You've heard it before: it's a big world out there, go explore, go discover, etc. These are some things that I have grown up hearing and knowing my whole my life. But it was not until this week that I truly understood the meaning of these cliché phrases.
In classes, you read books about far away places, watch documentaries, point out things on a map and look at photos on power points. You know these places exist and you know they are amazing. For the first time in my life I experienced what it was like to see places in person that I have only ever see on screens.
This past weekend I took a trip to Dublin, Ireland with a few friends from the study abroad group. Most of us had never been to Ireland before and did not really know what to expect. After a full day of traveling from Toledo to Dublin on Thursday by bus, metro, plane, train and walking, we made it to our hostel around 1:30am. It was interesting that on the plane I understood the Spanish flight attendants better than the Irish ones (not sure if that's a testament to my improved Spanish skills or an American's critique on the Irish accent). It was very disorienting still being abroad but being back in a place where everyone was speaking English. I think I accidentally said "gracias" and "perdoname" about 10 times.
It was pitch black both when we arrived and when we woke up the next morning for our train tour so we couldn't really see anything for the first few hours. After some napping on our train ride over, we pull up in front of a giant stone castle known as Bunratty Castle Burren. Wow. A real life castle from a 14th century Earl. Is this even real life? As you walk into the castle, you are welcomed into the great hall area where the guides regale you with tales of battles, weddings and feasts. The coolest thing is as they tell you about these events, you get to walk into the places where they actually happened! You see the trap doors where they dropped intruders, dungeons where they kept prisoners and secret windows where the women would huddle around to see what was happening in the great hall. These were real people, with real lives who lived in these real places. That may seem obvious but for me it started to finally sink in just how much life and personality there is in history. All the fun things that get omitted from the textbooks.
After some more traveling and a hearty Irish lunch of fish and chips at a pub, we headed over to the Cliffs of Moher. Along the coastal route, we stopped for a few minutes on a rocky spot next to the Atlantic Ocean. Unreal. The waves rolled in feet above my head and crashed on the shore. I was witnessing mother nature in full action. It was incredible. And just when I thought that was the coolest thing ever, we pull up to the Cliffs of Moher.
As I stood there in complete shock and amazement of the beauty, a wave of tranquility rolled over me. I felt small, and the world felt big. The ocean went on for miles and miles and the cliffs carried on past what I could see. The weather would change in an instant (think Ohio weather but on steroids). One second it was sun shining and clear, the next second it's dark and cloudy, then wind rolls in and nearly knocks you off your feet and it finishes off with a hail and rain mix (we were only here for an hour and a half)! I felt at the mercy of nature's whim. The air was so fresh and so clear it was as if I couldn't fill up my lungs enough times.
It reminded me all those nagging little worries I have in the back of my brain are so insignificant. The things I am worrying about now, won't matter a year from now, but this moment right now will matter forever. I felt at peace. It was the first day I hadn't thought about how I should be working harder on my Spanish, how I should be applying for more internships, how I should be sending more postcards, etc. All I thought about was me, the ocean and these cliffs. One of the best days of my life, I will never forget it.
