.F.D. and The Swedish Crown for letting me be part of something that might have made more of a difference than we will ever know.
*And especially thank you to those of you at the Vineyard for helping me to come back to God's walking path when I had strayed so far off course.