Happy Easter! We thought it would be a memorable experience to go to Mass on Easter Sunday in Ireland. Last night in the hotel pub, with Bev up in the room and I having a nightcap, I asked a bartender for directions to a nearby Catholic church for Easter Sunday Mass. Catholic churches are all over the place in Ireland, of course. She gave me what sounded like pretty easy directions from our hotel to a church. She even wrote down the directions on a piece of paper. There was a Mass at 11:30 a.m., which would work well with our jet lag.
This morning we went down for breakfast in the hotel restaurant on our way to Mass. I realized that I'd left the directions in the room, so rather than go back up to the room, I asked another woman at the front desk for directions to the closest Catholic church. She gave me directions that sounded different, but with the mix-up in communicating, I'd decided she must be talking about the same church. Both were described as close and beautiful. So we took her directions, found the church, got there at 11:15, and went in, only to find that it was a different church (but,it was Catholic) and had started at 11:00 a.m. What's more, this church was in Northern Ireland, not Ireland. So much for going to Easter Mass in Ireland. But the church was packed, so there are no shortage of Catholics in at least the southernmost part of Northern Ireland!
One of the pictures above shows how I parked our rental car on the sidewalk at church. Here's a little quiz--Why did I park the car like that? A. I am still having trouble driving from the right side of the car. B. This is how people park over here. C. To make it easier to check under the car for bombs after attending Mass in Northern Ireland. or D. I had one too many Happy Easter Guinnesses before church?
Reminds me of what happened to us this past Friday when we were on our way to our hotel, which is in the very north part of County Louth. We had missed a turn and ended up going further north than we were supposed to. We ended up in a fairly small town of Newry. We hadn't had lunch, so we thought we may as well go into the city centre for lunch before heading back to our hotel, a few kilometers south. So we go into this deli and the young woman behind the counter asks what we want. It was cold, and the hot dishes behind the counter looked appealing. Since it was Good Friday and Catholics can't eat meat that day, I rather proudly tell her as I looked over the choices that we, of course, can't eat meat today! She seemed unimpressed as she pointed out a couple of non-meat options. When I paid her for our lunch, she told me that she would have to give me change in pounds. It was then that I realized we were in Northern Ireland. No wonder my Catholicism didn't impress her much!
Today, after Mass, we went south to see the Trim Castle, located in, you guessed it, Trim. Trim Castle was where the film "Braveheart" was shot. It is very ancient, was a defense castle and touring it completely destroys any "romantic" ideas one has about castles. Like the rest of Ireland, it was cold! There was a Easter Sunday Hot Air Balloon Festival going on, and the traffic was completely bottled up. But it was interesting to not only get to see the famous and very old Trim Castle, built originally in 1176, but we also got in on the local color of a festival. Not surprisingly, the winds were too strong for any balloons to actually launch, so people stood around watching one balloon after another be inflated, to show off the company sponsor, only to be deflated. I thought it strange, if not risky, that there would be a hot air balloon festival planned anywhere in Ireland, given how iffy and unpredictable the weather is from minute to minute here. Then I talked to a guy who was there with his wife and little boy, and he said that this was the first annual hot air balloon festival. Not sure, but I'm betting we'll be able to say that we were at the ONLY hot air balloon festival in Trim!
We drove back north to our hotel and, as planned yesterday, skyped with Courtney, Steve, their boys, Molly and James. It was so fun to see them all! As fun as our travels have been, we are mindful of how far from home we are. Skype is a great way to feel at home with the ones you love! The biggest treat was getting to see Sutton take some decided steps on his own, giggling all the way! He's made definite progress in the three weeks since we saw him in Austin!
No comments:
Post a Comment