_by bob | Jul 21, 2012 | Dublin | 11 comments_
Today we had nothing “official” to do around in Dublin. However, for the past few months I’ve been planning on showing up at Bull Island on our first week in town to meet up with the Bull Island Action Group. They meet on the beach on the 3rd Saturday of each month to clean up garbage. Seemed like a great way to meet some people, and maybe even bump into someone who’d say, “oh I know someone who has a great 4 bedroom apartment right in your price range…” We did get to meet a couple people, and pick up a lot of trash (the grossest thing was a diaper that had been out in the weather for way too long. (you’ll also note that I also made up for my lack of pictures over the past few days)
We learned that you can actually drive across the wooden bridge out to the Dollymount Strand on Bull Island
The Dollymount Strand
We likely would have been on time if we had know that. We arrived about 20 minutes late, and it took about another 20-30 minutes to track down the person in charge. Once we found him, we had an hour of picking up trash.
While Liz was tracking down the guy with the trash bags and the garbage picker uppers, Méabh and I hung out on the beach for a bit. At first she was a bit unsure of the sand, but eventually seemed to get the hang of it.
When she fell the first time, she looked at her hands as if to say, this doesn’t hurt nearly as much as falling on the sidewalk.
So we eventually found the people with the trash bags & the garbage picker uppers, and got to spend an hour picking up trash on the dunes.
[img]Liz & Méabh picking up trash
After the trash pick up, we went for a cup of coffee/tea; walked around the estate where we put an offer on a rental property, and then headed into town for lunch. We got in a great conversation with our waitress who was from Latvia. She could not believe anyone would move from NY to Ireland. When I told her it was because we believe God wanted us to come over love and serve the Irish people…Liz added, “& other people too.” She said if we end up in Clontarf, she hopes she’ll see us again soon.
While at lunch I got a direct message (via Twitter) from Liz’s cousin Elizabeth who said she and her husband were heading over to St. Anne’s park for the Rose Festival and suggested meeting up. (That was actually next on our agenda for the day.) We had a great time catching up with them.
After that we headed back to the Garza’s, and then out for fish & chips. (Méabh loves cod…who knew…she also likes dancing on tables.)
So we didn’t have any official stuff to do today, and it was a really good day. (and anytime your day starts out with picking up trash for an hour & you still call it a good day…it’s a good day). Over the next few days we hope to wrap up our housing issue (we view another place tomorrow) and then buy a car…prayer would be great.
One last thing…while we were at lunch, I commented that I can’t understand why God would lead me to a country where coffee refills were not standard…to which Liz replied, and yet they serve tea by the pot, maybe we are in the right place!
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Thanks for reading & following our journey…as a reminder, it would be a great help if you’d leave your comments below rather than on Facebook. Thanks!