Thursday, March 10, 2011

Laughter Echoing Through the Hills

We are officially on Spring Break! Woohoo! We had class for a couple hours this morning and then chapel, but now we are free. I leave really early tomorrow morning to go see a friend studying in Spain. But this afternoon, a few of us decided to go on a hike. For our PHP (basically gym class) credit that we get here we have to fit in 12 hikes this semester. Today, we (Me, Emily, Valerie, Dan, Ryan, Paige, Audrey and Kellyn) did one to the top of Breyhead.
We caught the DART from Greystones to the first stop-Brey. After that... it was an adventure. We had a general idea of where we going, but with us you never know. Thankfully, we managed to find the route fairly easily. At the top the view overlooks the entire city. It is absolutely gorgeous. They have also constructed a giant stone cross up there. I love that any time they look to the top of the mountain, they see that cross, stretching up towards the sky.
After we had spent awhile admiring the view, we continued on our way back to Greystones. Along the way, we came across some wild horses! Ok, so they weren't entirely wild; they all had rope bridles on. But hey, they weren't fenced in and nobody was guarding them. Audrey had brought some bread to feed any wildlife we found so we pulled that out and tempted a few of the horses over. They quickly devoured the bread and then most trotted off. All except for one. He was content to stay and be pet for awhile. Then Dan decided he would try to ride it... most of us were against it! We thought the horse might buck or something! But there is no stopping Dan. So he slowly climbed on. And... the horse didn't move. He seemed completely unconcerned with the fact that he now carried a passenger. We were all thrilled and several of us, including myself, proceeded to take turns sitting on the horse. And then Audrey got on... all seemed well, but then suddenly the horse started to walk down the hill! So she quickly scooted off the horse! Thankfully, she was fine, so we kept on the hike.
It took us along the top ridge and then back down the hill to Greystones. But then all of a sudden our path ended and we needed to hop a wall to get onto another path. On our side the wall was only a couple feet high. But the drop on the other side was probably 8 feet. Nothing big, but enough that it seems a little unsettling. Paige, Emily, Ryan, Dan and I all made it over fine. But the last 3 girls were a little nervous... So Dan offers to help lift them down. That resulted in chaos. Valerie went first, but when Dan held her, she tucked her legs up so she was in a little ball. She looked so awkward! We were all laughing by the time he set her down. Then Kellyn came next. Having seen Valerie's mistake, she was determined to not tuck her legs up. So she was straight as a board as Dan lifted her down. This also looked awkward and more laughter ensued. Then Audrey.... She was sitting on top of the wall, but when Dan went to put his arms under her armpits to help her down, she squealed and said, "Stop! I'm ticklish!" So Dan quickly stepped back, "Fine, are you going to do it yourself then?" "No! Don't leave me!" More laughter as she also awkwardly let him help her off the wall.
The rest of the hike was not so adventerous, but we did enjoy a nice view and stopped at the sea to skip rocks. All in all, a great start to Spring Break.

2 comments:

  1. write a post about your Spanish adventure!! Libby never tells me anything!!!

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  2. Oh don't fret! I will write lots of stories from our weekend!

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