Sports'n stuff

Today we went to the nearby town of Castlebar to watch a Hurling game and a Gaelic football match.

Honestly, this morning I did not want to get out of bed,  there has been a bout of flew running through the class and apparently it is now my turn.

None the less, I did manage to find my way onto the bus and before long we were at the stadium.

The first match to be played was a Hurling game. 

Hurling, for those of you who don’t know, is kind of a cross between Lacross, baseball and soccer in which the team uses wooden paddles to hit a baseball sided ball into a goal or through a set of uprights.  Here is a video for reference.

The match we got to see was about equivalent to a division 3 college.  I found it entertaining, but I never really got into it.

As the game of Hurling drew to an end more and more people started showing up.  It was clear that the Gaelic football match was the main event of the day.

Gaelic football is a cross between rugbee and soccer played with a round ball.  Each player can only take a certain number of steps with the ball before he/she mist kick it or dribble it.  The points are scored in a similar fashion to Hurling, and here is a video for reference.

The stadium filled pretty well for this match, and it did get significantly more exciting.  The thing that stood out to me the most from this game however, happened right at the end.  After the final bell rang, fans started rushing onto the field.  At first I thought that it was some super excited fans going a little crazy, but I soon realized that it was a normal thing.  The fans could go up to the players and get pictures/autographs, and there was no security or people stopping them.

This was so foreign to me because in the US fans are rarely allowed on the court/field.  It was a nice change of pace to feel this openness.

Have a wonderful day,

Willie

Bucket lists

I have never come up with a bucket list before this trip.  I have always liked the idea, and I have a number of things that I would put on my life bucket list such as go to machu piccu or climb in Yosemite.

I decided to make an Ireland bucket list about 3 months before I left, and here is an abridged version of said list.

1. Buy a sweater

2. Climb Crough Patrick bare foot

3. Go rock climbing outside and not sustain any injuries

4. Sleep outside

5. Surf

6. Get so lost that I have to ask for directions

7. Do art

8. Send Letters

9. Chase a rainbow

10. Eat dinner with an Irish family or person in their home

How much of this have I done?  Not much.  I have been here for well over a month and I have completed 3 of the list above (1,3, and 8).

Number 1 was completed on the South trip.  I know what you are thinking, and yes it has elbow patches, but it also has shoulder patches! 

Number 3 has been a project.  I have found a few places to climb outside, and I am planning on finding a climbing gym while on spring break.

8 has also been an ongoing process, and I realize that I have not written as many letters as I would have liked, but hey it is a work in progress.

Am I disappointed? No, I know that I will get the ones done that I am supposed to get done.  I don’t see it as a list of things that I need to do, more as a list of suggestions, a gentle nudge in the direction of adventure.

This weekend I intend to complete numbers 4, 6, maybe 9 and hopefully a little more 3.  There is a place to camp not too far from where we are staying in Louisburgh, and near there there is an abandon stone building that I hope to climb around on.

As always comments and feedback is appreciated.

Have a wonderful day,

Willie

The Tri-Fecta

Traveling is a blast.

Ireland is a groovy place, and there are a lot of little things that, legend has it, will give you certain skills or blessings.

Three such places are the cross at Rock of Cashel, Blarney Stone, and the hole in the Gallarus Oratory

The first challenge is at the Rock of Cashel.  Legend has it that if you hug the cross of St. Patrick and you are able to reach all the way around and touch your hands on the other side, then you will never have a tooth ache again.

Here is a picture of someone else doing it, no one managed to snap a picture of me.

This was an easy test for me as I have quite the wing span.

The second challenge is kissing the Blarney Stone.  By doing so, you are given “the gift of gab” that is to say you find a way with words.

Once again I did not get pictures of me doing this but there are witnesses.

Seems pretty simple doesn't it?

Well here is where the plot thickens!  Apparently the stone that everyone kisses may not be the real Blarney Stone.  So with this knowledge, my buddy Seamus and I decided to not risk it.  We instituted a no stone left un-kissed policy.  So, while hiking the many stairs we insured our gift of gab by kissing many a rock in the wall of the blarney castle.

The third challenge consisted of climbing through a small window (about 18 cm by 12 cm) in the Gallarus Oratory (an ancient stone church.)  Climbing through said window is said to cleanse the soul.

Would you like a play by play?

I knew you would.

At this point I was thinking to myself that I may have gotten in a little over my head, but at least backing out was a possibility.

Now I was thinking hey I can do this all I have left are my hips.

But I pulled through, and found myself with a cleansed soul on the other side, and in doing so I completed what we have deemed the Tri-Fecta

To be honest I do not believe in these old tails of fortune, but for me that is not the point.

When I travel I do things because I can and because they make for a good time, and seeing as my lips have not fallen off from an ancient mold on the inside of the Blarney castle, I intend to keep doing things this way.

Thanks,

Willie

A Whale?!?

Two days ago we caught word of a whale that had been beached not too far away from us.  The story went that it had been injured and unable to swim very well so it had died and washed ashore.

We decided to pay it a visit because how often do you get to see a whale?

So after about two hours of driving and multiple stops for directions, we found ourselves on a beach in northern mayo.  We walked along for a while and finally saw it.

The first thing that struck me about it was the size.  It was 40-50 feet long and six feet in diameter.  It’s mouth was open and that too was immense, it looked like it could swallow a soccer ball whole.

The second thing that struck me about it was the smell.  It smelled like an open fish market that had been sitting in the sun for a day or two.  Honestly, I thought that I would have been able to smell it from further away, not that I am complaining in the slightest.

The one thing that I was most fascinated with was the mouth, and upon further examination of it, I saw that someone had come before it and cut out its teeth.

I am by no means an animal rights activist, but that struck me as a very strange thing to do.  The way that they were cut it was clear to me that whoever had done the cutting had planned to do so before seeing it. 

It is an interesting ethical situation.  The whale was just left there to rot, no one was going to bury it.

Seeing it dead on the shore made me think of it swimming in the ocean.  Thinking of a pod of these massive animals swimming together is kind of blowing my mind.

Thanks for reading,

Have a fantastic day,

Willie

Community Day

This past Wednesday was community day at St. Scholastica(a day with no classes and a number of service opportunities offered in the Duluth area), and we here in Ireland decided to have our own community day.

Around half of the group decided to participate in our service project of trash clean up around the town of Louisbourgh, and as you can see we were looking pretty fly in our vests.

I love doing service projects but it has not always been this way.

In high school I wasn’t a big fan, I think I just didn’t get it.

Then when I got to CSS, I joined STLF (Students Today Leaders Forever) and through their programs I have developed a love for service. 

There are many reasons to love service.  For me, it comes down to the people.  For me, it is not as much about the smiling faces of the people that you help (don’t get me wrong, that is great too), but for me it is more about the connections you make with the people you are working with.  Free work is not something that happens much in our world, and when it does happen, it can be a beautiful thing.

So why do I bring this up on a travel blog? 

It gets back at another post about traveling somewhere vs. living somewhere, if you haven’t read it, here it is.  I think that part of living in a place as opposed to traveling to a place involves giving back to the community. 

Generally when travel somewhere the only time that you give to the community is when you open your wallet.  When you really live in a place, you find ways of giving back to the community that go deeper than a monetary exchange.  This is obviously not a hard and fast rule, but it made me think so I am sharing it with you.

So I want to give a big shout out to STLF and all the people who make it great.  A special shout out goes to my sister who is co-leading the first ever St.Ben’s St.John’s Pay it Forward Tour this week and to the CSS chapter who are leave this Friday for Philadelphia.

Thank you,

Willie