Woke up a little early today. I took the tesco donut and put it, with a sandwhich , in the butter container that is my Tupperware. Then, I met up with mattie, skippy, matt, and Hannah and went down to the iona building. We got ther and it was awesome! There were like 20 people going on this trip! Woohoo! No damn girls and their Vag poses. Thank goodness. We got on the bus and matt sat next to me. We had a good conversation the whole ride, about life and Pogge. It always came back to Pogge. We laughed about that. Then as we were getting towards gougane barra, he started talking to Tara and another irish girl. They talked about this one actor and this one movie. I noticed the Z-claw had returned, once again. The tour guide lady played cassettes of irish music. I recongnized many songs, because I played them in whistle and accordion. She talked about leaving a part of you at the holy site, like a hair, and being in touch with nature.
We got to Gougane barra and passed the chapel on the lake. I was like Yes!! Here it is!! We went to the forested area and walked on the nature trail. It was really nice, and there were high mountains all around. I really want to go back there in may or something and hike up the mountains. We walked up to this area. There were streams and pine trees everywhere. The trail was nice, and the Lee flowed right beside, about 10 feet thick at most. I was getting my exercise because I would run for a while, take a picture, and then run to catch up with the group. I did this the whole way over there. I was sweaty when we got to the high part.
Then we walked back to the bus and went to the chapel. Whoa. It was so cool. Dudley said a few words. He said that the monks came over here to build a monstery, so they could appreciate the glory of God. “And what better place” Dudley said as he waved his hand over towards the mountains. I broke the silence and said " …yeah…. ". So the race was on to go take pictures of all the stuff. I wanted to get my desktop background picture, but the reflection was nonexistent, so I had to make do with other ones. The view was amazing, to say the least.
Then we went into this town, and I could see the windmills we saw on the paps and Caherbarnagh hikes! I could even see the paps themselves as we were driving. It was really cool. I really like the paps. We ate chips at this hotel because the family run restaurant was very overpriced. Then we walked around this little no name town.
We got on the bus later and went to this remote site called Balleyvourney. St. Gobnait has a statue here, and it’s a holy site. St. Gobnait was said to have been protected by a swarm of bees that would sting the enemeies. We made the rounds, looked at the stone house, dodgeged raindrops, and then went to the church. The tour guide lady made us listen to a song by Sean O’reirda when we stood by his grave. The rain was gently coming down, and it made for a nice scene.
Then we went back, and dispersed. I liked the setting better on this iona trip, but I thought the other one was better planned. I worked on Pogge. No hike tomorrow. Maria and Matt and Andy are going to go.
