Nudist |'n(y)oodist| : A person who engages in the practice of going naked wherever possible

Yesterday was a “Bank Holiday” in Ireland so we didn’t have class or internship things to do. It’s amusing because no one here actually seems to be able to tell me what a ‘Bank Holiday’ is other than the fact that the banks are closed. Most people describe it as a Sunday because the banks are closed, and most places open late.

It turned out to be another great weather day so some of the girls decided to head to the beach again.

Dalkey Shoreline

The town was gorgeous! One of those little towns that you just have to fall in love with immediately.

The town of Dalkey

It was a bit of a walk to the beach, but we enjoyed seeing more of the town and all the houses.

When we looked up Dalkey on the Internet to find this beach it read that Dalkey is the “Beverley Hills of Ireland!” Haha, too cool.

Dalkey is said to be the "Beverly Hills of Ireland"- after seeing some of the houses we understood why!

We finally got to the beach and had to walk down a bunch of stairs and through a couple paths to get to the water.

Heading to the beach in Dalkey.

We later found out that the beach we stopped at was not the one the locals had told us about. (At first I thought they just told us about the nudist beach so they could get a big laugh out of it!) But it turns out that the beach we stopped at was an informal beach before the other one.

Shoreline at the beach in Dalkey.

Although it was a beautiful day out and I got lots of sun, the water was absolutely FREEZING!!

At the beach in Dalkey.

So I jumped in the water… My lungs immediately closed up… And I wet into a massive asthma attack! There are a couple of places where you really don’t want to go into an asthma attack and I would say that the water would be at the top of that list! So I’m now in this freezing water, and I can’t breath, nor can I easily swim because I’m too busy not breathing. To really top it off, my breathing is so bad and my lungs are so tightly closed that I can’t even scream for help! I was literally doing my hardest not to drown (seriously!) and I’m desperately trying to get gasps of air as I kick to stay above water!

People on the beach began to notice that I was having trouble and somehow I was able to spit out that I was having an asthma attack. (Why I didn’t just scream ‘help’ when I could actually get breath to talk, I don’t know?!) Well luckily I hadn’t swam too far from the coast (mainly because I didn’t have any time to before my lungs closed up and I stopped breathing) so I was able to pull myself out of the water!

Of course because I’m the biggest idiot in the world I didn’t have my inhaler with me! (And I know Mom, it is now permanently in my purse and will not leave there and I know I’m a big dumb-dumb for not having it with me!!- Trust me, you’re voice was in my head the whole time!) Luckily there was a guy there that had an inhaler and I didn’t have time to think about whether I should take it or not, because I knew I needed it!! So I took two quick puffs of the inhaler and once I sat down and was out of the cold water, my lungs were able to open up and it was much easier.

It was seriously one of the scariest situations of my life. Because like I said, not only was I fighting the fact that I couldn’t breathe but I was also fighting the fact that I was literally beginning to drown! OMG!! I swear just thinking about it makes my lungs close up again!

After leaving the beach the other girls decided to walk around the town a bit. But once I got up and started walking I felt like my lungs were going to close on me any second, and since I didn’t have my inhaler with me I just wanted to get back to the apartment. So I headed back, completely exhausted, and did absolutely nothing the rest of the night! It was actually great- because after spending the past four nights out late at the pubs, I knew my liver (not to mention my wallet!) needed a break!!

Earlier today we had our first class at Dublin City University- it was great! But I’ll write more on that later… right now I have to head to some internship meetings!

written by  kmr788 on June 2, 2009 from Dalkey, Ireland
from the travel blog: Dublin, Ireland
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