The Northern Lights: County Donegal

(Note, this is a really long post, so I'm going to break it into section. No pressure to read all of it.)

Pre-Departure

Last weekend, after attempting to watch the 6 Nations Rugby game with my friends Erin and Alex, I ended up getting invited to a rather large trip up to the northern tip of Ireland to this place called Malin Head, in County Donegal. There was even a chance we might see the famous Northern Lights (which apparently doesn't happen in Ireland too often). I wasn't up to anything for the weekend, and the group discount was pretty cheap, so I said. Let's do it!

We didn't get to see Santa.

After eating dinner at DCU with the other Tar Heels, I ended up getting back to UCD quite late, and only getting to sleep about 4 hours before I had to wake up/pack/beautify myself/shower or just in general be ready to face a two day trip to the arctic north. I showed up at the bus stop at 8 30, when I was told we were supposed to meet..

Nobody was there.

Day 1: Lurking in Dark, I Wanna Make Love in this Pub

After waiting for the next bus to come, I hopped off on my way around 8:32, and was planning on walking up to the stop for the charter bus, when my bus driver offered to just take me up there anyways because it was on the way to the station. Get to talking with your drivers, and you can find out they'll be the nicest people you know. So, I got to the right stop, jumped on the bus, and had that awful moment when I realized of the 13 people going on the trip, I only knew 3 of them by appearance/name. So, I sat down in the back of the bus, and started meticulously scanning peoples faces to see if I recognized them by the facebook event. Luckily, half of the group showed up and we broke the ice successfully.

The trip was about 4.5 hours by bus, and we steered our way through the UK (this counts as my first international bus trip), and up to the Peninsula via three buses, where we ended up in this small town called Cardonough.

Look what they had!

After spending a couple hours waiting in a café for the rural bus, and getting to know the overwhelmingly large number of people from California in the group, we finally made it to the Sandrock hostel on the western tip of Malin Head around 4:30. But not without being harassed in the thickest northern Ireland accent by the bus driver. This was just a reoccuring theme for the weekend, as it would turn out.

The hostel had a beach. It was a bit cold for swimming.

After warming ourselves in the sitting room with tea and biscuits, we decided to brave the cold and take a 15-20 minutes hike into town to see what the pubs were like. We got about 5 minutes in when the rain started coming in from the ocean behind us. It gave us extra motivation to get to the pub, where there was a roaring fire and drinks to be had.

The subsequent 30 minutes in the bar, we spent alternating between putting our butts to the fire and watching our clothes steam, and talking to the bartender about Ireland (also, another thick accent). We treked through the pitch dark using only two of our flashlight equipped phones to find the next pub, which was up the road and whose claim to fame was being "Ireland's Northernly-most Pub!" There was a child who wouldn't stop running back and forth from one side of the room to the other, and our friend Radhika decided to strike up a conversation with him. He was there with his family, and he kept trying to get the attention of the women. I got his attention by asking him which one he liked the most, and he pointed at our friend Alex. I then told him that she had a crush on him, and it was instantly a game-show love connection.

She was a bit too old for his liking...

We got dinner there, then headed in for the night to wait for the other half of the group who had left after they finished their friday classes.

While we were waiting, we played "cluedo" (the same thing as clue, just with a funny name). Apparently, they call the wrench a spanner here? Absolutely ridiculous. But that's culture for you. The gang turned out to be incredibly superstitious, so thanks to a open door and an automatic timer, my friend Liz and I managed to convince the gang that something was moving around outside. Classic ghost move. It was cloudy, so we didn't get a chance to see the northern lights.

Day 2: The Northern Lights, Hailstorms, and Night Sprints

After waking up around 10, we decided to take a stroll around the northern loop on the island. This included THE northern-most tip of Ireland, and was supposed to take around 2-3 hours. After more tea and biscuits, we left around 11:30 and hiked off up the hill. Photos say a lot more than I can explain, so I'll just post a few. The noteworthy events that transpired here were

1. Getting Caught in a hailstorm and subsequently huddling for warmth
2. Finding a random sheep in the middle of the road who looked like he was going to charge
3. Getting caught in another hailstorm
4. Getting caught in a final hailstorm

SO, yes, that was a pretty good hike. We got all the way around, stopping only to see this small trinket shop called "The Curiousity Shop." After getting back in town, we stopped at the fish market where 4 of the folks in the group picked up a couple of large Lobsters which were cheaper here than on the mainland.

A couple of the group went back, and myself and the two other people who were not from California (affectionately dubbed the Anti-California Coalition) decided to hunker down in a pub and just chat. After emerging to find another heavy rain storm (this, also is becoming a theme), we headed back to warm up some food before we made an attempt at the northern lights.

After eating, heading back to the pubs (where we got into a great discussion with our new friend Leo about the gender spectrum), and running around the village, we got a taxi ride back around 12:30 from a guy on the island who apparently loaned out his car for people staying at the hostel. I was sitting in the front trying to understand what he was saying, and we got into an interesting conversation about IRA members and crazy people in his part of Ireland. Quintessential Ireland, no?

After spending 30 minutes staring at the stars from our beach location (note, Nokia phones can go in 2 feet of sea water and be perfectly ok after spending a night in a bowl of Rice. Thank you, Alex!), we decided to trudge up the northern path to see if we could get a glimpse of the northern lights. By this point, our group of 13 had dwindled down to 6, which dwindled down to 4 halfway up the hill.

But we kept on, and arrived at the location we thought would work best around 3:15, only to encounter another hailstorm. We passed the time waiting for the clouds to pass with bad jokes, and by the time 3:50 came around, we were basically willing to give up on it. After walking no more than 500 meters down the street, some resiliant members of our group started walking back to the top of the hill to see if there was ANY chance we could get a hint of them...

We got to the top of the hill, and there they were. It's not as obvious as all the photographs make it out to be. But essentially, this is what it is. Staring at the north pole, the light becomes incredibly bright in comparison to other parts of the ocean. The lights played a green/blue tint and slowly changed over the 15 minutes we huddled for warmth and watched them pass by before clouds swept over and they disappeared.

It was the most spectacular thing I've seen.

BUT I don't have photos. :( Because I didn't have a lens with a 30 minute exposure. So I'm sorry I can't share that with you, but I'm sure that's just another adventure you'll get to take.

Notes for the week:

• Saw my first play at the Abbey Theatre! They put the students in the front row and made us take notes. I bet the actors loved that, but it was really good!
• Link to my ambassador page if you're interested in checking out my blog for the college. They might be pieced from some of these entries, but mostly they're original.
• Midterms this week. :/, guess it's time to start putting my head to the books.