::Narnia, The Hill of Tara, and Goodbye::

So, while we were staying in the Manor, we could see this very tall stone structure from our windows. I think the stairway window in particular. It was this giant wall of stone covered in plants and vines. And, at some point in the week in the Manor I think everyone of us commented on it. Or, we would ask, "what the heck is that thing over there?" And then finally, on the last day, we were waiting for Noel to pick us up and Aliya, Elizabeth and I decided to go explore it.

Elizabeth made the comment, "it's like in adventure stories where the three bored children go and explore the abandoned building across the street and end up in a fantasy world!"

from then on, we called the place 'Narnia.'

ALIYA, ELIZABETH, AND JULIE: Bye Joe! We're going to Narnia!
JOE: Okay, have fun!

and we were off...


okay, well, this was us being bored all afternoon. we put Aliya's camera in lots of random places around the yard and then would run and pose. what hott statues! (this was also the backyard of the place we were staying. the camera is perched on the side of the gazebo. it was fancy.)


and then on our way to Narnia, we stopped to have another quick photoshoot. this was in front of the house belonging to Frances, the manor keeper.

this was what we could see from our windows. DUH we had to explore it.

every other 'DANGER' or 'WARNING' sign hadn't kept us out, so why would this 'NO TRESPASSING' sign?


the door had an, old, rusty lock on it that Elizabeth managed to get unlocked. it was like being in The Secret Garden!


this pictures was taken from the INSIDE of Narnia. the wall was huge. and everything was so beautiful. we walked in the door and birds flew out from the plants. like a jungle. the sunlight in these photos is like magic.





everything else was in total ruins, but this window still looked so new. it was just soft looking.

this was in the very front of Narnia. we had to be careful because the "doorway" leading to this room was partially collapsed. we didn't want to be crushed today.



we are like goddesses.


out the door to Narnia. we didn't end up crossing that stone wall, but it led to a large pasture.


this was the back part of Narnia, behind the stone wall.

THEN, we were walking back to the Manor just as Noel was pulling in to pick us up!!! He brought us to the Hill of Tara, the "Hill of the Kings". It was the seat of the High King of Ireland.



EVERYONE: Where's Aliya?
ALIYA: (pops up from the grass)


Elizabeth was flying





There was a mini-passage tomb.

We stood on it.

Elizabeth tried to go in, but there were bars.

After this, we stopped quickly at the cafe and had tea, coffee and sweet things. Then, Noel brought us to his parent's house so we could print off our boarding passes for the next day. We said goodbye to his parents, Kerianne's parents, and Alan, Suzanne's husband.

Kerianne and Noel came over to the house later that night and we all hung out for a while. Then, we went next door and watched X-Men 3 with the whole gang.

We were up super bright and super early the next day and Noel drove us to the airport. Elizabeth and Joe's flight was at 10:30, and this photo was taken right before we said goodbye to them. I got really sad, because now the trip seemed over.


Aliya and I hung around the airport for a while. Ate breakfast. Drank coffee. Drank juice. Decided not to drink Bulmer's Pear at the bar. Almost bought chocolate. Boarded the plane. Our flight was at 1pm.

Good flight back. I sat next to someone named Art. I liked that. We had lunch. I watched:

MARLEY AND ME: About a crazy dog who ruins people's lives but in the end they realize it's all been worth it because they love him so much. Whatever. I didn't like it. I hated that dog. I did not find him cute or lovable. He RUINED their house. He made their lives miserable. They couldn't bring him anywhere. The dog trainer hated them, the dog sitter hated them. WHY wouldn't that dog just listen?? McSteamy from Grey's was in it, so I liked that part. They moved to Philadelphia and I liked that part too. I just really couldn't stand the dog. Owen Wilson was good looking as always. I'm just so totally not a dog person.

then I started to watch:

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON: Which Aliya strongly advised me not to watch because she said it sucked. But, I tried to watch it anyways. I fell asleep pretty early on, woke up, shut it off, and went back to sleep.

From what I could tell, it was a lame movie. Undeserving of all the awards attention. BUT! I Netflixed it anyways so I could see the rest of it because I realized that I saw not even a little glimpse as to why Brad was nominated for Best Actor. and then it just made me angry. So, I haven't watched it yet, but believe me, I will let you know.

So, our flight landed in Boston at like, 4pm, or something crazy. It was sad not having anyone there to greet us, or to be excited to see us. We pretended Dave was there, waiting to give us a ride home.

But instead, we found the ticket machine for the T, and were about to buy tickets when a man came up to us and offered us his extra. It still had 2$ on it and that was all we needed. Perfect! So nice.

The Silver line came pretty quickly and took us to the Red line. We were pros at carrying our bags now. I thought it was weird because we were now amongst all these people who hadn't just been in Ireland for two weeks.

Got off at Davis Square. Headed to Kathleen's house to pick up Aliya's car. We crashed there for a few minutes. Decided not to drive to Kate's house because of the traffic situation going through Boston.

So! We headed home. Stopping only for ice cream at McDonald's, trying to create the 99 cone (ice cream cone we had in Doolin. vanilla soft serve with chocolate candy bar (flake bar) stuck in the side. totes delish.) and then for gas.

We were thinking about dinner as we were getting close and then I remembered that there was an Irish pub right in the center of Lebanon, New Hampshire! A mere five minutes from my house. So, we decided to go there, because we weren't quite ready to say goodbye to Ireland.

We walk in the doors of Salt Hill, and there is a huge TRAD SESH in the middle of the room. IT WAS AMAZING. We couldn't believe it!!!!! We found a great table where we had a good view of the music. It was great. And we learned the there is a trad sesh every tuesday night from 6-9! We drank the American version of Bulmer's, called Magner's, which was a little bit different because we were carded and it didn't come in a huge pint glass, it came in a normal sized bottle.

After nicely easing our way back home, we crashed. Called our homes. And then slept.


Friends, I'm glad you got to come back to Ireland with me. I hope you enjoyed it.


i don't know if you can see the changes that have come over me
in these last few days i've been afraid we might drift away.
i've been telling old stories, singing songs, that make me think about where i come from
that's the reason why i seem so far away today.

so let me tell you that i love you and i think about you all the time,
Caledonia you're calling me,
now i'm going home.

.Jacuzzi.Jacuzzi.