Me and the Sea

Main highlights of today: shopping in Donegal, Yeat's grave, sea view at Mullaghmore, lunch in Sligo, and beach time near Ballina.

In Donegal I managed to get some knick knacks at a souvenir shop and... and authenic! Aran! Irish! Sweater! That was one of the main things I wanted to accomplish while here, and to purchase one in Donegal was so special.

On our way to Sligo, we got out to see the Atlantic at Mullaghmore. I'll touch on how much I love the sea in a minute, since we visited the water multiple times.

Yeat's grave wasn't anything to write home about, yet I will write home about it. The cemetery was gorgeous, with beautiful tributes to locals passed. Yeat's grave was arguably the most bare, but his prolific writing career makes up for that. At the cafe near the cemetery, I tried some Guinness Brown bread, which makes up for the fact that (even though I am 18) I cannot have a real Irish Guinness while I'm here because of school rules.

We stopped in Sligo for lunch—a classic pub meal—and browsed the local shops. I ended up buying a book about Irish mythology and how it ties into the country's rich connection with the environment. I'm a big fan of nature and a bigger fan of mythology, so I'm excited to ease my way through this book.

Our hotel is in Ballina, about an hour away from Sligo, and on the way we got out at the beach. As I mentioned in a previous post, I love the water. Even when I was little, my grandfather would tease my parents about how I lived up to my zodiac sign—pisces, symbolized by two fish swimming in opposite directions—by being such an avid swimmer. To me, the ocean represents the ebbing and flowing of time. Its been there longer than all of us; it will be there long after we leave. The tides change, the shores erode, and yet this inconsistency is the only real constant throughout time. Its grounding, in a way.

My eyes are technically blue, but depending on what I wear or where I am they look different colors. Sometimes grey, sometimes green, occasionally a hazel. With golden specks in my left eye, I've always felt that my eyes are my most unique feature. My mother says they are like the ocean: always changing, sparked with gold. Staring out at the Atlantic today, I felt so grateful for the things that have made me, me. Somewhere out there, on the other side of the water, my parents are looking out on a different beach, the same ever-changing-ever-constant water between us. Time will pass, things will change, but there are some things that are eternal: the sea, familial love, my eyes.