Park and a Playdate

On Sunday, Eli and I went to Tully Park, which is located in our neighborhood.  He had gone there multiple times, but this was my first visit.

The park was built around an ancient church and burial ground.  The original church structure dates back to between the 6th and 9th century, and the chancel was added around the 12th century.  The church was in use until 1615, when it was damaged by storms, fell into disrepair, and was abandoned.

It boggles my mind to traipse around structures that were in place centuries before the United States was a twinkle in its Founders' eyes - well before even the Founders were twinkles in their parents' eyes.

Before I knew we'd be moving to Ireland one day, I would amuse myself by going onto Zoopla (the UK version of Zillow) and looking at houses there for kicks.  It never failed to amaze me when I'd be looking at photos of a house and there, in the back pasture, would be the ruins of a castle tower or something.  I couldn't even wrap my mind around the prospect of having part of a castle in my backyard - it just didn't compute.

Here in Ireland, you can barely turn around without encountering some kind of historical landmark, which is pretty cool.

(Little fern growing out of the church wall)

Today (Friday), I had an adult playdate with a new friend named Meg.  At the women's club meeting I attended back in March, I struck up a conversation with a gal.  I asked where she was from and when she'd arrived - she said she was from Minnesota and her family had arrived in August.  I was like, "Does your husband work at Element?" and she was like "Yes!"  When Eli got home that evening, I asked if he knew her husband - Eli said he wasn't in the same unit but that they did work together at times.

I was able to friend her on Facebook recently and I sent her a message, asking if she would like to get together to chat.  To my delight, Meg accepted the invite so we got together this morning.

She suggested a place called Helios Coffee, which is in Dundrum near the library.  It's basically a food truck, set back from the street in an alley between a bank and a beauty salon.  There's also a sauna component to this company, which is an interesting but odd pairing.

This is the sign that was out near the sidewalk - if you can't quite read it, it says "Sunny Init" which is a very informal way of saying "It's sunny, isn't it?"  For the last few days, the weather here has been warm and sunny, and I don't think the Irish folks know exactly what to do with themselves about it.  It doesn't usually do this, apparently.

I was early (I'm perpetually early) so I went up to get my drink and snag us one of the small wooden tables that were lined up on either side of the alley.  I paid for my hot chocolate with a crisp €5 bill.  The cashier held it up and remarked that it was unbelievably unmarred and new-looking.  I joked with her and said, "You're probably thinking 'this is counterfeit - call the authorities.'"  She chuckled and said, "Yeah, we need to get one of those pens [where the ink changes color when used on a dud bill]."

I collected my drink and sat down at a table in the shade.  It was over 50 degrees when I left the house, so I figured I didn't need my hoodie.  But sitting in the shade with a breeze blowing, I felt a bit chilled.

The truck had music playing, and I was enjoying many of the selections:  "Benny and the Jets," "Lovely Day," "Drops of Jupiter," "Stuck in the Middle with You," and "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" were just a few of the songs I heard while waiting.

A couple of people had dogs with them and from behind me, I heard a man say "Be careful, she wants to steal your croissant."  😃

I'm terrible at recognizing someone after only meeting them once, so I let Meg know I'd be wearing a teal-colored shirt with "Duluth" written in white on the front.  She responded and said she'd planned to wear a teal-colored sweatshirt with MN and a crossed-paddle design on the front.  Serendipity.

She arrived, got her drink, and we fell into chatting as though we'd known each other for more than a passing couple of hours.  I felt so comfortable talking with her, telling her how I met Eli, how I lived in Texas for nearly a decade, that I was an introvert.  She shared how she'd met her husband, her adventures in driving in Ireland, and that she was also an introvert.

We talked for two hours before she had to leave to pick up one of her kiddoes from school.  As we said goodbye, she asked if I wanted to share a hug which I did without hesitation.

As I have written before, I've felt very unmoored here, very isolated and disconnected.  Spending time with someone from Minnesota who's also new to Ireland was exactly what I needed, and I owe Meg much gratitude for helping me regain a sense of peace.

 

Tuesday in the Park

On Tuesday, Eli and I visited Bushy Park, which is about 9 miles from us, as the crow flies.  I don't know how fast a crow can fly, but it probably would've been faster to go by crow.

We took the tram to Dundrum and walked a short distance to the bus stop.  We arrived at about 1:20 p.m. and the bus was scheduled to be at this stop at 1:30 p.m.  As with Bus 7 at the Brides Glen stop, Bus 74 was lurking just around the corner with its doors shut.  We could see it almost smirking at us as we stood waiting.

But eventually it lurched around the corner, and we were off.  The ride was pretty bumpy.  Eli said if we ever needed a massage, we could just take a trip on Bus 74.

Both coming and going, our bus driver had to honk at a driver who thought it was a great idea to dart in front of a double-decker vehicle.  If you wondered if people were just as stupid on the roadways here as in the US, yes, I can tell you that they are just as stupid.

There is a small LED board on the buses that show the upcoming stop, and there is a verbal announcement of the upcoming stop as well  One of the quirky things here is that sometimes, the name of the stop listed on the official transit website doesn't match the stop listed on that LED board.  We needed to disembark at Dodder Park Road (stop 1301).  At one point, the LED board said Dodder Park Road, so I pushed the "stop" button and we went to stand by the door.  However, when the doors opened, the bus stop sign did not say Dodder Park Road (stop 1301) so we didn't get off the bus.  Eli got on his phone to look at the map - and it turns out, we'd needed to get off at that stop, even though the information didn't match.  So we got off at the next stop and just had to walk a little farther to get to the park.

I had wanted to visit a park near a river, and the River Dodder cuts through the park.  We crossed the river by stepping across these raised concrete pillars.  I wanted to get a photo while standing in the middle of the stream but was afraid I'd lose my equilibrium and either fall in or drop my phone.  So a photo after crossing had to suffice.

The path was very wooded and quiet, and there were a couple small waterfalls.

Sound up for the following two items:

I had bought some bird-safe shelled peanuts so I could feed the crows while waiting on tram platforms, and I brought it with to the park.  Here were a couple friends I made when we first got to the small pond/lake in the park.

They were very excited about these treats and got closer to me.  One even flew up and fluttered near Eli - I'm sure if I put my arm out, this bird would've landed on it.

We continued our walk along the shore of the lake, and these new friends bobbed along after us.  I stopped near a group of ducks and started scattering nuts both on the path and in the water.

It was amusing to watch the mallards snatching at the peanuts in the water.  If they didn't grab the treat before it sank, they were out of luck.  The pond/lake was only a couple feet deep but mallards are apparently too buoyant to make it to the bottom.  There were some smaller ducks that were able to dive so a couple of them were having a field day, scooping up everything that fell to the sand.

Eventually, I ran out of treats, and we kept walking.  We encountered these freaking huge leaves, a small water feature that fed the lake, and a heron.  There were also some smallish fish in the water but I didn't get a photo of them.

I took this photo of the waterfall while near the side of it.  The blur of the rushing water makes it look a bit abstract.  I think it looks cool.  And of course, I went searching for ferns and found them.

By this time, I was hungry and my feet were tired (and we both needed a restroom) so it was back to wait for Bus 74.  A lady sitting next to us on the bus was on her phone.  She was speaking in a language other than English (French?  Russian?).  It was hard to tell because she was talking very fast and pretty much non-stop.  After she got off the bus, Eli said, "I was fully expecting to hear her say 'When you get this message, call me' because there was no way someone else was on the other end of the line since she never took a breath."

We got off the bus in Dundrum, about a block from the library.  I had a book to return, and two books to pick up, so we walked over there (and availed ourselves of their bathroom) before walking to Nando's near Dundrum Town Centre.

I again had the butterfly chicken with medium peri-peri spice, fries, and garlic bread.  Eli wasn't extremely hungry so he had a couple of appetizers - spiced olives, halloumi, and hummus.  I didn't want to have caffeine that late in the day (it was around 4 p.m.) so I had orange Fanta, and it was really good.

Eli has recently begun taking a class to learn how to speak Irish.  It's in Dublin near his workplace at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays.  He had some time to kill before going to the language school so he decided to wander around the mall while I headed for home.

There are hidden gems like this all over Ireland.  I'm looking forward to discovering more of them.