So here we are, in Ireland. Yay, we didn't get detained! Imagine if that had happened again, ugh. Anyway, now we have somewhere to actually live for two and a half months. We've unpacked our things, gone grocery shopping and settled in. We've finally done laundry, something that we really needed to do long before this time. This is our sixth day here. It's really quite unbelievable that we're really here and that this is actually the way we're going to be living for nearly three months.
Let me explain how we came to be here, and what we're going to do while we're here.
Because of our detainment we were unable to go to Scotland and volunteer at a youth center as planned. We had no idea throughout much of September where we would be during October, November, and half of December, which only added stress to our unstable plans that often deteriorated altogether. But Mark has many connections--throughout the world--and he found us some options of places to go. We considered multiple different countries--France, Switzerland, and Hungary were some potential options--but eventually we ended up settling on Ireland.
The place we're staying is quite surreal. What we heard before coming is that we would have our own apartment--which we were so stoked about--and that we would be living in a building that is a retreat center (where groups are sometimes hosted in dorms), out in the countryside in Ireland. Upon our arrival we discovered that we don't so much have an apartment as our own house. Seriously, it's huge, at least in comparison to a normal apartment. It's on the second story of a long building (which actually isn't the retreat center or "Big House," it's just next to it). The flat, as our hosts call it, is basically a good sized kitchen and living room and then an incredibly long hallway which has four bedrooms and a bathroom off of it, only on the left side. The rooms are really big and there are tons of beds in them. Our hosts--who live down the street--used to live here with their children. We basically get to live here for free. Mark is kindly paying the small monthly contribution for heating. We're going to help out John and Robin with anything that we can, mostly cleaning up after groups, but we essentially don't have anything particular to do here since they're only expecting a couple of groups during our stay.
So here we are, in our own house, right next to a gigantic empty house, with a couple of neighbors across the courtyard, four miles from the closest village, and about an hour from Dublin. Here's the real question: what are we going to do with ourselves for the next two and a half months?
I'd like to be clear that in this next part I am not at all intending to undermine our gratitude for or our delight in being here, I'm just illuminating the facts. We are basically in the middle of nowhere in a creepy old stone building right next door to a probably haunted mansion. Our house is one of those that has creaky floorboards and mysterious things at the end of the hall. Liesl discovered the latter while retrieving a chair from that room. What she saw in the corner of the room were three steps leading down to a purple curtain that was clearly covering something other than a window. It was nighttime on Monday, our first night here, and she beckoned me to come look behind the mysterious curtain with her. I anxiously led the way down the long hallway to the room at the very end. I had my headlamp in my hand, ready to explore some eerie dark space. We were both a bit nervous--this place is kind of empty and sort of freaky. We entered the room--and I paused as the mysterious scene washed over me--and honestly made me feel a little uneasy--then reached out and pulled aside the curtain. It revealed a door. A locked door with a golden key in an old fashioned keyhole. Liesl and I looked at each other: oh shit.
She told me to open it, and I shook my head and backed away. Ha, yeah right. I've seen too many horror movies to fall for something like this. We agreed to open the door in the morning, attempting to ignore it while we slept in our separate rooms toward the front of our house.
When we were both awake--2 p.m., when Liesl finally woke up--we went and checked out the door. Before I could move forward to turn the key that I'd be waiting to turn since I'd woken up at 10 a.m., Liesl grasped the handle and turned the key. Anticlimactically, the door didn't budge. She shook and turned the key and the knob, but it still didn't open. So we moved on with our lives.
We first toured the property that day. It's huge--60 some acres. We made our way to the expansive greener than green lawns, and over to an orchard of apple trees. There was a little vegetable garden in which giant slugs had eaten through the remaining plants. We saw a cottage-like house with roses out front, and realized that it was our neighbors house. We knocked on the door and introduced ourselves. Jill is very nice, and she's an acupuncturist. She gave us an impromptu tour of the property.
We got to go inside the big house, which is truly exquisite. It's a mansion, a now decrepit yet no doubt once extravagant building. Jill left us to our own devices and we self-toured the eerie building. It's huge, with multiple staircases, and rooms with rooms coming off of rooms. It's all connected somehow. The exits are labelled because you could honestly get sort of lost in there. I was gaping in awe as we walked on ancient wooden stairs, passing old pianos, soaking up the view: the intricate white molding along the ceiling, the pastel walls, the cobwebs that must have been growing for years and years...I've always wanted to explore an ancient mansion, preferable one that's creepy and somewhat in shambles. We even encountered a room that was totally in ruins. It had a huge hole in the back, that went down I didn't know how far. Later when John gave us a tour, he said that it was the basement. It actually has a basement! That side was blocked, but we went down into it through a different entrance. It was awesome and creepy.
The rooms had tons of bunks, just like our house has, presumably where guests sleep, or where they once slept. John gave us a tour the next day and imparted loads of fascinating information to us about the house, the property, and his childhood growing up in the orphanage here. He said that they now only have groups stay on the first floor and second floors, though there are three floors. Liesl and I were thrilled to find a small staircase that was roped off to warn people not to enter the room that it led to. Naturally this immediately became one of the hot spots on our exploring the property list. We haven't been up there yet, but we'll certainly check it out soon.
The mansion is silent and austere. It's classic inside though. It's Georgian in style, and was built around 1748. 1748. That's older than any building on the west coast probably, other than maybe a mission or a Native American dwelling. The outside of the back of the house reminds me of a factory from the industrial revolution. The rest of the buildings here were build toward the end of the 1700s or the early 1800s. The Big House has a beautiful stained glass window with initials on it, which we wondered about. John said they're the initials of a family that owned the property for a long time.
This is what I've gathered about the history of this place:
The building was originally commissioned and occupied by a guy from I don't know where that wanted to get away from his family. He didn't live here for long. The next occupants were multiple generations of a family whose name I don't remember. They're the ones with the stained glass initials. They lived here until 1954 when it became an orphanage, and a good one based on what John told us about his experience. It was also a Christian secondary school (the equivalent of high school pretty much), that kids who weren't from the orphanage also attended. I think it was sort of boarding school style. The kids lived either in rooms on the second floor of the school or in some of the numerous rooms in the Big House. The orphanage seemed very unique because they had what sounds like quite a good system. From what I gather, the children were split up into groups and given "parents" who worked and lived at the orphanage and whom would be the equivalent of each of those children's parents for multiple years. In, I believe, the '70s or possibly the '80s, the orphanage and the school closed and the building turned into a retreat center like it is now.
John took us on a walk around the property. There are farmers that rent some of the land and have cows and sheep. At one point we followed a trail and entered into a forest. A real forest! I've rarely--if ever--really been in what I would consider a true forest before, in other words one that's actually green and alive and fairly dense. But this was just that, and it even started raining gently onto us through the thin canopy of the leaves. This part of our walk was definitely the highlight of my Tuesday.
There's also a gorgeous (albeit man made) lake, which Liesl and I plan to canoe on soon. There's a natural lake somewhere nearby too. Additionally there's a large stream along the road--large by my no doubt low standards of vastness of rivers, seeing as we really don't have any in San Diego.
In short, the property is absolutely stunning. I found it difficult to decide whether it was more beautiful than the west coast of England which we saw on our hike. I consulted with Liesl and we both decided that, while this place is incredible, the coast was probably a bit more amazing. It was probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. This is what Ireland looks like:
We've thought of many things to do while we're here. It's kind of frightening to have so much free time, but it's also sort of exhilarating. This is that time that nearly everyone wishes for in which all the things they've been wanting to do but haven't had the time for can be done. We can read, write, play board games, relax, cook, explore, ride bikes, canoe, work out and more. We've devised a workout schedule, and hopefully we'll be jogging a lot and utilizing this giant outdoorsy property. They have a soccer field and a basketball court. We went into town the other day and bought some oil painting supplies, so we can paint as well. I for one have been trying to get around to executing some painting ideas for the better part of a year, and have only done a few of them.
Also, feel free to comment if you have anything you'd like to say!
Well, that's all for now,
Stephanie
No comments:
Post a Comment