WHAT A DAY!
but-just-yet-
let me cover yesterday first...
so yesterday, we awoke, and before getting out to Stiofan, to see what we would do today, we bought our train tickets from London to Paris, and from Paris to Irun. Looks like we buy the over-night train from Irun to Lagos, at the station, and go figure- it is the cheapest of them all. We leave London at 5:40 AM and don't leave Paris til 12, so, we will have quite some time to explore Paris.
We got outside by 9:15, and Stiofan sent us down to the herb garden to finish our weeding. At around Noon he showed us how they usually plant their leeks, and then we spent the next 2 hours, planting about 200 leeks in a long bed. The leeks are SO tiny when you first plant them. We had to yank out some Kale, that had gone to seed, and were basically like Kale Stalks or mini trees, at that point, in order to continue with the leeks. We added some fresh horse manure, and punctured holes with our fingers, to plant the tiny leeks. 3 different varieties! After lunch, we did a bit more planting and finished the weeding, since we were planning on taking off today.
For dinner I made a delicious stir-fry with zucchini from the garden, another crazy purple vegetable from the garden that looks like a giant turnip, kind-of, and the name escapes me, some home-made tofu, that I "pulverized", some couscous, onion, garlic and these great vegetable and chili pastes they have in these tubes here. The pulverize tofu and couscous blended really sweetly. Then we watched 3 ninjas, from 1992!
Now today, we head out of the cabin at 20 to 10, to catch a 10:25 bus from Ennis to the Cliffs Of Moher. Christine took us to the bus, and we got there just in time to get a ticket and hop on. The ride was so beautiful, and in 50 minutes, we were climbing up the Hill of some GIANT cliffs.
First we followed the rest of the tourists around the stone fenced in areas, and went to the top of castle to take our photos and gawk our eyes out at these massive cliffs. The Atlantic looked extremely blue where it was slapping against the rocks. It was a misty rain, but the visibility was still really good. Then we walked to other others side, where signs read on the end of the trail, that there was No entry and Private Property and one that reoccured which said, "Need to talk? Call a Samaritan" with a number listed. Yet a very many people were climbing over the small stone to walk the semi-marked path. So we followed!
We walked through the rain, and mud, on to the cliffs, and screamed our joys outs and bowed to the beauty. It really felt amazing to be in the solitude of the wildness of these extreme earthly extensions. I felt very tiny and comforted. Words can't really describe this experience, but i felt like i was really on quite the wild adventure, climbing these hills to reach these peaks, jutting out over the Atlantic.
After we got soaked, and headed back, we had some lunch at the cafe and tried our best to reach our friend Julia who we used to lived with in Philly, who was also visiting the Cliffs that day.
After 5 hours at the cliffs, and the mist getting really heavy and then lifting and blue sky shining through, we decided to head back! Instead of taking the bus, we made a sign which said, "Ennis, please!". We began walking down the long road that the bus lead us on with our sign visible to those heading past us. Eventually we walked about 3 or 4 km in the beautiful sun and rolling hills of Ireland's country side, and we came across the Rock Shop. A big store with lots of crystals and rocks and a fountain and small cafe. We each got a necklace that has a pouch which zippers closed, and has a dream catcher on it, to put our pocket crystals in! Very necessary =)!
We headed out and continued our epic walk down the road towards Ennis. Walking in the country was so amazing and really felt rather natural. Many cars were passing us, either shrugging or nodding at our sign and happy faces. Eventually we wounded up at one of the bus stops in a very small town, about an hour and half walk from the Cliffs. We decided to hang around the bus stop with the sign, in case we did not get a ride. About 5 minutes before the bus was scheduled to arrive, 2 ladies stopped and offered us a ride!! We were very stoked that we didn't have to pay for another bus trip back, and that our long walk paid off! There was a beagle named, Ralph in the back seat, and he was very kind, as were the lades. They inquired about WWOOFing and our journeys, and had never heard of the program.
After they dropped us off in Ennis, which is about 25 minutes from Glendree where we are staying, we walked around the village filled with small (and i mean, TINY) shops, looking for a wi-fi signal on my phone so we could call Stiofan, and ask him to come get us. After about 15 minutes I got a signal from outside a restaurant, and Stiofan said he'd be there in 25. Chelsey thought we deserved a fresh brew from our successful journey, so we dropped into the tiny traditional Diamond Bar, to get 2 pints of Guinness. We had 15 minutes to gulp down our brews, and get yogurt and wine glasses (to replace the ones we broke) in the Dunnes store (which is like a Target) and get out to the curb to meet Stiofan.
So, since Guinness takes about 3 minutes just to settle before they serve it to you, we drank our pints as fast as we could, and just as we were about to head out, two of the five people in the pub, these two ancient men, came walking by us and decided to spark up a conversation. Funny, because just a minute before i mentioned how the two old men at the end of the bar had a good example of an incomprehensible Irish accent. So they just loved us, and asked us some questions like how we were and if we were sisters, of which I said GREAT and YES. We did a lot of smiling, laughing and nodding, then they asked where we were from and I said, "well..." and the man thought i said Welsh. Eventually Chelsey said America, or maybe it was the hard ass sitting behind us, but the guys, said they would just ignore that, and we laughed and said that is fine. So they walked on and wished us a peaceful journey. We chugged down our pints and sprinted through the fluorescent lit store to grab some yogurt and wine glasses and make it out to Stiofan.
He was there when we got out side, and I told him I hope he hadn't waited long. He seemed OK, and we were feeling Just Fine.
So we came home, heated up the amazing lasagna Chelsey made, and reminisced about the really funny music we listened to in middle school.
Now we will rest easy and probably have more vivid, wild dreams, that may or may not make any sense at all.
We left a week ago, today.
Here is to being as present as possible for the next 4 months.
PEACE!
-mimi
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