Family Visiting:
After almost four months away from my family, I was finally reunited with them in Dublin.
Guinness Storehouse – Coming from Wisconsin, I had some knowledge of breweries. I mean, I worked at one and have toured a couple, so I had a decent fundamental knowledge.
I really enjoyed this tour because it not only highlighted the beer itself, but also the cultural significance of the beer. Many Guinness advertisement campaigns have reached legendary statuses and I entered the warehouse and wanted to learn more about that luckily they dedicated entire floors to diving into that subject.
To finish the tour we enjoyed a nice pint while overlooking the city from the top floor of the warehouse.
Gaelic Football – It’s not soccer and it’s not rugby, but it’s something in between. It didn’t take long for us to understand the rules and find strategies for the game. Dublin took on Tyrone in the semi-finals of the GAA tournament. Dublin pulled away from Tyrone in the second half and ultimately won with 5-18 to Tyrone’s 0-12. I’d suggest looking at how the score is kept because it is difficult to explain. It’s definitely worth checking out a match when in Ireland, but just remember where you parked your car.
Meals – Maybe it was eating lunches and dinners with my loved ones again, but almost every meal we had out was spectacular.
John devoured countless orders of fish and chips, while I tried other typical Irish dishes and eye-catching items on menus. One of my favorites had to be the Philly cheesesteak I had in Athlone. Although it was messy, the flavors were amazing. I hardly talked that meal because I couldn’t stop eating.
The photo is of a typical Irish breakfast. I loved it because there’s a little bit of everything.
Doolin – This being my second time to Doolin, I considered myself practically a local. However, this time we did see the Doolin Cave, home to the largest stalactite in Europe. The stalactite itself is incredible, weighing over ten tons and over twenty-three feet long, but the story of how it was discovered by two adventurous spelunkers is even more impressive. The boys had a couple opportunities to turn back but they continued into the unknown. A very idiotic move, but in their case, it paid off.
Mother couldn’t handle the thought of being deep in the earth so she sat this one out.
After visiting the cliffs the day before, we took a boat tour to view them. I am extremely content that I did this. The view of the cliffs is so much more awing when you’re at sea level. The scale of the cliff and the amount of birds inhabiting the edge are much better understood and appreciated from the boat. The birds alone are so spectacular to see mingling with each other. It was also the first time I had seen the iconic puffin.
Anyone going or thinking about going to the Cliffs of Moher should definitely consider the boat tour. Plus I got to spend some quality time with the family, so it was a win-win.
St Patrick’s Day:
If you’d ask someone, “What’s one place they’d want to be for St. Paddy’s Day?”, they’d probably say Dublin, Ireland. Fortunately for me, I got to spend the day there. It was just like you’d expect. The sea of green outside the pubs made it nearly impossible to squeeze through.
We spent the afternoon there and that was crazy enough. I couldn’t imagine what the night was like.
We hopped from bar to restaurant back to bar, and back to restaurant. It was an exhilarating afternoon touring the city.
The iconic parade went through the city and the entire stretch of road that the parade went through was lined with at least a ten-foot-wide band of people. Spectators were on bus stop shelters, on statues, on building ledges, basically, anywhere they could get a view of the parade.
The parade itself was sort of crazy. Super surreal and wild. There were DJs in teapots, fake boxing matches, mascot pigeons in shopping carts, marching bands (they weren’t really wild), giant underwater creatures attacking the crowd, etc. The parade had it all.
I look sad in the photo with my Irish flag makeup, but I’m actually happy. Trust me.
Life at the Lodge:
Virginia Park Lodge is located in Virginia, Co. Cavan. It’s settled on a secluded piece of land and is a popular wedding venue and golf course.
There are orchards, four high tunnels, a greenhouse, chickens, pigs, and stables used for mother pigs.
Activities –
Every day we must feed the pigs. We have five mothers. Two of which just gave birth to three and eleven piglets. We have eleven other younger pigs that will eventually go to the slaughter or be chosen to become mothers.
Normally, we do a lot of grounds work (weeding, gravel work, etc.) because there’s only so much sowing and transplanting we can do. It doesn’t really fall under what I signed up for, so I’m not learning too much from the work, but I learn quite a bit from the people I work with. Whether it’s about their home countries or whatever knowledge they’ve learned in their own travels.
The kitchen is very tiny, especially for the eight other wwoofers we had there. Over time, we’ve made it work though. Every day the kitchen prepares us lunch, so we don’t have to worry about cooking in between working. The management gives each of us a forty euro voucher card for the local grocery store that we use to get groceries. We learned to cook for each other and often had scheduled days for a single person to cook our group meals. In the photos I supplied, you can see the kitchen is also home to the washer and dryer.
Friends –
I was excited to come here because I knew there would be a couple other wwoofers here, however, I really do feel lucky to have these people in particular. Everyone is pretty chill and we often go places or do things as a group. On that note, some pretty solid ping-pong players have really given me a run for my money. I tell them I let them win but really they sometimes beat me.
I’ve worked with French (Nathan and Ocean), a Belgian (Tiburce), too many Germans (Pia, Paula, and Marta), an Italian (Nicola), a Syrian (Ahmed), and an American (Quinn). I normally hang around the Germans because they’re usually funny. I know I’ll keep in touch with a couple of them for a long time.
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