Holy Shit! Ireland is Beautiful

First! Please excuse my French, but ‘holy cow’ just wasn’t good enough.

Anyway, I’m kind of late in posting since a lot has happened since I went to Dublin. Saturday night I went out with some girls. Obviously, clubbing isn’t really my thing, but I thought I’d try it. First we went to a place called Molly’s. It was pretty fancy, and I liked the atmosphere even though I don’t dance. After getting some drinks there we went to a place called The Wicked Chicken. It looked cool inside, but it was too cramped for me and since it was more dance music versus music with lyrics, so good for dancers, boring for me. We didn’t stay there long though, because most of us were going on a tour to the Cliffs of Moher the next day.

The tour was fantastic! It was run by a husband and wife small touring company that only does day trips. We had the husband driving us and he was a great tour guide. We started off the day driving around The Burren, which is an area in Ireland which is covered in limestone:

(I have about a million more pictures with the limestone landscape. Also you can click on any of these pictures to see them blown up.)

While in The Burren we went to see the remains of an old fort that was there. It’s just a giant circle of rocks now, and we weren’t allowed to walk around it without paying for the guided tour, but oh well. We did hang out in the tour center and found an awesome book which was titled Russia is no Riddle, and had the coolest last chapter title ever:

We also saw the Poulnabrone Dolmen tomb, which is older than the Pyramids in Egypt. It’s guessed that its creation was a sign of how much power the clans that lived in the Burren in ancient times had.

After that we had a few stops along the coastline of Galway Bay in an area called Black Head, because the rocks on the edge of the water appear black.

After that it was time for lunch. We ate at a pub called O’Connor’s where I bought the most expensive meal I’ve ever had (15eu! (or about $22!)). It was very fresh fish and chips and it was delicious. I don’t know if I’ll ever pay that much again, but for the one time, it was worth it.

Finally! We got to see the Cliffs of Moher! It was, without a doubt, the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. I concede I haven’t seen a lot of amazing things, but I think this would be up on the list for other people as well. And we couldn’t have gotten a more beautiful day to go up there (especially since there tends to be high winds that every once in a while blows people off the cliff).

Unfortunately, I don’t think pictures can quite capture how awesome a sight it is, but here’s to trying…

Firstly, here’s a picture for my mom. The harpist from Good Morning America (unless there’s two, this was the only one there):

The cliffs from the first side we went to:

Don’t fall! (I may have gotten a little closer to the edge than need be for these two pictures)

The cliffs from the second side we went to:

Panorama! (The only one that came out decent)

There’s a lot more that’s gone on since then, but alas, I have to go climb some castle ruins. I’ll post again this weekend hopefully.