New Thing #81 - L/S/I, Day 10 - Cliffs of Moher

Monday, May 20, 2013

Despite our late evening of beer and Irish entertainment, we were up and at 'em pretty early to get a head start on our day. It's a good thing this hostel has a large communal bathroom because it was like Grand Central Station in there. I couldn't believe how nuts it was. Especially considering how loud and noisy it was in the halls into the wee hours of the morning, I didn't think it would be that busy. Fortunately, we were able to get in and out with relative ease despite having to use the communal hairdryer that had about as much energy as I did if I just tried drying my hair by blowing on it. I was starting to long for our private bathroom again (just not the murder shower).

Breakfast was more of the same hostel fare: cornflakes, juice, toast/scones. At least it was free! Today we'd be taking yet another bus tour, this time down the western coast of Ireland to the Cliffs of Moher (pronounced More). I was ridiculously excited for this trip because the Cliffs looked breathtaking from all the photos we've seen. My coworker was also proposed to here, and she raved about it. 

Two things that were immediately different/worse about this trip than our Scottish tour. Number 1: this tour bus was three times the size as our previous one and Number 2: our tour guide was not Juliet. His name was John and he was a lovely older gentlemen with an adorable accent, but he was soft spoken and difficult to hear. He did, however, make random jokes and animal noises. I guess that could be considered a bonus. Too bad we couldn't really hear him to get all of his jokes. 

It took quite awhile to get where we were going and we made several stops along the way for photos. Or as John called them "photo stops". We had opted to sit in the back of the bus, thinking there was more room, but it ended up being a terrible idea. The shocks were pretty much non existent back there and combined with the jacked up roads, it was like a rollercoaster nightmare. Nikki even ended up moving to the front by herself because she was getting motion sickness.

Back o' the bus.

Before we realized how terrible of an idea it was to sit in the back!

Random castle along the way.

You don't see these signs in the US.

Irish countryside.

Photo stop along the way.

Brenda doing some Irish pony-walking.

We found out that every sign is in English and Gaelic all over the country. They want to be sure they preserve their Gaelic heritage, and this is one way to do that.

Taking pics of Irish cows (not nearly as cool as Scottish cows).

"We got cows!"

Gorgeous.

The roads are ridiculous. Numerous times I thought we were going to hit another car or fall off a cliff. Props to ol' John for keeping us on the road.

This is famous. But clearly not famous enough because I don't remember its significance.

I was OBSESSED with these rock walls. They were everywhere and some were surprisingly even and equally spaced out. They've been around forever.

Plus they were pretty.

Another famous tomb.

Our wee sheepie.

Seriously, loved these walls.

Loved all the old crumbly buildings too.

An old cemetery. John told us the significance, but I couldn't hear half of what he said.

We made a stop for lunch, but it was ridiculously fast. We had less than 30 minutes for everyone to get off the bus, order, eat, potty and get back on the bus. Luckily, the pub was used to quick turnarounds, but I hated the fact that it was the only option and it was pretty pricey. I didn't have much time to focus on the menu, so I just picked the first thing that sounded good. Gougons.

The little village where we ate.

The only pub for lunch. I bet they give a cut back to the tour place in exchange for all the business.

What are "Adult Gougons" you ask? And why do they charge you around $13 for them?

Chicken tenders. And because they can. They actually weren't too bad, but I did feel a little weird eating chicken tenders and fries while on vacation.

The atmosphere inside the pub was a sh*tshow. There wasn't a lot of room to sit, the waiters were in and out, bustling food back and forth in a mad dash, and our entire bus, squeezed in amongst the locals, were all trying to get some sustenance before the bus left us behind. Not my favorite food experience, but at least the food wasn't terrible.

After lunch, we finally made it to the Cliffs, and they were well worth the wait. Despite the fact that it was ridiculously windy and cold (shocking), we made the most of the two hours we were allotted to walk around. There's not really much to talk about, so I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

First glimpse.

So pretty.

It was a bit overcast today, so I played around with lighting settings to make it less of a gloomy gus photo.

I totally look photoshopped in front of a fake backdrop. I assure you it was real.

We asked a girl to take our photo for us. She did SUCH a great job getting the cliffs in there.... Thank God she got that stone wall though.

Oh hey, just a guy smokin' a joint, playing the harp. No big deal.

Zoooooom in on the castle. Look at the above photo and it's the tiny thing at the  top of the cliff in the center.

More fake photography.

Um yeah, that's the edge. And for some reason Nikki really wanted to jump in. Don't get me wrong, she didn't have a death wish, she just thought this would be a pretty stellar place to do some cliff diving. I don't doubt the drop down would be breathtaking, but I'm thinking the freezing cold rocky shore line below wouldn't be very appealing.

According to John, there used to be no railing. Nothing to keep people from walking to the very edge of the cliffs. Note the worn walking paths.

Now there is a set path with a makeshift "barrier" to keep people further away. Why did they do that, you ask? Oh, maybe because of all of the people who have FALLEN OFF THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF. Yes, enough people finally died that they thought it would be a good idea to forcefully keep people safer.

They didn't remove this stone wall though. That would have been too smart. Instead they built steps to go up and over. The steps also make it pretty easy to hop the barrier if one is so inclined.

Trying to stay warm.

The castle is wayyyyy off into the distance. We got quite the workout walking from one end to the other. And we didn't even make it all the way to the far end.

Enjoying the view.

Much better shot of the cliffs with us. Much worse photo of our hair. Except for Nikki's hair that never moves.

The Great Sea Stack Brananmore Cliff that used to be attached to the mainland. But 300 or so million years worth of erosion tends to do some damage. 

It saddens me that they need to have a memorial to all the people who have died there. Because of the previous lack of fences, and the fact that erosion at sea level tends to cause the cliffs above to collapse at any given moment, some people just haven't been very lucky. I like adventures and doing some death-defying things, but I'm glad the walking paths weren't close to the edge anymore. That's not really how I would want to go. 

So pretty!

Panorama!

No joke.

To the left, there is a road to take you to the spaceships where the land floats on water?

Yep, Flat Nate made an appearance.

O'Brien's Tower was built as a viewing station. I really wanted to go in and take some photos, but they charged for that. No thank you. I got some pretty baller photos without the need to go up.

Just Samaritans. Not good ones though.

Little shops were built in to the cliffs selling everything from Irish music, shamrocks and leprechauns to other crafts.

Found a name plaque!

Goodbye Cliffs of Moher. You're quite beautiful. But I wish you were warmer and sunnier today.

We all made it back to the bus safely (no one fell in), and John proceeded to take us home along the coastal road. It was really quite pretty, and we even had some sunshine for a bit. I really loved the Irish countryside, and was kind of bummed we didn't get to spend more time working our way through little villages.

Llamas? Alpacas?

Adorable tiny pony. With what seems to be a sick/tired pony on the ground. I really hope it wasn't dead.

Limestone coast. And SUN!

Is it windy? I can't tell.

Maybe a bit windy.

We stopped at this castle for a bit to look around. It was open for dinners and other events, but we didn't stick around that long.

I would have liked to do a medieval banquet though.

After a long day of bus riding and cliff walking, it was nice to nap on the way back to Galway, because once we got back, we headed out to find some dinner and live entertainment. And maybe a few adult beverages.

I brought leggings and I was determined to wear them at some point. It had been pretty mild the night before, so I thought I'd be okay with bare calves.

Lovely streets of Galway.

After much walking around, we eventually settled on The Front Door....which is the restaurant we had read about earlier in the evening, but decided not to try.

Belgian beer in Ireland.

Oh my god. It's a salad. A REAL salad! With chicken and a sh*t ton of real bacon, not the atrocity they were trying to call bacon over there. This caesar salad was phenomenal. (In reality, it was just a regular caesar salad, but after a week of weak salads, this was a nice change of pace.)

Best dinner in Ireland: beef and Guinness stew with root veggies. The gravy alone made me weep tears of happiness. AND there's mashed potatoes on the bottom. Yep. Phenomenal.

Out and about looking for a pub with live music. It's so weird that it's late in the evening and still light out.

Brenda needed ice cream.

Seriously.

We ended up at An Pucan and had a lovely time. I have no idea how to pronounce it, but we were saying it like it rhymed with Toucan.

Enjoying a local beverage.

Galway is on the Bay. And a "hooker" is a term used for a type of boat, not what you think a hooker is. Dirty birds.

The first act.

It's kinda hard to see/hear them with all the background voices, but they were pretty good!

We even had some Irish dancing! At one point, she had a male partner, and then later some drunk ladies from the audience got up to dance.

Second act.

Yep, that's Ring of Fire. They also played Wagon Wheel, which BOTH acts played, and was quite a popular song over there.

I thought the leggings were cute and a wonderful choice of apparel. I was wrong. So wrong. It didn't help that we were sitting right by the door and the door was wide open. I was FREEEEEEEZING!

Our dear Nikki being a wee sheepie.

First attempt at photobombing Brenda's camera while she was in the bathroom. Fail.

H&N for the win!

Enjoying some lovely live music and a few Galway hookers.

Our own Galway hooker.

Despite the fact that I was cold (which was a pretty common occurrence on this trip), the live music was great, the beer was excellent, and the company was the best. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Galway, and I was sad to be leaving the next day. Yep, on to the final city. Heaven forbid we actually stay anywhere for any extended period of time. So much to see and so little time!

We decided to take the elevator back up instead of walking up all the stairs. Brenda does not remember this elevator ride. :D

Oh yeah, when we got back to the room and settled in the for the night, the rest of the hostel decided they did not want to settle in the for the night. At all hours of the night, there were foot races in the hallway, a supposed comedy show going on right outside our room and god knows what else. Stupid youths. I'm so glad I brought my ear plugs! (We even had someone ask us the next morning which room was ours because there were complaints filed against the room across from ours about the noise. They thought it was us!)