It was the first proposal I've ever seen and it was amazing! It was raining (as I said multiple times before), so Matt suggested we stand under this tower to get away from the rain. Once we got under it I was starting to put my umbrella down and all the sudden Matt was down on his knee asking Steph to marry him! I was so shocked, and my stomach was producing thousands of butterflies. I was reaching for my camera in my pocket as if a robber was asking me for all my money. I was so flustered, but I was at least able to get a few pics!
Oh, she said "yes" by the way:) Lucky him.
Okay, so now I need to back up. I just had to tell the exciting news first:) The rain was definitely a bummer today, but Matt made it all better for us with the proposal. This morning though, the walk to the bus was not my favorite. When we got into Dublin we waited on the guys for a bit, and once they arrived we hit the ground running!
We headed to Trinity College with our huge umbrellas. It is NOT easy to maneuver your way through narrow European streets in which people have no regard for which way they are walking. Steph and I have noticed that although Irish people drive on the left side of the road, this does not necessarily mean the walk on the left side of the sidewalks, hallways, stairs, etc. They seem to just walk wherever there is room, and if there is no room they walk on you. Someone said something very Irish and inappropriate to me today because my umbrella was in his way. It made me sad.
Anyway, after the rough walk to Trinity College we went inside to take a tour to see the Book of Kells. Sadly, we were not allowed to take any pictures. The Book of Kells is the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John handwritten by Irish people on the island of Iona in the 6th century. It is extremely intricate and has lots of artwork. There are beautiful colors and the handwriting is amazing. It was mostly meant for sacred and special days, not to read on a daily basis. We learned how they made the ink, what the pages were made of (calf skin), and all sorts of other neat things. It's unbelievable that they have been able to preserve it for so long. It was incredible, I wanted to stand and stare at it for hours.
Then Matt proposed, and we of course we went to a pub after that. We had some delicious cider:) After that we walked around for a bit (as always), and then we decided to make our way to Malahide on the Dart. Once we got to Malahide we really had no idea what we were doing, but we happened to make our way to some castle. The walk to the castle was in a beautiful foresty area. It was so green and lovely, I could walk it every morning.
Have you ever seen work out materials in forested areas? Leave it to the Europeans.
It was pretty neat, but it was under construction and closed by the time we arrived. It was a pretty site though, we were glad we went.
Malahide was a more rural area, the roads were even more narrow and it looked more like what I think of when I think Ireland.
Afterwards we headed to another pub. The boys ate dinner, Matt had some Irish beef stew, and Dan had an enchilada. He said the enchilada had BBQ sauce and was disgusting, which doesn't surprise me because Mexican food is not easy to find here. The first night I arrived Diane asked me what my favorite type of food was. When I told her it was Mexican she said, "Oh no! You're going to have a terrible time finding Mexican food here." She was right.. I've seen none so far.
At the end of the day we were absolutely exhausted. Dan decided to get comfortable on the Dart.
We wanted to take a tour to the Cliffs of Moher tomorrow, but apparently it's supposed to snow?? We'll wait for a better day:)
Randoms:
-Instead of saying "Watch your step" they say "Mind your step." On St. Patrick's day Diane told Steph and I to "mind our purses" so we don't get them stolen.
Mind the gap.
Congrats to Steph and Matt! I don't even know them, but it was so exciting to read your blog about the proposal! :)
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