From the Emerald City to The Emerald Isle: First Swim in the Irish Sea

Today we marked off another of our goals for our time here in Ireland - we swam in the Irish Sea! Or more specifically, in Dublin Bay at Seapoint, just down the road from our place. Seapoint is this beautiful swimming spot, jammed with swimmers on sunny days but there are at least a few swimmers, every single day of the year. Wayne and our friend Graham went yesterday and we met our friend Michaela there today, with her mother. (Her mother swims year round, nearly every single day!)

Wayne, Graham and Norah walking to Seapoint yesterday (not busy). Today (when I swam too) there were over 60 people here (ranging in age from 2 to 90). It was amazing! It's such an Irish "community-thing" to do - everyone comes down, changes into their swimming gear, jumps in, and then hangs around chatting. It feels so European and we love to pretend we're native Irish people. Now we feel we belong to the club.

Today was a hot summer day, as summer days go in Dublin. The high was 22 Celsius (or 70 F), humidity was about 75% (to 90% depending on which site you check) and the water temperature is about 60 degrees (13-15 C). Or....so cold it makes you gasp for air like you've never experienced. It was shocking! I've never been in water that cold so it was an experience (and I didn't jump in either! I walked in down the ramp which was touugggh) But, I'm glad I did it that way because it honestly took my breath away so much that I had to keep stopping in order to make the muscles in my torso stop cramping. It's like all my muscles and my lungs were seizing up and I had to consciously calm them back down before walking further. It felt almost like when you're overwhelmed by waves and feel yourself start to panic but I was only waist deep. I kept gasping for air like I was drowning but it was just from the cold.
Now...you might think from that description that it was not enjoyable...to the contrary - it was awesome! I've wanted to do this since we first arrived and today was just perfect! Here, people swim every single day of the year and they swear by its benefits. You see 80 and 90 year old men and women going in every single day and I most definitely think there's something to it. Also, now I belong to the club of Irish Sea swimmers and I love that!

This has been a milestone I hoped to reach and today we finally did it. Well Wayne took the plunge yesterday and today was his second time. We're so obscenely blessed to live right near this epic swimming spot (and a 15 minute walk from "The Forty Foot" which is the other very famous place). We can walk to this spot in 10 minutes from our front door, all of which is walking along the seafront. It's so beautiful!

Not to mention the fact that we can call our friends as we leave and they'll meet us there! It feels so amazing to have that. Also, today I was able to go out and get my haircut after 6 months of 'planning to'. AND, I ran 5 miles this morning after recovering from the flu this weekend so, all in all, today was a great day to be alive. We keep pinching ourselves. =)