thin places and clovers

3:45 a.m. came just as early as I expected it to. People shouldn't even be allowed to wake up then, but no one asked me when they scheduled flights out of Maastricht at 7 something in the morning.

The good news was that I was going to Ireland, so I don't really expect any sympathy for any of this. If you're going to wake up in the middle of the night, it might as well be to catch a flight to Dublin for the weekend...so it's okay that you don't feel bad for me. I don't really feel bad for me either.

Packing was a little different for this trip since we were flying, so we had cleverly (I'm just going to pat us on the back for this one) put all our big stuff in one backpack to check and had rolled up the rest of our clothes (thank you Tridelt for teaching me how to fit 5 zillion tshirts in a basket) and crammed them in our tiny carry-on bags. So now I know I can pack lightly, which good and bad because now my father also knows I don't need as many clothes when we go places.

Anyway, we all made it out to the cab on time and headed to the airport. When I stepped up to the counter with my boarding pass in hand, I learned something horrible:

I had filled in my boarding pass with "Katie" instead of "Katherine," which is the name on my passport. So yes, that's my real name for those of you who didn't know, and yes this is a stupid rule. So now I was supposed to pay 160 euros both ways to get to Dublin, and considering that our tickets had cost us about 1/10 of that, I knew it wouldn't be worth it. Fortunately, I asked the woman at the counter if she could make a call to confirm the fact that I couldn't get on the plane without paying all this money, and it turns out that it was all fine and dandy. Praise the laaaawd.

It was all uphill from there. Once we landed in Dublin, we hit the ground running. After figuring out the bus situation, we got a bus pass for the three days and went to Brewley's for a lovely little Irish breakfast of pancakes and lattes. Also, Kels and Steph got porridge with Irish honey, just like the three lil bears. Cute people and cute porridge. I love it.

Then we were off to Trinity College Library, which is far and away the most beautiful library I've ever been in. After wandering around the library and filling our lungs with the smell of old books, we went back to our hotel to check in and drop our stuff off. This is why it's important to travel with people who are into the same kind of nerdy stuff you are.

Having had a little more than 3 hours of restless sleep the night before, I was about to fall over, so we took a nap break for my sake before finding our way to the Guinness warehouse. This was obviously a little out of my element, but the warehouse was one of the most fun and interesting parts of the weekend! We finished the tour at the top of the building, which had a view that overlooked all of Dublin. After dinner at one of the best restaurants I've eaten at so far, we went back to the hotel and were asleep by 10. Also, I got a certificate that says I can "craft the perfect pint of Guinness." My mama is proud.

The next morning, we woke up early again (although it's all relative I guess...it wasn't 4) to go back to the city center, where we would be departing for our day-long tour across Ireland. The Irish countryside was incredibly green, and the rain that sprinkled on and off throughout the day felt perfectly Irish.

After stopping at a few castles and in Doolin for lunch, we finally made it to the Cliffs of Moher. The Irish call these cliffs a "thin place," which means it's a place where they believe the veil between heaven and earth is a little thinner. I don't think thin places are just supposed to be scenic--there's something about them that makes God's presence more palpable. Something that makes you stop and pray. According to random and  unreliable things I've read about it on the internet, you can't really "look" for a thin place--it finds you.

These cliffs were that for me. I don't think these pictures do them justice at all, but the ones with people in them seemed to come the closest because you can see the sheer size of what we stood beside. We had about two hours to spend exploring the cliffs, and we spent all two hours climbing around and trying not to get blown over the edge.

So that was magical Ireland. And I got back home without paying 160 euros so there's that.