After we passed the church, we prepared ourselves to get off, but we made a very silly mistake. We didn't stand up or do anything to indicate to the driver that we were getting off. The bus continued on for quite a stretch before stopping to let a man on. As we got off there, we realized that this was not the right stop and that we'd gone too far. We were not in a neighborhood area anymore but in a commercial area. We were like, "Oh no, what do we do?" And that was when I realized that we were supposed to push a button to stop the bus. I had seen it on the bus - red on yellow, mounted on silver poles down the length of the bus. I had had a niggling feeling that it was the stop-the-bus signal, but J and J didn't seem to pay the button any attention, and since Janice had ridden this bus before, I thought she would know all the proper procedures. But apparently not. I really should have said something while on the bus. Argh. Why do I not speak up in times like that? I had guessed correctly but was hesitant, like I didn't want to sound foolish or like a know-it-all. (I guess I differ from Hermione there.)
Anyway - so we got off too far and had to figure out which way to walk back. It was quite dark and chilly, and I was a little worried about possible trouble if we ran into some less-than-savory characters. But, thank the Lord, we didn't. We saw hardly anybody walking on the streets. There was a big, complicated intersection near the stop where we stepped off, and we knew the bus had made some turns, but it was a bit hard to tell which way it had come. Thankfully Janice figured it out and recognized some buildings. We walked for about ten minutes before coming to the residential area where Ruth's street was tucked in somewhere.
We turned onto Adelaide Road (the street signs are in Gaelic and English) and soon the scenery began to look like where we had walked before - to the pier the previous evening and to catch the bus this afternoon. The houses and their low front walls and gates across the driveways seemed familiar, although not the exact ones we'd passed earlier yet. Along that road, Janice's bag split open in the front, and a pretty ceramic tankard she'd bought fell out and shattered on the sidewalk. That was sad, but she didn't seem too upset. She left it lying there since it was in so many small pieces. After that, I held my bag more carefully. (I'd bought the same tankard for myself - and a Claddagh ring! I'm wearing it now.)
We wandered on for 5-10 more minutes among the houses. Soon I began to see familiar street and house names (yes, many bigger houses here have names!) and so I knew we were getting close. We also passed a couple of dark open gateways that were surrounded by wall and trees and looked kind of spooky - I had thought so when we passed them the previous evening, and I thought so again tonight!
Then we saw a street to our left called Silchester Park, and I definitely knew we had passed that street sign before. We knew we were really close but thought we needed to keep on going for a short stretch more. So we continued on a ways, but then we didn't recognize where we were anymore, so we stopped. We were trying to figure out what to do - to turn back or go on a bit and turn up ahead. We were stopped near an old Gothic-looking church with a large spire of a steeple, which was set pretty close to the street behind its low wall. As we debated, or mostly J and J did, I gazed up at the church, which was all dark and shadowed against a very dusky sky. The church looked abandoned and slightly ominous, and I felt almost a little spooked but not really scared. It was an interesting sensation. I felt that the place had a lot of history - much more than anything in America does. I wonder how old it is and what sort of things it has seen through the years. I wonder if any sort of tragedy has happened there. I almost felt like I could sense a sadness or solemness [solemnity] in the air about it.
Anyway, our decision was to press on, although once again, like with the bus situation (pushing the button to stop) I had a feeling that I knew we should have done something but we hadn't done it, and I hadn't spoken up. I thought we should go back and turn on Silchester Park, but then doubt nagged at me, and I said nothing. (Oh, stupid me!) So we continued on the wrong way, and we were tired and wet and cold, and we had been very silly not to learn Ruth's address or street name. (Sheesh!) Eventually we were so tired of wandering around lost that we decided to stop at the next well-lit house we saw and ask to borrow their phone. (We had Ruth's phone number - luckily, Janis had copied it earlier.) So presently we walked up to a house where we could see a T.V. on in the front window and some other lights on. The doorbell was answered by a fairly good-looking man probably in his thirties. We must have been a strange sight to him indeed! Three American girls, drenched and bedraggled, carrying large soaked shopping bags in our arms, looking much like drowned rats! (It had stopped raining by that time, though.) He let us in and didn't seem shady, thank the Lord. (I had prayed earlier that He would watch over us and protect us from harm and help us find our way soon. And He really gave me peace - I didn't panic or feel frightened. I just took our adventure in stride and even got a laugh about it afterward.)
The man's house was in the process of being remodeled - we could see that as soon as we entered the hall. Plaster was everywhere, walls were only partly painted, tools were sitting around, and the place was quite bare otherwise. The man said his name was Alan, and his phone was sitting on the floor right next to the front door. Janis pulled out the number and handed him the paper, and he dialed Ruth. She answered, and he asked for her address after explaining our situation, and then said, "Oh, that's right nearby." Then, very nicely, he said he would drive us right over.
It turns out that Silchester Park is Ruth's street, and if we'd just turned onto it and walked a short way, then made a right turn at the first place we could, her house would have been right there just a couple doors down on the left. It would've saved us 15-20 minutes. Argh. See, I should have said something earlier when I thought maybe we should walk back to Silchester!
Anyway, Alan graciously brought us there, and we thanked him profusely. We rang Ruth's doorbell (the door was locked) and she had quite a look on her face when she opened it. LOL! It was kind of like, "Oh my goodness, I can't believe what you three got yourselves into!" We were, indeed, quite a sight. We trooped sheepishly up to our rooms to throw our stuff on the bed and change out of wet clothes. Then we went back down to the sun room and sat at the table and explained our mishap. Ruth was just shaking her head, astonished that we hadn't known to push the button on the bus, and also that we hadn't taken down her address. She made us repeat it back to her a few times and said we must each carry a copy of it tomorrow when we go out again. I joked that she was going to make us do lines - "I will push the button on the bus" over and over and over. :-)
So we told Ruth and Robbie the tale of our day, laughing through a lot of the end of it. They laughed, too, and we chalked it up to a memorable adventure that we were glad to have had. Then the Burnses told us they were going away to a funeral early tomorrow, and they'd be gone when we got up. They got us a couple of Dublin maps and showed us some good places to go that we hadn't reached today. (We hadn't taken a map, and I'd wished we had one.)
We are planning on going to Temple Bar, a good tourist area with shops and pubs and such, and St. Stephens Green, which we hadn't quite reached today, which is also a good shopping area (I must be careful with money...). [Edit: Actually, the green is just a park. But there are shops in streets around it.] We also have to hit up a pub and get the pub grub and the live music and the whole atmosphere. I hope we go to Trinity College, too, and see the Book of Kells, and also the Chester Beatty Museum [Library], which houses the oldest Gospel of Matthew in existence. And I would love to see St. Patrick's Cathedral! But you have to pay to get in... dang.
Janis just came into my room - it is now 5 a.m.! Oh my gosh, I can't believe I have been writing for so long! It's been slow going, and I've been pausing a lot, trying to remember everything accurately, and getting distracted playing back the memories in my head. Apparently Janis hasn't been sleeping either - she says she can't, and she came in here to tell me that the sun is starting to rise outside her window. I went and looked. No sun yet, but the sky is getting slightly paler. She tried to take some pictures, but they didn't turn out. Darn. I want to wait till it gets a bit lighter and then go and try to take a picture myself, but Janis has just turned in, and I should too!
(By the way, the building that we can see out her window, which she thought was a castle, is in fact a church. It's the one that we stopped next to tonight, where I could feel a strange atmosphere. Ruth told us.)