The Adventures of Amanda and Flat Stanley

I’ve just returned from Galway, Ireland which is on the Atlantic Ocean side of Ireland. We stayed in two bed-n-breakfasts while we were there. The one I was privileged to stay in was called The White House. Our room window overlooked Galway Bay… it was beautiful. The day we arrived we all went to this fancy Italian restaurant where we all ate to our hearts’ content. YUMMY! When we got back the bed-n-breakfast one of the boys, Chris, came into the room I was standing in, got down on one knee, handed me a rose that was drawn on a little piece of paper, and asked me if I would be his date to the Pick-a-date on Valentine’s Day. I was the second person to get asked!! The next day we visited a mission organization in Galway, and then we went and explored Connamara which is a rocky area which is quite different from the landscape of the east coast where we are living. We drove to a bubbling stream and we got out of the bus to take pictures. It was very very muddy there and I fell… needless to say I was had to explain why the back of my pants were brown. J We decided to stop at this hotel to use the restroom but to our dismay the hotel was closed for renovations. Luckily one of the members of our group was brave enough to ask one of the construction men if we could use the restroom. He said of course… but what he didn’t know was that there were thirty of us who had to go. They laughed and laughed at us as we kept piling in. The walls of the stalls were freshly painted so some of us got paint on us. It was truly a funny experience.
We went to visit Bunrady Castle where we received a tour. It was the first time I had ever been inside a Castle. After our tour we wondered around Fowler Park until dinner time. For dinner we went back to the Castle and attended a Medieval Banquet. We had four courses. The first on was soup, then we had barbequed ribs, then came the grilled chicken and vegetables, and last but not least we had strawberry cake for dessert. It was so fun. All the people were dressed in Medieval clothing and sang us songs while we ate. Brian our bus driver taught us a chant that Irish people say at Rugby matches. He says Ogie, Ogie, Ogie and we respond with OY! OY! OY! as loud as we can. (The first time we were taught this Brian was driving and a bird flew into our windshield.) We did this three times during the Medieval Banquet. As we left a man was standing at the doorway playing the bagpipes.
We also went to visit the Burren which is a geological phenomenon. Basically it is a limestone desert. All you see for miles is limestone except the occasional green you see popping up through the cracks of limestone.
On one of the last night we were there, four of us went to a pub to listen to some live music. It was a blast. Then on our way back my friend Rob and I decided to check out the Atlantic Ocean. It was low tide and dark. There only two colors on the ground beneath me, dark and light. I decided I needed to stay away from the dark stuff because it was probably seaweed and I didn’t want to get that all over my shoes. But what I didn’t know was that the light areas on the ground were little puddles of water. Rob got ahead of me and turned around and asked why I was stepping in the puddles only? I laughed and said that I thought I was doing the opposite and keeping other stuff off it. When we finally reached the waters edge a lot of memories came flooding back to the times I went shelling on the shore of Sanibel Island, Florida at 5 in the morning with Brenda. I was amazed at how far the water retreats in low tide. I remember being a little scared my first time to walk out there because I was walking into what was the Sea the day before. I missed that feeling but God was so gracious and allowed me to have another experience all of my own in Ireland.