Jonathan Andersen

After riding the coach around so much in the coach we were all starting to feel pretty lazy since none of us have been exercising much and we constantly eat out. Any laziness was kicked out of us today as our strong and fearless leader, Dr. Pate, led our expedition to the top of the third highest mountain in all of England – Helvellyn. I know many of you reading this have been to the Lake District and you know that it is impossible to put into words what it looks like. Everywhere I turned mountains surrounded me and lakes dotted the horizon. Since it rains all the time everything is green and I wanted to take 1000 pictures, but I tried to limit myself. Every landscape is a piece of art and it has probably been written about, photographed, or painted before.

The hike was optional but about 20 of us took the challenge. Dr. Pate gave a foreboding speech about how tough the hike would be and how good shoes and warm clothes were mandatory – some people thought she was joking. When we were halfway up the weather turned very cold and it began to rain. Persevering on we made it to the summit and the view from the top was magnificent. I know I’ll be back here to hike around one day. Be sure and check out the photos.

I’m now on a ferry leaving Belfast to head over to Scotland where we will proceed to the Lake District of England. After visiting some terribly boring prehistoric ancient mounds we toured Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Many neighborhoods are still sharply divided between Protestant and Catholics this city, but in the main part of the city there seemed to be little conflict. Belfast had a much more religious feel than the previous cities I visited. There were Protestant churches all over the place and even a few evangelical bookstores. It was very much a college city hosting thousands of young students. We got to tour the site where the Titanic was built as well as City Hall. Then we visited some murals throughout the city – including all of the ones dedicated to George W. Bush and American foreign policy. I wish instead of wasting colorful paint on murals regarding us, those artists would instead try to fix all of the dilapidated buildings throughout the city and focus on unity in their own nation.

I am starting to notice how all of us on the trip are repeating outfits multiple days in a row and one kid supposedly only brought one pair of underwear, but I won’t type his name.

Dublin is the busiest place I have been in a long time. It reminds me of New York, although I’ve never actually been there. A majority of the main shops and attractions are in once central area and there is a constant flow of people. After living in Section, Alabama this summer (population 800) it is kind of shocking being in this environment but I am adjusting.

We got on a hop on/off bus so we could have commentary while touring the city and it took us to all the places one must visit while in Dublin. First stop was Sunday service at St. Patrick’s cathedral. The church building, choir, and organ were magnificent and to think a church had been on the spot since the twelfth century was also astounding. In accordance with European culture we headed to the Jameson Whiskey Distillery right after that. The Guinness brewery is what most tourists go see, but drinking Guinness is similar to drinking a milkshake made with a pound of wheat and barley with a hint of bitterness thrown in the mix. The Jameson distillery was well done and at the end six people in each tour group got to become Official Whiskey Tasters. They compared the three most popular Irish Whiskeys, a Scotch, and Jack Daniels to Jameson and chose their favorite. Of course, almost all the people chose Jameson. Two of my Furman friends were chosen for this coveted title and luckily they were still walking when we left the distillery.

Monday we went to Trinity College to see The Book of Kells – a pictorial guide to the Gospel made by monks to help convert the people of Ireland. Afterwards I wanted to head to St. Michan’s Church to tour their crypt but no one seemed too interested in going with me. I arrived at the small church and the guide came and got two other men and me. He unlocked the hatches to go below the church and we proceeded to walk through the concrete tunnel and pass by caged doorways through which you could see coffins stacked to the ceiling. I don’t get scared too easily, but the way the guide kept lowering his voice and the fact we were surrounded by coffins wasn’t too comforting. In the first part of the crypt one room was lit up since it was no longer active, meaning families couldn’t put anyone else in there. There were many ornate caskets from Dublin’s aristocrats. The combination of dry air, methane gas, and the temperature cause the bodies to be quote “in a wonderful state of preservation, though not embalmed.” This was evident when he took us to the room where you could view bodies since their caskets had broken open. Four bodies lay there and he let us enter in and see their toenails and other parts that were so wonderfully preserved. Most exciting was the corpse of a Crusader whose legs were crossed in an X fashion to signify this. He said people in the days of old used to touch Crusader’s bodies for good luck. Then he asked us if we wanted to improve our luck. We all got to go in and shake the man’s hand which still had skin on it. I bought a scratch lottery ticket later that day, but I didn’t win.

Since it was the annual KA Registration Night party at Furman we couldn’t let the night pass us by here in Dublin. At a nightclub Bridget proceeded to request country favorites such as Country Roads, Sweet Home Alabama, and others the singer knew and all of the KAs and girls danced in front of the crowd while others slowly joined.

I’ve been gone only three days now and it feels like I’ve been over here for weeks. As soon as we unloaded from the plane at 7:30AM the tour began. Although they knew we would all be tired and jetlagged we toured all over Ireland our first day. We stopped by the little town of Lahinch and proceeded to the Cliffs of Moher. They were simply breathtaking. Keith Knowlton, my roommate for the trip, and I hiked along them for a while with our professor Dr. Aeisi. He continually pulled us back from the edge and wouldn’t let us get within five feet of it. We would raise his blood pressure every few minutes by peering over the edge, but it’s going to be a long trip so we didn’t push him too much.

We stopped by a few other places throughout the day (see pictures) and whenever we got off the bus all forty-one of us would begin snapping photos. I felt like those foreigners you see in Atlanta moving around in a mob all taking photos of the exact same thing. That night we got settled in at our hotel in Galway and went out to a pub that night for dinner. We were able to finally find one that was full of other university students, and the band, of course, was playing all of last year’s American hits.

Thursday, we toured more historical sites in the area and our “lecture” for the day was given over the bus microphone while we drove. Everyone had finally caught up on sleep so we went to Club Cuba after dinner. Of course we were about an hour earlier than the normal crowd, but that was okay since we got in for free. The dance floor finally became packed and so some girls on the trip and I made a bet. If they asked some locals to dance I had to do the same. They quickly found some lonely guys standing on the edge of the dance floor and now the pressure was on for me. Courage finally swelled up inside of me and once I was dancing I asked the girl where she was from. Then in that dreadful accent we are all so familiar with she told me – Baawston, Massachusetts. My relatives raised me better than to entertain northern girls, so I quickly moved on looking for an Irish one.

Everyone is sore and barely moving after our trip to the Aran Islands today. The history there is so rich and it blows my mind how old all of the historical sites are. We traveled the island on cycles and about ten of us stuck together the whole time. We had lunch at the world’s smallest church, Church of Saint Benan (3.7m x 1.8m). It was established in the third century! Think about that, four hundred years after Jesus walked the earth the gospel had already reached a remote island on the coast of Ireland.

We continued on to Dun Aonghus, a Celtic stone fort built in 2000 BC. The photographs speak louder than anything I could type about this place.

Dr. Aeisi told us he thought we were the best group he had ever had (and he’s older than Coca-Cola) and I know these next few weeks touring around are going to hold many more adventures.