Just Another Day in Paradise

Making new friends

At the top of the monument

"The trampoline experience"

This is what my day consisted of (a couple days ago): 

• A delicious bagel from the farmer’s market in Galway
• A bus ride to Clifden for 2 euros
• A walk on Sky Road (beautiful views of green fields and the bay/ocean)
• Finding the Clifden castle (which of course included walking through mud & climbing fences, and meeting people from Holland)
• Encountering and petting horses on the side of the road
• Hearing a donkey’s “hee-haw” which was incredibly loud and the wierdest sound ever probably
• Knocking on someone’s door and the first thing she asks us is if her dog had been following us. I said “No, we were just walking and noticed you have a trampoline and were wondering if we could jump in it?” She said, “Yeah go ahead, as long as you don’t break your necks.” So we jumped and got some sick pics. By the way, this was the most scenic trampoline-jumping experience ever.
• Finding the river/waterfalls and climbing under the bridge where some scenes from the movie “Quiet man” were filmed
• Being in Clifden, the place where the first transatlantic flight landed and the first cellular message was sent
• Climbing to the top of a monument in honor of D’arcy, the founder of Clifden. The view was of the city on one side, the bay/ocean on the other, and fields of green with animals on the other side. On the way to the monument, following the signs as good tourists would, we noticed that the sign was pointing towards a path with 4 horses that were just eating food. The path was very narrow and the horses and their poop took up the whole path. A lady jogged by and we asked her how to get to the monument and she said “Right there”, pointing towards the horses. We were like, “Umm, you mean we walk around that gate and right through those horses?” “Yes.” “Oh, okay thanks.” So, we proceed to pass these horses(I thought they were donkeys at the time) and they start sniffing us and nuzzling their noses into us. Then I got cornered by two horses and a prickly bush and was trying to communicate with the horses that they needed to move so I could get by them but they didn’t seem to understand quite well. Eventually, I made it through and it was just a laughing experience. The sun started to set over the ocean as we left the monument and it made me miss watching the sunsets at Point Loma in San Diego.
• Finding a cute coffee shop in a hotel and the owners still made us coffee even though they were closed at the time. It was literally the best caramel latte I’ve ever had. We talked to one of the owners for about 15 minutes and she told us that the drinks were compliments of them(WONDERFUL hospitality). After we thanked her, she (Fiona) said, “Ya know, it’s nice to be nice. Enjoy your stay here. Tell your friends in America that you met some nice people in Ireland.”
• Running to the bus stop and catching the bus the minute it was about to leave(it already had started pulling out)
• Running, literally, from the bus stop at Eyre Square in Galway back to our apartments just for the heck of it (which saved us 20 minutes of our lives)
• Finding the cutest chill pub and chattin’ with old Irish folk
• Playing a piano at a coffee shop
• Talking with a girl I met from Santa Cruz ‘til late in the night
• Eating potato waffles
All in all, this was an amazing day with good adventures and good company and good weather . I have absolutely no complaints about my life in Ireland right now. I am loving every minute of it. =]

Muddy path

Crossing the horses to get to the monument

Gotta have my artsy pics =]

Caught texting haha

Under the famous bridge

STA World Traveler Internship

On a side note, amidst my fun and adventures, I am also looking for work-related internships and jobs while I am here. For the past year I have been wanting an internship called the STA World Traveler Internship and I am finally applying for it. Basically, they pay you to travel the world and do all these cool activities. All expenses are paid for and in return, my job would be to complete the activities in each country and take pictures, make videos, and blog about them....umm PERFECT or what?! I am already doing that right now without getting paid. Dream job right there- getting paid to do what it is I love most. Anyways, please support me on this and "become a fan" of my page or leave a comment on it. The website is: http://www.worldtravelerinternship.com/member/morgan-wall/

Thanks for the support!

Castle-ing

Ca·stle·ing (verb- to go on a search for an abandoned castle and find it, at all costs)

This is a word I invented a couple weekends ago after finding a website called "Abandoned Ireland" and making it my new goal to find as many of the abandoned castle/abbeys/cottages as I can while I am in Ireland. The castle-ing excursions so far have been very adventurous to say the least. From trespassing and walking through mud and in the rain, the view of the castles have definitely been worth it all. Here is a video clip from my first two castle-ing experiences.

 

Scared of change? Change that up.

So many people, including myself, are scared of change. Although it is a new and scary feeling to be in a new place or with new people, it is also very exciting. Some of the best experiences of my life have been when I allowed my life to be re-shaped and re-formed. That's what brought me to Ireland, and I absolutely love it here. For the next four months while abroad (and even after that!) I am going to try my best to live by this saying: "If live gives you a chance, TAKE IT. If it changes your life, LET IT." I encourage you to think about this next time a life-altering or even a small(could turn into something bigger) opportunity comes your way. Take the opportunity, consider yourself blessed, and run with it. <<<Especially while you are young! You just might find yourself across the world, looking outside your window at a brand new city, and writing a blog ;]

Coole Park! So cool.

Autograph Tree

So as I mentioned earlier, I went to Coole Park last weekend. It is a place where famous poets, such as Yeats, Shaw, and others went and wrote poetry. It was so beautiful. We went to Coole Lake and wandered through the forest. We stopped for a lovely picnic and found the autograph tree that the poets have actually signed. While there, I was even inspired to write my own poem in my journal while sitting there by Coole Lake in the same place that Yeats wrote his poem: "The Wild Swans at Coole." I wrote my poem down below but keep in mind I wrote it quickly and it doesn't follow a rhyme scheme or iambic pentameter for all you poetry people out there. After wandering around and looking at all the famous stuff, we did some adventuring. And by adventuring, I mean trespassing on someone's large farmland for the sake of finding a bunch of swans and horses. It was so great. We also hitchiked back to the bus station which was really great. Probably one of my favorite days so far. I sure do love the outdoors in Ireland =]

                                                                          Reading the poem in the place that it was written

Daniel, my adventure buddy

 



The World Was Made For You
(The World is Yours While You Are Young)
-Morgan Wall


So much we have lived
And yet, so much to come.

Out here in the middle of no where
Or over there, in the hustle & bustle of a city.

Still young like the sun burst through the clouds,
With time to age like the moss on the rocks.

There is no time like NOW,
For tomorrow may never come..
And "The world as we know it may never be the same."

Then suddenly, a bird chirps
And a swam flies by,
And they remind me that the world isn't really ours, it is His...

"The bell-beat of their wings above my head"

And we are just passing through,
A part of His beautiful creation.








Random Irish Fact: "Yourman" means a random guy you see and "Yourwan" means a random girl that you see

This one is not about Ireland, but still a little glimpse at my recent life =]

So somehow a tradition started that we always have the BEST last weekends in San Diego. Starting with last Spring when we swam in bioluminescent algae glowing water/bonfire/Grand Hyatt Hotel/Floatopia...etc. and now this fall at a cabin at Big Bear, with desperate searches for eggnog, randomness, murderer in the dark til 6am, RIDICULOUSNESS, and awesomeness =] Watch this video I finally just put together:

For some reason the sound isn't working =[ The sound kinda makes the video...oh well. Look up the video on my facebook; it's better with the sound!