On the first of November, I took a spontaneous trip to
Dublin with Marlee, Kim and Maddie with the sole purpose of going to this
church that Marlee had a connection with.
We got to Dublin Saturday and had all evening and the next
morning to just explore and see what we run into. This kind of plan usually is
a grand adventure or a total waste of time. Luckily, Dublin was popping with
interesting happenings this Saturday afternoon.
We left our hostel and ventured down O’Connell Street and
heard commotion and singing going on further down the road. All of a sudden we
found ourselves among thousands of people. Apparently November 1st
was the day for the city’s Anti-Water Charges Protest, or at least one of them.
So that was a cool experience running into that commotion.
We continued walking and went to the Temple Bar area. There
are always people there and you never know what you are going to run into. On
this day there happen to be a group of really happy drunken men having a great
time! And this was at like 4pm…
Temple Bar is such a popular place and a must go to in
Dublin.. Apparently haha I didn’t know that until I was there. It was cool
because we got to see the bar during the day and then we went back at night to
see the night seen of the bar. Definitely a touristy spot!! It was fun singing
Irish songs with the crowd there though!
Sunday morning we took a free walking tour around Dublin. Our
guide took us to Trinity College, the Temple Bar area and Dublin Castle. I had
been to Trinity College and the Temple Bar before, but it was cool walking
through both places again with a guide who knew all the inside information that
I would have never learned otherwise! I also got to see the Castle. Turns out
it was bombed way back and now there is only one of the four towers still
standing. The tour continued to a couple other places, but Marlee and I had to leave
early to make it to church.
It is interesting what is on the same row as the castle now... ancient to modern all in one!
So the whole reason I went to Dublin this weekend was to go
to a church with Marlee. Her church back at home has a connection with one in
the Dublin area and she didn’t want to go alone so I went with her and I’m glad
I did! It was such a fun experience! We took the light rail way down to the
south of the city. When we got off we were in a subdivision with no phone data
or wifi to help us navigate. I did find a map before we left though so we weren’t
going in completely blind, don’t worry! We walked through streets for about 15
minutes and couldn’t find anything close to a church service! Just as we were
about to give up, Marlee chose to check this one path just in case, and as we
walked down this little pathway, we heard singing… and really good singing at
that. All of a sudden Marlee yelled, “It’s Church!!!!” She then started running
toward the music. It was so fun! We entered this little building, I think it
was a community center, and there was a group of about 20 people singing. It
was really cool too because there were no instruments, but they sounded so
good!! Marlee and I joined in the back row and immediately felt welcomed. Throughout
the 3 hours we were there, people constantly came and introduced themselves and
started talking with us. It was such a fun and comforting experience!
