Saturday, November 7, 2009

Boyle Abbey, Lough Key Forest Park and Boda Borg

This morning began with a nice breakfast prepared by Monica, the young Polish woman who ran the B&B. She has been here for three years and is returning to Poland in December. She was very kind to us during our visit.

We departed Sligo and headed to the Boyle Abbey. Of course, it was raining pretty hard so we just stopped for a quick photo shoot and then back on the bus. We arrived at Lough Key Forest Park mid-morning and fortunately the rain slowed down enough for us to tour the Park and the old homestead. From the brochure, "The Lough Key Experience will take you on an engaging journey of nature and history thorugh the 19th Century underground servants tunnels, up the Moylurg Viewing Tower and along Ireland's first Tree Canopy Trail - a 300m long creation of timber and steel that gently rises 9m above the woodland floor offering a birds eye view of the landscape." Below are two pictures on top of the Viewing Tower.

After our tour we went back into the main building and experienced Boda Borg, and it was awesome! We watched a two minute video and listened to an explanation on how to play the game. We divided into groups of three. I was with Lydia, John Nolen's lady friend who was on the trip with us. She is a trauma nurse at the Dublin hosptial in City Centre. The third person was Shawna, an elementary education major who happens to have a perfect 4.0 (which came in handy). There are only nine Boda Borg's in the world and eight are in Sweden. Here is how you play: there are 40 rooms on two floors, each with a color and name on the door and a light above. A green door means a challenge that is more mental, a red door means a challenge that is moderately physical and also mental, and a black door indicates very physical. If the light over the door is green, you may enter. If it is blinking green it is either resetting or someone is in it.  The names on the doors were such things as laser, light, strength, sports, farm, and colours, among others. With no directions you had to solve the challenge with trial and error, ingenuity, and skill, to get the light over the exit door to light green. If you messed up it turned red and you had to leave the room. You could try again or try a new door. If you were correct, you entered a second room, and then a third, and finally a fourth. If at any time you did not solve the challenge, you had to go back to room one in the sequence and go through the rooms again. Finally, if you successfully navigated the four rooms (or some had less) your ticket was stamped and you solved that room. There were 15 possible stamps and if you got five you were a master! We got two. The most in our group were three groups that got three stamps. It was really a great challenge and lots of fun. I would do it again in a heartbeat. My knees are bruised as we had to crawl and climb and slide and jump and run and mentally solve all of the rooms. The time flew by as we did this for two hours. It was really cool.

When we were finished with Boda Borg we had lunch in the cafe. Here is an example of what a great group of students I have with me. Before our hike we had to give our lunch order. With a show of hands there were 6 for chicken ala king with rice and 13 for lasagna with chips. No biggie. When lunch arrived the kitchen had reversed the order. Without missing a beat students just started offering to eat the chicken instead of the lasagna and problem solved. No complaints, no fuss, nothing. I thought that was pretty cool. They really are a good group and I enjoyed getting to know them better on this trip north.

We headed back to Dublin, a trip of two and a half hours or so. John dropped the students off near their host families and at Delaney's, and Paddy brought me to the flat from Delaney's. I got home just as Christ Church Catheral rang the 5pm bells. After about an hour I headed out for some dinner. I wasn't in the mood for sitting alone in a restaurant or pub on a Saturday night. I was happy to be home in the flat so I went off in search of "take away" and decided on Charlies, a fast food Chinese place that is only a few blocks down Dame Street. The city was bustling but I was happy to come home, put on sweats, and watch some TV from home via my laptop through my TiVo and slingbox. I love technology. Right now I am watching the Penn State - Ohio State game. It's better than old Friends reruns on Irish TV. The same episode runs numerous times a day. I'm very glad I bought a slingbox. For those of you unfamiliar, it permits me to watch my home TV through the internet on my laptop. Since I have it hooked through my TiVo I can also watch my taped shows as well. It helps pass the long evenings in the flat. Truth be told, I am a TV junkie.

Tomorrow morning I will venture out for church. I can't decide if I should go to Christ Church Cathedral across the street, or St. Patricks a few blocks away. I went online to find out what time the service was at Christ Church and imagine my surprise when I found out that a church founded in 1480 could be followed on Twitter!

If you are interested in checking out my pictures from the four days in northern Ireland, check out my photo albums on picasa. Here is the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/joanne.leight

Let me know what you think.

No comments: