Dublin, Ireland has been fantastic. The city is easily navigable and without pretense. People are friendly and the food has been surprisingly really good. I have been so fortunate to be able to stay with friends of a friend's friend (literally) this weekend, who graciously showed me around the city, cooked for me, took me to church with them, and introduced me to other friends. Dana and Matt, my hosts, are from the states and are living in Ireland for a while to work and travel. I really enjoyed getting to know them and am hopeful that they can come stay with me in Vienna.
While the weather today is typical (gray/cold/rainy/windy) for Dublin, the last three days have been so gorgeous and even warm that everyone kept remarking how lucky I was to be here this weekend. I'll look forward to sharing pictures with you when I return to Vienna this Sunday. For now, a few highlights:
- On Saturday, I joined Matt, Dana, and another American couple from the States for a drive down toward the Wicklow Mountains. I had been hoping to see the classic Irish landscape (green grass, white sheep), and got to see it at its best that day. We stopped in a few towns (Enniskerry was my favorite), had a great meal together, and talked a lot about living abroad and other sorts of things.
- Sunday--Matt and Dana took me to church with them, where I heard a great service and met Catrin, who is Welsh and my age and works for the international branch of InterVarsity. Catrin invited me to go on a hike that afternoon, which allowed me to get to know her (she's great) and see a few miles of the coastline surrounding Dublin on one side (we hiked from Bray to Greystones, should you feel like googling that, and on the way back passed the town where Bono lives).
- Sunday night, Dana made burritos for dinner and we watched NFL on CBS coverage on an actual TV (any college football I've watched with the students is through ESPN 360 on a computer). I have missed Mexican food and football very much...what a perfect Sunday night.
- Katie Tison is engaged!!!
- Yesterday was my big Dublin touristy day--I walked around Trinity College, O'Connell Street (where much of the famous Easter Rising stuff went down), Temple Bar, Dublin Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and Christ Church Cathedral. Hopefully I'll write some more about these places when I have more time. All of it was lovely.
- Last night, I got to catch up with my dear friend Emily on the phone. Talking to Em is always a blessing and an encouragement...definitely a highlight of the weekend.
This afternoon, I'm headed to Madrid for an evening and a morning in the city, then will hop on a bus to Salamanca to see my sweet friend Susan and a family I got to know this summer when they visited Winston-Salem. Susan and I will travel to Valencia this weekend, and I'll be back in my bed in Vienna by midnight on Saturday (hopefully).
