Hello friends and family!
Do me a favor and open a new tab,
Google search “Ireland,” click on "images," and enjoy! Whoever first used the
phrase “rolling green hills” to describe this country hit it right on the nose.
Throw in some limestone, sheep, stone walls, and rain and you’ve got one of the
most amazing places I have seen (in my opinion, of course).
We flew from Rome to Dublin on Friday, and then took a bus
from Dublin to Galway, arriving at about 5:00, which with the time change is
6:00 in Rome. Paige flew with us, but was there to visit her friend that is
studying in Galway for the semester, so Kasey and I broke off once we got to
our hostel.
We were starving after a long day with very little food, so we walked
down to Shop Street, the main street in the city center, and chose a restaurant. My steak burger was AMAZING! I have to remind you, I haven’t had a
burger and fries (or chips) in two months, so it was really good. Afterwards,
we found a pub with the promise of live music, and spent the rest of our night
there. The music was very entertaining, as was the celebrating bachelor party present.
Irishmen must really love to dance!
The next day we ventured out the Aran Islands, or Inis Mör (the Big Island). We took a 45 minute bus from right in front of our hostel,
then almost an hour ferry ride to the big island, on which we rented some bikes
and went on our way. First, we went down the wrong path, so we turned around, I
got a new bike with working gears, and then made our way along the coast to the barbaric monument called Dun Aengus. It took about 40 minutes with stops for pictures. What I apparently didn't know yet was how to properly ride a gear bike.
The stone walls were EVERYWHERE in EVERY DIRECTION IMAGINABLE
Our lovely bike path.
Oh, hi there. It was cold and windy...
The top of the Mounument!
The crashing waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
Like I said... very windy.
The hike back down.
As you can tell by the pictures, after somewhat of a hike,
the view from this monument is spectacular. I can now say I have hung my head
off the edge of a cliff… doesn’t sound safe right? That’s what we were
thinking. We were shocked there was no railing or anything! Someone could easily
fall off the edge into the hard waters below… it was definitely an adrenaline
rush.
We got lunch, then made our way to what is called the Worm
Hole. For future trivia references, it is where the World Cliff Diving
Competition is held, although I am baffled how one dives into that without a death
wish. So we hike across fields of limestone and grass, and find the Worm Hole,
apparently filled with quite a bit of
water at the time.
The Worm Hole!
I’m walking around, taking some awesome pictures, when a tsunami rolls in. Casual. My stomach drops and I am actually terrified for a second
when I see Kasey running away from this massive spray of water. Then I look in
front of me, and have actual REAL thoughts that I am going to get sucked into the worm hole. Despite the rough waves,
this was one of the coolest things I have ever seen, and I got some pretty amazing pictures!
If you look very closely, you can see a little black dot about to be encompassed by the wave... that's Kasey.
After riding back to the ferry port on our bikes (with very, very sore bottoms), we both seriously
considered buying a traditional Aran sweater from the shop in the main town.
The only reason I resisted was because I made a promise to myself I would
return with my family one day. My mom’s side is Irish, and that is the place
she has always wanted to visit, so we will be back! Again we went to dinner,
finally finding a place to eat after walking all over and everywhere being
full, and then went to a different pub and listened to more live music. I could get used to this.
Sunday was dedicated to a bus tour with several very
interesting historical stops that ended at the Cliffs of Moher - we apparently got very lucky that the sea mist hadn't rolled in too thick that day!
For those of you that have read my other posts, this is the spot. For those who haven't, just imagine a little Harry Potter and Dumbledore perched on that rock.
So apparently last year three people blew off the Cliffs of Moher. These paths make that very believable.
We had another great dinner, and then went back to the same
pub, which we found out actually used to be a church (if that tells you
anything about the Irish), and had a great conversation with two other girls
that were visiting Galway from where they were studying abroad. One was from
Sydney, and was studying in London, and the other was from Belize and was
currently in Paris, but had been about four other places before that!
We spent our last day in Galway doing some shopping for St.
Patrick’s Day because neither of us brought any green, and then did a walking
tour of the city. There is a lot of interesting history behind the city of
Galway, which despite its seemingly small size, is the third largest city of
Ireland. Now we are off on another bus to Cork, the second largest city of
Ireland!
Shop Street!
My St. Patty's day purchase. JUST KIDDING I WISH.
Observation of the Day: Ireland is phenomenal. Seems like the most obvious observation I have ever made, but the people are friendly, the air is clean, and the sites are some of the most beautiful in the world. Or in my world at least.
