A Mother's Wisdom

'Things have a way of working themselves out, don't they?'

My mom texted me that last week when, after much difficulty with our Spring Break plans, things finally seemed to be working out for the better. Our original plan of spending three days at the Aran Islands were swamped when we arrived to 12 foot waves which were certain to keep us on the mainland. Great. With 80 euro reservations at a hostel on one of the islands, a bus trip that was a headache to make up to Doolin, and few options, we turned right back around and returned to Limerick. The weather outlook for Doolin was not good for a few days and staying there would have only put more money into a trip that was failing already. We got back to the apartment, soaked up our woes in a dish of Chili Dip and were unmotivated to make new plans, bummed that we weren't biking on the beach at that time.

But as the week progressed, and I came down with a not-so-nice cold, we became rather thankful our plans changed. Instead of being miserable with a headcold on the Aran Islands, we took is slow for a few days. For the first part of the week, we did the plans we originally had for the second half of the week. We saw 'Alice in Wonderland' in Ennis, we went out to dinner in Limerick, and eventually became more motivated to make new plans.

Halfway through the week, the weather turned beautiful. We went to Tralee in a (failed) attempt to go to the beach. Tralee tourism is either very deceitful or geared toward tourist with cars. Either way, we saw the muddy mouth of the Dingle Bay and Ireland's largest working windmill, which ironically wasn't working the day we visited. Regardless, the weather was warm and sunny, and the views were scenic, even if they weren't the beach.

For our big excursion of the week, we found a bus tour of Bunratty Castle, the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, and Doolin. Not only did we have beautiful weather for the trip, but we had the most quality tour guide we've encountered here in Europe. From him we learned that drinking from bottles is fashionable, you should buy the book 'Angela's Ashes', today's youth will not have pension when we get older, there should still be a window tax, and many other quality life lessons. We returned to Doolin, the place where our Aran Islands excursion failed, and went to our new favorite coffee shop. We trekked along the Cliffs of Moher [and I scared Phillip to death by screaming bloody murder about a bee that landed on me on top of the unstable part of the Cliffs]. We walked around the Burren, a rocky land that you can't grow anything on and we drove one of the most scenic drives in all of Europe.

After that, the weekend brought us our normal Limerick life. Market on Saturday. Mass and skyping on Sunday. Homemade dinners. Munster Rugby Games. Our Favorite Pub.

Although I didn't get to spend three days on the beaches of Ireland, our Spring Break was extremely successful. In fact, I am glad things didn't work out the way they were supposed to. Now we can return to the Islands in better weather. We got to see the Cliffs of Moher. Everything worked itself out.

That, though, seems to be the theme of this trip. Often things don't go the way we panned, but somehow everything always works out better than planned. As for future plans, the Easter Bunny brought us Munster Rugby tickets and the day after the game, my family comes to visit! We just have to get through these next two (and last two) weeks of classes, then its smooth sailing until we come home.
Phillip and I on the West Coast of Ireland during our Friday Bus Tour.