dream a little green.: castlewellan.

Wednesday to Friday was spent at the beautiful Castlewellan with the students of Belfast Bible College. The castle was "only 150 years old" which is very young to people from the UK and ancient to Americans like myself. The castle is situated on a very large park with a giant lake a couple smaller ones. Its really neat because there is a big trail around the lake and a bunch of smaller more rustic ones all through the woods. The grounds and castle have been converted into a Christian retreat center where youth groups and other events happen.
The trip to Castlewellan was really for students to get to know each other in a casual setting and it worked quite well. There was also three sessions where a speaker came in to do some devotionals on unity and to have some worship. Mostly though we just all hung out and walked through the woods, looked at the stars, explored the castle, played games, and talked until the wee hours of the morning. The meals were exceptional - they were kinda like classic irish meals. One breakfast was ham and potato bread/cakes and one of the dinners was a roast and a lunch was fish and chips - cant get much more UK than that.
On Thursday i got to hike and swim in the Mourne Mountains with some friends which was phenomenal. We climbed for about six miles each way even though we werent quite dressed for the climb. On the way up the mountain we stopped along the river and went for a dip in the freezing cold water, on a 60 degree day.
All in all i got to meet alot of people and get closer to everyone who lives here at the hostel which was awesome. The scenery was breathtaking, the people were great, and the trip was one i wont forget.