Dublin

My travel days are getting easier and easier.  I made sure to pick a hotel right across the street from the train station.  It was a very nice hotel, and I ended up with a Superior King room, and ended up with a corner room.  It.  Was.  Huge.  I don't know who needs that much space!  But the bathroom: amazing!

 

I arrived back into Dublin around 4 PM.  Once I was settled in, and the rain stopped, I ventured out in search of food.  Not too much near me (it seemed to be all business), but I found a convenience store near me, which is always a good thing.  I decided to relax for that evening and plan what I am going to do in Dublin during my one full day in the city.

Unfortunately, the weather did not want to cooperate, but that is expected in this part of the world.  But I was prepared with my raincoat and my trusty umbrella.  I started by walking towards the city center along the Liffey.  It started out as a very nice day!

It was about a twenty minute walk from my hotel, but it was a nice day out.  Lots of people out and about.  I didn't really have much of a plan, but I had things in mind.  After a while, the sky's started to change, and the rain started to fall.  Lucky for me, when it started pouring, I was at Trinity College (just by chance!), which was one of my stops I wanted to make.  Mostly to see the library.  And what a library it was!

 

   

I love old books, so this was right up my alley!  There are over 200,00 books in the library, called the Long Room.  It is also the largest open room library in the UK.  They are currently in the middle of preserving all of these books.  Once I left the library, I walked out to wonderful sunshine once again!

 

But sadly, it did not last very long.  Once I was done touring Trinity College, I went to find some lunch.  Ominous clouds began to appear once again, so I ducked into a cafe and ordered some lunch.  That is when it poured.  It was raining so hard, it was coming down sideways in two separate directions!  Now, I don't know if it is o TV back home, but Dublin has been getting a lot of rain lately. Last Friday, they day I left for Galway, Dublin flooded and it cause a lot of problems.  So when it rained yesterday, it didn't take long for the water to pool up everywhere, making it impossible to keep your feet dry.  But, as it seems to be, wait twenty minutes and the weather will change.  

I decided to walk through the Temple Bar area to see what all the fuss was about.  Now, I have been told by several native Irish to not to the The Temple Bar.  Nobody goes to The Temple Bar but tourists and Irishmen looking to pick up tourists.  But the area itself was pretty cool.  Live music playing in almost every bar.

 

 

It started to rain once again, and I was feeling like a 90 year old woman, so I decided to head back in the direction of my hotel.  One can only take hurricane inspired rain for so long!  Sure, the sun is shining in my pictures, but that was maybe 20% of my day.  That, and I had to pack up all my stuff and get organized because it was going to be an early morning for me!  I decided to order room service so I could concentrate on my packing and organizing.  Yummy salmon-potato cakes and delicious lemon cheesecake.  Just what I needed.  

I wish I had more time in Ireland.  There is so much to see and do here.  But that goes for every country I visited.  But the way I look at it, you have to save somethings for the return journey!   

The Cliffs of Moher and other County Clare Things

I woke up bright and early this morning (okay, it was 8AM, but I'm on vacation!  That's early!) to catch the bus that would bring me to the Cliffs of Moher.  This is something I wanted to make sure I did while in Ireland.  They were maybe an hour and a half south of Galway, but we made many stops along the way for some amazing sightseeing!

We drove through an area called the Burren.  It means "great rock" and rightfully so.  Limestone rocks cover the landscape here.  The area used to be underwater up until the last ice age.  There are fossils in the rocks dating back millions of years as proof to this.  This is a very mountainous region of Ireland as well.  All made of limestone.

Now, for our first stop, we had one of two choices: visit an working Irish farm, or visit some really awesome caves.  Now, I have been to farms, and I have been to caves, but it was such a wonderful morning out it was hard to choose which one to do.

I choose Irish Farm!  This little guy above here, his name is Billy.  He was found up on the mountain when he was only a day old, and the Connolly family rescued him.  He is now six months old and loves showing off.  There is tape on his horns because he like to head-butt (all in good fun!).  

The farm was in County Clare in the village of Oughtmama (Ucht Mama).  And as I said, it ended up being a beautiful morning!  And it's a good thing I wore my sneakers, because that huge hill in the background of the second picture I posted above, I climbed that.  And it's a lot higher than it looks!

We had two tour guides, both who work on the farm.  The farm has been in the family since 1720.  I think it is a great idea to offer tours, especially because of the unusual area surrounding it.  The one guy knew his stuff!  He has degrees in Irish heritage and archeology.  And it was nice to get some fresh air and away from the craziness of Galway.  Oh yeah.  The Galway races start tomorrow, that's why it's NUTS here.  I really know how to pick them!  London during the Queen's jubilee and Wimbledon, Cornwall on the busiest holiday weekend in the UK, Scotland during the Scottish Open.  It is all making sense now, though, the amount of people out everywhere.  The Galway Races are also why the bars are open till 2AM here as well.  So some peace and quiet was well needed by this point in my journey.

So up we went.  All the way to the top of the hill.  

 

At the top was a fairy tree.  Now, these are not the flying-around-fairies you see in Disney movies.  No.  Ireland has their own legend.  Fairies were very pale people who lived underground.  It is said that they can only come to the surface through a Hawthorn tree.  People leave things tied up to these trees in hopes of gaining good luck, or forgetting past stresses.  It is also said to be very bad luck to cut down one of these trees.  Our guide told us that, not to long ago, there was a new road being made and there was one of these fairy trees in the middle of where the road was supposed to be.  The person in charge said to just cut it down, but all the workers refused.  So, therefor, a new plan was devised so that the road would wind around the tree.  You will randomly see one lonely tree in the middle of nowhere.  You can bet it is a fairy tree.

So, we are at the top!

Hey it's me!  And what a view we had!  It also started to rain a bit while we were up there, which was wired with it being sunny and basically no clouds over us.  Apparently that happens a lot here.  

Here is a dry wall, called so because no cement or any type of mortar is used.  They are used to divide up the land.  They are made of limestone because the land is covered with this rock.  The walls were made as a way to remove the rocks to make way for farmland.  Now, the soil is not very deep here, so most of the farms are cattle farms.  You see sheep and horses as well.  In the wintertime, farmers move their herd up to the hills so that the grass below has a chance to grow.  And vice versa during the warm months.  Limestone holds in the heat very well, and this area sees a mild climate, and hardly any snow. 

     

Once we climbed back down, we headed into Granny's Kitchen for some fresh baked goodies!

Fresh from the oven and still hot!  All in all, I think I made the right choice is choosing to visit the farm over the caves.  Once the bus picked us back up, it was straight on to the Cliffs of Moher.  We were hoping to beat the rain that was forecast to come.  Now, we were all truly blessed to see the views we got to see today.  Our driver told us that most of the time it is too cloudy, or the fog is bad, and people end up buying postcards because they couldn't see the cliffs.  But there was no need for that today!

It was like mother nature wanted me to be able to see this amazingly, beautiful sight because right behind us....this:

Got to love the unpredictable weather in Ireland.  But on we went!  We traveled to the village of Doolin to stop at Fitzpatrick's Bar for lunch.  I had some delicious Irish Stew.

 
  

Now that's just confusing!

After lunch, we began our journey back to Galway.  We took the scenic route along the coast line.  We also made two quick stops along the way.

Thatched cottage

Overall, I had a great time!  It was 8 fun packed hours or hiking hillsides, climbing cliffs, and walking around limestone beaches.  I learned a lot about this area known as the Burren.  One thing I loved were all the ruins in the area.  Ruins of castles, churches, and on the farm there were ancient ruins from Christian settlers from over 900 years ago!  You don't see anything that old back home.  And I love that it is still there, however little it is.  To me it's shows a since of pride in where you come from.  They don't just bulldoze it to the ground and build a parking lot over it.  It is kept almost as a reminder.  It's a way of not forgetting.  It's keeps the history alive.

Oh, Galway....

Galway lies on Ireland's west coast.

It is a very lively city with many shops and pubs to keep everyone happy.  There is always live music at night.  The pub across the street has a band every night and I love being able to listen to it even if they do play till 2am.

I arrived from Dublin yesterday afternoon to sunshine and warmth.  It took about two and a half hours to get here by train and was the least stressful travel day I have had so far.  Yesterday in Dublin, it rained.  In fact, it poured.  I don't know if they are showing it on the news back home, but Dublin flooded.  Luckily, I left before it got bad.  I walked one block to take the tram to the train station.  The tram runs right through the city making many stops.  Way better than walking, let me tell you.  I got to the station to find they were boarding early, so I got a good seat and had a place to store my luggage (which isn't always the case sometimes....).  

But enough about my train ride.  The hotel I booked (I am never staying in a hostel again!) was right around the block of the train station.  Once I checked in I wasted no time and walked out to explore.  I found a shopping center just one block away and made a stop in Penney's, which is the Irish version of Primark.  Same clothes, same low price.  I bought new pajamas and a few new shirts (bed bugs have my clothes hostage).  I also walked along Quay (pronounced like key, just in case you didn't already know that) Street, which has a ton of shops and pubs and cafes.  The weather quickly took a turn, so I went back towards my hotel.  There is a convenience store across from me so I stopped in to get some food (fresh veggie pizza!).  As soon as I got into my room, the rain came.  It's a common occurrence here, but wait just 20 minutes, and it will change.  Always have an umbrella handy, that's for sure!

Today, with the sun shining, I went back out to explore.  I walked back down Quay Street and stopped into the shops.  I bough some goodies for myself, as well as other people!  There were many street performers set up.  Some were singing, some were pretending to be statues.  There was even a guy making sand sculptures.  Yesterday he did a pig, today a dog.  Everywhere you looked, something was going on.

 

I walked to the end of the street and came upon Claddagh Park.  There were small beaches where a few people were hanging out, escaping the insanity that is downtown Galway.  I don't blame them. 

After wandering around in peaceful bliss, I decided I needed to go on a quest for food.  Tuna melt, cafe, good food, blah blah blah....I went back to shopping.  As soon as I got outside it started to rain, so I popped into a store, and then it poured.  It was here that I bought some more goodies for people back home.  Maybe some of the Waterford Crystal persuasion.

Well, that's about all I did today.  Walked around, spent way to much money, also booked a trip to the Cliffs of Moher tomorrow which I am very excited about!  Even if it supposed to rain.