Out and about in Ireland

Forth week in Ireland

This week was pretty fun! We had our first music class with Jane’s sister. She brought us flute to practice some easy Irish music. It was really fun, and I absolutely loved it! We started with Mary had a little lamb, and that was quite easy, because the note only had B A and G. After that we did twinkle twinkle little star, and that was easy as well. The next one she taught us was an Irish song, and I think it’s harder to catch up compares to the first two. I was so confused when she was showing us how to play, and I kept forgetting the note. It was embarrassing that I have to do it in front of the whole class with the teacher, but hey I guess that’s how you learn. LOL

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This week our field trip was to Croagh Patrick. The whole trip was kinda weather dependent, so we were hoping that we could have the chance to climb Croagh Patrick, the highest mountain in Ireland. We went to Pears cottage first, we walked around the museum a little bit. Our tour guide taught us some history behind the Patrick Pears, and how important he was to Irish history. It was nice that we got to see where he lived and how the house looked like back in the day in Ireland. We did not stay too long in Pears cottage, because the weather was about to be bad and we wanted to climb Croagh Patrick before the storm.

We started climbing around 1 PM, I did not bring a good boot with me, so I was kinda helping that the visiting center will rent climbing boots. But, because we went during their offseason, the visitor center was not even open. I ended up climbing Croagh Patrick with my tennis shoes, it was really tough. I was not that fit, but I really wanted to try and see how far I could go. It was also my first climbing a mountain, so I had no idea what I was about to experience. The weather was great in the beginning, it was kinda cloudy but really windy. The higher you get on the mountain, the windier it got. At one point, it blew my hat off my head, and it feels like someone is pushing you. It was a great experience, even though I did not make it to the top, I was pretty proud by how far I made through. My phone worked just fine when we were climbing the mountain, so I had my music on and I was just jamming through it. It was so much fun for me.

I was by the shoulder between two mountains, then it started raining, and it got super cloudy to a point that I could barely see 20 ft ahead of me. That is where I was like, okay guess that is it for me. So I turned around and started walking down. Honestly, climbing was way harder for me compares to climbing up. My tennis shoes kept rubbing the back of my heel, and I could feel the blister on my feet. It hurt walking down. The view was stunning, I feel see a lot of things even though I did not make it to the top, so I was pretty satisfied with that. It rained for like about 10 minute-ish, and the sun broke into the cloud. It got clear for like 2 minute, it was beautiful looking down the city from the mountain. While I was taking a break when I was walking down, I video-chat with my mom and showed the view. It was amazing. The whole hike was not that bad for me since I did not go all the way to the top, but the loose stone make is harder. I fall when I was crossing the stream and got my show wet, well, that was not a good time.

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The last place we went before heading back to Spiddal was the Museum of country life. It was a pretty impressive archival on the people and their lives in rural Ireland in the 19th and 20th centuries. I was kinda upset that we didn’t get to see Kylemore Abbey because of the weather. I would love to go to that place by myself maybe later in the semester.