IRELAND: PART III -- Cliffs of Moher Tour

The last couple days have been very busy! The semester is just about over and we're all trying to do everything that we put off earlier. So for the sake of time I'm going to shorten the trip to just the main highlights. I wish I could tell you everything but I'm afraid I don't have the finger stamina to type all of that and I suppose that perhaps you don't want to hear everything.



Day 4: Sunday April 25, 2010

Sunday was my first full day in Galway. I didn't have much of a clue as to what to do there. For my plan was to meet up with some friends from Paris and hang out. The problem was I couldn't get a hold of them. I went to the tourist office only to discover that it was closed so I was made my way back towards the hostel when low and behold I saw my friends walking down the street. Well, as you can imagine, we were all surprised to run into each other on the streets of Galway! They were on their way to the coach station for a day trip they booked online. The five of us walked down to the coach station, just right across from the tourist office, to hop on the coach for the tour.

The tour was the Cliffs of Moher and Burren day tour. This was more or less a tour of the highlights of the southern part of Galway County (Co.) with the Cliffs of Moher as the main destination. So I got a ticket and we all got on the coach. It started out sunny though on Sunday. Ireland is known for its rain, especially western Ireland, so we were all praying for clear and sunny skies. The coach left at 10:00AM and we headed out down around Galway Bay to the southern part of the county. Now keep in mind that all of Ireland is maybe the size of Pennsylvania and the Republic of Ireland has a population of 5.5 million people. The Republic of Ireland has four provinces, 26 counties, and 5 boroughs. The provinces would be more like regions in the U.S. with the counties as our states. Our bus driver was a very nice gentleman. He was also the tour guide telling us interesting facts about where we were and about Ireland as he drove us around.

Our first point of interest happened to be a town called Oranmore which we just passed through. It's just a very quaint little fishing town along the back of the bay. Along the way our bus driver pointed out these little terrain features called "Ring Forts". These are earthen circles in the ground that have rocks and trees around them and have a trench like feature that surrounds it much resembling a fort. The "Ring Forts", according to Irish folklore are said to be made by the ferries and destroying one brings about bad luck.

Now I know it sounds silly but most of these stories and superstitions that the Irish have aren't too farfetched for a lot of them are based on very close coincidences. For example plowing under or destroying of these "Ring Forts" brings about death to the doer with many stories that are true. The farmer plows under the "Ring Fort" and within a short period of time he, along with his family in some cases, is dead. Another story is of when a new highway was in the process of being built the construction workers came across a "Ring Fort" in the middle of the highway and they refused to work for fear of having something bad happen to them after destroy said fort. The result of this was that the entire highway was rerouted around the "Ring Fort".

Our first full stop was the Corcomroe Abbey. This was an old abbey from the middle ages that has, like so many other abbeys in Ireland, fallen into disrepair with just the stone walls left. By this time however, the sun had come out. We only stopped here ten minutes but it was very nice. The Irish have taken up the habit of burying their dead in the land around the abbey. So one must be careful where they step for there are many graves inside the abbey itself. Yet it is very pretty. After that we drove up to an over look where we got to take some pictures of a very nice view of the bay. It wasn't until lunch time that we got off the bus again but we had a very nice view of Ireland that way.

The lunch stop of the day was in a town called Doolin just north of the Cliffs. We ate at a place called Fitzgerald's Bar. However, it was more of a restaurant than a bar. There was a buffet line where one to get traditional Irish soup or a main course. All of us got the soup because it was cheap. It was good soup though.

We finally arrived at our main stop, the Cliffs of Moher, at about 1:30pm. We had two hours to see the cliffs so we all headed directly for the cliffs. The Cliffs of Moher are about 700ft high towering of the Atlantic Ocean. Near the more touristy areas there are barriers to keep you from falling but at a certain point there is a sign that tells to you to continue at your own risk. So everyone does. There is path that leads the whole way out to the tip of the peninsula. We headed in that direction. It was a very pretty afternoon, though just a little misty.

We could just see the first of the Aran Islands off in the distance. It was still cloudy with the clouds slowly rolling in. The five of us would walk at our own pace and then meet up again, and then walk at our own pace. We were just trying to take it all in which is a pretty difficult thing to do. Looking out over the cliffs and ocean is really unbelievable! It's surreal in a way. The grass just comes right up to the edge and then grows over the edge just a little. One has to be really careful that they don't fall of here, which quite a few unfortunate people have done.

It was a lot of fun! We walked 3/4 of the way to the point before we had to head back. None of us wanted to leave. As we were walking back to the visitor center we walked into the cloud banks. The clouds by this time had completely covered the top of the cliffs and I could see the cloud mists blowing over the top. That was a very neat experience. When we got back to the visitor center we couldn't see the watch tower at the top of the hill for it too was completely obscured. As just a side note, during the Napoleonic Era the British installed watch towers along the western coast of Ireland because the British wanted to make sure the Napoleon didn't try to "come in the back door." We went to the watch tower, though we couldn't see anything because of the clouds, we could still hear the sounds of the waves beating against the cliffs.

We boarded the bus and left for Galway at 3:30pm making our way along the coast. There are many cottages along the coast. Most of these are very vintage cottages with thatched roves and white wash walls. Many of the Irish vacation along the west coast of Ireland with their families so many of these cottages are summer cottages. The driver stopped at Black Head, the southern point where the bay and ocean meet, for about 10 minutes. It was very pretty like most of the rest of Ireland. I think that is a phrase I'll repeat many times on this blog. Back on the bus again we came to another tourist wonder. There is what appears to be the face of a leprechaun on the side of the mountain and if one looks closely enough one can see it. Although I'm afraid I forget the story behind this one. There were so many ferry stories that day. Our last stop was the Dunguaire Castle. Though it's not a large castle, it still is very magnificent in its own way. We couldn't go in on Sunday because there was a sports banquet of some kind being held there so we just had to be content with walking around it. I think we all were since we were all very tired. It had been a long day.

That night my friends and I ate dinner at a Kabob place. Yes, I know, that's not Irish. However, you weren't in Ireland on a tight budget so no complaints from the peanut gallery please. It was good food though. We made up for this little transgression by going to a traditional Irish Pub and knocked down a couple of pints of good Irish Beer. Well the other knocked down the pints. I was still getting my feet wet as it were. Therefore I had a couple of half pints of beer as not to completely ruin my amateur standing. We called it a night after that. It had been a very wonderful day. We were all worn out by that point but very satisfied with Ireland.





Well, as always, I hope you all enjoy reading this and take care!