Snapped this one from my kitchen 15 minutes after sunrise this morning before heading to the gym. <3
Until I mucked it all up by twisting my ankle during badminton. Curses! Foiled again. Now, that said, it's not nearly as bad as it sounds. It took me about five minutes of swearing lovingly at myself to calm down. Kristy was super kind and sat on the floor next to me in order to make it seem like we were pow-wowing instead of me dying from pain. A nice boy at the gym came over to check on me too - "You went down but you didn't get back up. I wanted to make sure that you were okay." So I guess it really wasn't that bad. I made it home okay, but climbing the stairs up to my room? Oh gawd. Talk about a challenge. Stairs still are a challenge. However! The swelling went down well before I made it home and now I just gotta deal with stiffness. Hooray! Progress.
But that's neither here nor there. In more exciting news, here's a story from roughly a month ago because I'm slow and irresponsible when it comes to updating here. Aren't you guys the luckiest?
Back in November, my Medieval MA strand got together and went on a romp around the Northern Irish countryside. We visited a number of medieval sites (that were free and open to the public). It was also one of the windiest days I've experienced since I've arrived here. Anywho. We took two cars and the one I was in (the "girl" car as we called it, since all the passengers were of the female variety) got to the first stop first (how ood.). Our first stop was Grey Abbey, located in Greyabbey, Co. Down, NI. It's a Cistercian site founded during the late 12th century. James, our strand coordinator, started asking us questions about the Cistercian order to which no one really knew the answers.
Example:
"What color did the Cistercians wear?"
"Uh... white?"I think we were more lucky than knowledgeable, haha. Then the other car arrived and we were expected to explain what we learned. No one else was talking, so guess who picked up the slack? /raiseshand. I think I'm a terrible explainer - I tend to be a bit theatrical when I retell things, but apparently I made the Cistercians much more exciting than they would have been otherwise?
"Oh! The Cistercians wanted to go back to their more humble, uncorrupted roots, but ended up just like their Dominican and Franciscan brothers - corrupt and wealthy. Nobles gave them land and money to save their souls while they killed in the name of God! So instead of being like Christ, they ended up being typical human beings."Good times. As it turns out, the place was locked up - new information as it used to be open to the public, just the year before - and in an attempt to see the inside of the ruins, we made our way through the graveyard. Oooo~ Spooky. Well, it was a bit ood. As soon as we turned to go towards the grave site, the wind picked up and pushed us back. "You shall not pass!" Ugh, silly wind. We're medievalist. We do wut we want. But that wasn't the only eerie thing about it. There were a ton of black birds and crows flying around the ruins. More than I've seen in any one place. Kinda creepy. We couldn't remember if that meant good luck or bad luck... before completely disregarding it and looking inside Grey Abbey anyway.
See! The birds?? Oh man, right out of a Hitchcock film, srsly.
Next stop was the Derry Churches, not in Derry/Londonderry NI/IRE. Nope. They are in the middle of a field about a twenty minute drive outside of Portaferry, Co. Down, NI. The walk to the site was pretty funny - the path is fenced in and totally reminded me of herding cattle. I made a reference to an internet video (as I do on occasion. Okay, okay. All the time.) that had a herding dog chasing reindeer and his owner chasing him. "FENTON!" Oh god, that was fun to explain to everyone; I let my nerdiness be known for a moment. Luckily, everyone thought it was funny and that I still have a life. Phew! hahaha~
There are two churches - one was built in the 10th century while the other was built in the 12th. There's also evidence of pre-Norman religious activity at this site. Pretty cool, right? Inside the newer church, there's a stone that has a cross etched into it - you can't see it very well, but the grooves are very apparent when you touch them. The site would have been more enjoyable if the wind wasn't trying to sweep all of us away. We had to hide in the older church in order to merely hear each other. Crazy!
Here's the newer of the two churches. I didn't have the nifty camera lens that my parents got me for Xmas at this time, so the frame is pretty limited. This church is actually pretty big! <3
Next, we made our way into Portaferry for a cup of tea/coffee before getting on the ferry. It was my first time on a car ferry! That was pretty cool. The water was pretty choppy due to the high winds, but the ride itself was fairly smooth. I think the boat only used its engines for docking, quite honestly. I enjoyed it. It was fun!
The ferry in HDR. You can see how rough the water is and how poopy the weather was.
On the other side of the water, we were in Strangford, Co. Down, NI. From there, we went to a "tower house" which is basically a square, tall castle. I can't remember the name of the place, but we managed to uh... break-in? Sort of. One of the people on the trip had a key and we got in, but the door was stuck, so it was kicked down. Technicalities. Pfft. I don't have any pictures of the castle, mostly because we were eating lunch inside. Delicious and freezing cold.
After lunch, we made our way into Downpatrick, Co. Down, NI where we drove around Down Cathedral, waved at the grave of St. Patrick, and moseyed to Inch Abbey, another Cistercian site. This one was also built in the 12th century like Grey Abbey, but it was much bigger in scale. I had fun standing where the oven would have been. Don't bake me, bro! Oh lawrd.
The ground was so wet! I thought we were gonna be sucked in and never be found again. Like bog treasures. At least we would be perfectly preserved for future historians/archaeologists to find.
Our last stop was the Nendrum Monastery. Here was the earliest found tide mill, dating back to the 8th century! Now, it didn't look that impressive - a pile of rocks in the Strangford Lough - but still! How cool. The monastery was located at the top of the nearby hill. And on such a windy day, oh man! Was that a battle just to stand up there! The boys got to the site before us and Robin asked me to find Aiden. For the life of me, I couldn't see him until Robin said "Look at the tower." Aiden wore the exact color clothing in order to blend in perfectly with the stone! I felt like I was playing Where's Waldo? medieval edition. The view was incredible from the ruins~ You could see over the Lough and the sun was piercing the dark clouds. It was beautiful, despite being nearly blown over by the wind. <3 Well worth it, I think.
We ended our day with a pint and a nap in the car. Overall, it was a fun trip and I enjoyed spending time with my Irish friends! I haven't had an adventure since then, but that doesn't mean I don't have more planned for the future! : )
Happy early Xmas everyone and currently-happening Hanukkah and and early Kwanzaa! Yay holidays! I hope everyone will have a lovely holiday season this year! Stay shiny, friends!
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