Trip to Howth

Hello and welcome back!

So, after looking forward to my long weekend, unfortunately it didn't turn out to be very pleasant. To be precise, I got quite sick... two days after my last post and couldn't go to work anymore. Well, since we would have had a long weekend anyway, that wouldn't have been so dramatic. A day later, we received the news that someone from our facility where we all work tested positive for coroni, which made us a little scared, as we all had similar symptoms. So on Monday morning, we had to take a coroni test. On Tuesday, there was the May festival that we were all looking forward to, but by then we still hadn't received our test results🙄. Oh well. Tuesday evening, it was announced that we were all negative. Since we were still sick, we all decided to stay at home for the remaining 3 days. By Friday, I was feeling a thousand times better and felt fit enough to do something, so we planned our trip to the cliffs in Howth. Howth is about an hour away from Dublin by bus and simply gigantic! There are various hiking trails that are different lengths and marked with different colors. Some of them mostly go directly along the cliffs and a few others also lead a bit inland. We decided on a medium-sized round that in the end consisted of many dirt paths for us. There were also some secluded paths that led to larger rock formations, offering a beautiful view of the cliffs below and the endless sea behind them. Of course, I couldn't resist climbing up the rocks like a mountain goat, which was quite daring in some places. 😅 But the view from up there was absolutely worth it. During my descent, I noticed these strange bushes with yellow flowers that smell like a mixture of orange and vanilla. Since these things grow EVERYWHERE there, it constantly smells pleasant. After the cliff trail, our route continued inland. We got lost there at first, but thanks to the maps that were placed everywhere, we found our way back relatively quickly. Unfortunately, this didn't last long either. After a few more kilometers, we arrived at a huge golf course, which we didn't realize at first. From there, we saw a viewpoint from which you can almost overlook the whole of Dublin. So we left our marked hiking trail there as well. Once we reached the top, we didn't know exactly where to go next. I spotted a very steep path that I believed would lead us in the somewhat right direction. With the words "what could possibly go wrong", we started running down the mountain again. Well, actually we slid down more. Whatever

We arrived at a pretty cute forest that, in my opinion, had something very enchanting about it. Colorful flowers were blooming everywhere, it smelled like wood and wild garlic, and wherever you looked, fresh, light green leaves were growing. I was blown away. We continued to wander on dirt paths with my motto "no risk, no fun", which amused Hannah a lot, and tried to somehow get back to the harbor where we started. We saw endless meadows and even more forest until we finally arrived back at the harbor. There, we treated ourselves to a huge ice cream (which turned out to be a bit too much for us) and took the next bus back to our apartment.

Currently, Celine is moving into my room because her room is extremely cold and other guests are coming in two weeks. So we have to move closer together. I hope it works out in the long run. 😅

The past two days, I had a little mental slump. I think despite the three girls who are here with me, I felt somewhat alone. Homesick and all. I think the fact that I wasn't there on Mother's Day or my little brother's birthday really depressed me. I also miss long, loving hugs and cuddling for hours.

Tomorrow we will all go back to work, which I'm really looking forward to. Until then.

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