Today we went to Bray. Gorgeous little seaside town, nice rocky beach, just like home, and adorable shops and pubs lining the boardwalk. We as an entire group rode the train (above ground subway not a real train) down to the town from the Pearse street station and I was so excited. Passing all the water made me feel right at home. When we got to the boardwalk area after the train station the advisors told us we should climb Bray Head which is just a nice little hill that has a huge cross at the top and some gorgeous views.
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| The Beach and Bray Head |
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| Rocks on the Beach |
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| Housing lining the ocean views |
So a good amount of our group started up the Hill, it was a nice road leading up, with a great gravel road to travel on, with some little paths to crawl up, lots of fun!
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| Liam coming up the little trail |
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| cut-through trail |
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| Shane |
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| The road up |
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| Cross in the background |
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| Looking to the top |
While waiting for part of the group to catch up Shane and I saw four steps leading up to what we thought was a nice little path. Liam caught up to us and after Shane explored the path a little, Liam and I agreed to take it. We all thought it was a nice trail with a few difficult climbs, but then it would level out. My exact words were, "why not, let's do it! When in Rome!" We started our adventure, mind you none of us really had the right hiking gear. I was wearing jeans, walking shoes, a sweater and my rain coat. Shane wearing an under armour shirt, a regular shirt, jeans, and walking shoes, and Liam wearing jeans, a long sleeve, and a regular jacket. We started up what we thought was a trail, it had some prickers going through it, but it wasn't bad. After climbing up a small portion (somewhat of a 90 degree angle) we realized we were unable to turn around and would just have to keep going up. We kept thinking it was going to level off onto a path, or the road and we would just have a taken a short cut, turns out we were literally scaling the side of this hill. We hit so many pricker bushes and just had to keep walking through them, sometimes you would just have to keep your hand in a pricker bush to keep from falling. at times you couldn't go any further by yourself, and a hand pull up and a push of the feet was necessary. ( having gloves would have made the experience more enjoyable).
Oh, did I mention that both Liam and I are extremely afraid of heights? So while Shane is looking around saying "This is gorgeous, oh man look at this view" both Liam and I are holding on for dear life life and not turning around once. Well no, one point i looked to my right and saw the coastline and thought it was beautiful and breathtaking, but I couldn't look straight behind me. We would get to points in the hill where we thought it would level off and we wouldn't have to crawl up the mountain, but it just kept going! At times I felt like I was on an extreme weight loss show, a wild man show in the jungle through the ferns, or even just on Survivor. There were points when I couldn't move a muscle, and times when I just powered through.
Finally we were able to actually stand up and walk up the hill again, through thousands of pricker bushes but still it was nice to be standing straight up. When we reached the top of the first bump, it was an amazing feeling to know we weren't far from the top and we could easily find a path. I didn't think I was going to be able to keep going and go to the very top, but Shane and Liam both wouldn't let me stop there, so after a nice lie down break so my heart would stop pounding out of my chest, we started out again. We finally came to an actual path and it was wonderful.
The path lead in two directions, so the boys investigated to the left and I went right. I have never been more excited to hear people's voices. I went running like a young child at the end of the school day towards the voices screaming "People!" It was so nice to see Olivia, Nicole, Laura, and Kate.
After running up the last bit of the trail to the cross at the top the rain was coming down pretty hard but none of us cared, we really needed to document the great feat of getting to the top. My camera got drenched but it is okay because I wasn't dead, and no one had to helicopter me off the hill! (Don't worry my camera is okay, no problems with it at all!)
Looking back at everyones pictures is priceless because you see right before we went up the little path, and then when we reach the top, due to the fact that it was so dangerous and we didn't have a free hand, and we did not dare pull out a camera.
Literally these are the photos right next to each other on my camera card.
Getting to the pub back down in town was so nice because we were able to dry off some, and Shane and Liam went out and bought warm clothes. I didn't get a pint that night, I stayed with hot cocoa. After the train (above ground subway) ride home, and the walk down the Liffey from the Tara street station, nothing has felt better than a nice hot shower!
I noticed all of my battle scars, when I got home, luckily that was all though. I will be rechecking my raincoat sleeves for tears though. Mom thank you for the shoes they were a big help! Shane and Liam thank you for the encouragement, and the helping hands. Bray, thanks for the sweatshirt, and getting me that far out of my comfort zone for the first and last time. Bray Head, thanks for the panic attack and unmarked trails!
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