The Cliffs of Moher and The Big City
As we got going in the morning, we were heading towards the Cliffs of Moher — one our only true tourist spots that we planned to hit. Massive 700+ foot cliffs plunging straight into the Atlantic Ocean.
We were there in no time, and glad to get there early before ALL the tourist busses. We parked, paid and started walking up the slopes and steps to get the view. There were already quite a few people out, but it was manageable and easy to walk around. The area around it was well done — there was a small tourist center, public bathrooms with unisex bathrooms — interesting to all go into the same bathroom!!! There were a couple of little shops but it wasn’t overdone. It wasn’t the typical American type tourist spot where there were a gazillion crappy t-shirts, sugary snacks, etc.
We got separated walking around — with the agreement to just meet back up down the hill later. Mom and I enjoyed walking to the left, and then way up again to the right. She did awesome — walking up all the steps. At the top, there was an old guy playing the accordion. I recorded him playing amazing grace for a bit. Really cool. There was a farm that ran almost to the cliffs — so plenty of sheep around, too.
Unlike the US, there weren’t a lot of solid barricades separating the walking paths from the cliffs. This is both refreshing and great for all the young morons who wander out to take selfies. Before long, the cliffs were full of people who climbed over the rails and were stomping over the likely homes of puffins and other burrowing creatures. Geez. So maddening to watch. A policeman came before long and waved them all back. One brazen girl defied him to fluff her hair and continued taking pictures until he blew his whistle. Then she ran to him — like she knew she was pressing her luck.
We met up with Sara and chatted a bit about how Instagram and other social media sites are really ruining travel to some degree. Gone are the days were people would stand in quiet appreciation and just gaze at the cliffs. Now, we’re scrambling out past the barriers and primping to take the coolest photo so other people will think.... what? We’re cool? On the one hand, whatever. Take your selfies. But on the other hand, not only are you ruining it for yourself — are you really seeing what you came to see, or are you just seeing yourself? But you’re also messing it up for others. I didn’t come to the Cliffs of Moher to gaze out and see the mountain covered with selfie takers. Right? Anyway, blah blah blah, I’m getting old and cranky.
We met up with Sara and chatted a bit about how Instagram and other social media sites are really ruining travel to some degree. Gone are the days were people would stand in quiet appreciation and just gaze at the cliffs. Now, we’re scrambling out past the barriers and primping to take the coolest photo so other people will think.... what? We’re cool? On the one hand, whatever. Take your selfies. But on the other hand, not only are you ruining it for yourself — are you really seeing what you came to see, or are you just seeing yourself? But you’re also messing it up for others. I didn’t come to the Cliffs of Moher to gaze out and see the mountain covered with selfie takers. Right? Anyway, blah blah blah, I’m getting old and cranky.
We all met back up and decided to get the heck out of town as all the tourist busses were now pouring in. We were cruising towards Galway — eager and hopeful to hear some live Irish music.
We got to enjoy a lot of tiny little Irish roads on this portion of the trip. When I say tiny, I mean the roads are meant for two way traffic, but one car’s width scrapes the plants on both sides of the pavement. There are some turnouts as you go — but not often enough for those of us who aren’t Irish. We knew some basic rules — the person going downhill backs up if 2 cars meet. We all sort of held our breath and said a prayer that we wouldn’t encounter a giant bus on one of those roads.
The scenery in Ireland is exactly what you imagine in your mind and hope for when you go. Having been to Iceland, there are certainly similarities. But where Iceland is more raw and untouched beauty, Ireland comes across as pristine, well cared for beauty. As though a master gardener, farmer and shepherd are secretly living in every square mile and personally ensuring everything is impeccable.
At some point, I saw some tiny signs along the road urging no cutting or mowing so as not to propagate an invasive weed. Fascinating! So the flowers and bushes were growing wild and free and were as lovely as anything you can imagine.
Speaking of signage, another great thing in Ireland is the lack of billboards and signs. There are some in the large cities, but by US standards, very, very few. It was liberating to not be constantly marketed to. On the other hand, the lack of street signs on every street makes being a tourist without WiFi difficult at times;) Major streets had signs — always posted on the sides of buildings and not out on the street corners or hanging from signal lights.
We found the Irish to be very calm, chill drivers. Occasionally we heard a honk in the city, but it was never a road rage thing, more of a warning thing. You know, as in when someone uses the horn for its intended purpose! They let people over, generally don’t drive wild and way over the speed limit (but when they do, it’s an Audi). The trucks try to get over so you can pass. I loved it — of course, I wasn’t driving. But, I just found it refreshing. I’m so tired of the constant stress, speeding, anger and rudeness you get in the US when you drive.
Oh, and get this — their gas stations are AMAZING. Like — fresh, wholesome food. Bakeries with amazing breads and scones. At some gas stations, they had small laundry mats outside. Just pull up, through in a load. Come back later. Wow!!! We often got our coffee from a gas station/convenience store type place. As in Australia, every where you go for coffee, it is made by hand. No stagnant overnight pot of stale drop coffee sitting on a burner.
Anyway, we rolled into Galway, the second largest city in the west (after Limerick). It’s a super cute city center all wrapped up with rivers and bridges. We parked at a cathedral for 5 euros a day and went to grab some lunch while we waited to meet our host to check into our apartment.
It was a gorgeous, sunny day and Galway reminded me of San Francisco in that when it is sunny, everyone comes outside, lays in the parks, enjoys being out and soaking up the weather. It was great people watching!
Mom had looked up some cool pubs to go to so we cruised over to check them out. They were indeed cool — but drinks only. And we needed food! We quickly found a place nearby and went in for lunch. It was a huge place with lots of tvs— something we hadn’t seen a lot of yet. We noticed right away there was a hurling game on and Galway was playing Kilkenny. Hurling... you must be wondering what it is. I know we did.
Turns out, Ireland invented their own sport and they are crazy about it! It’s quite fun to watch, actually, especially when you have no idea what’s happening! So, they have these weird paddle/bats that they can bounce the ball on (like paddle ball). They have to bounce the ball on the bat every x number of steps but other wise they can hold the ball and run or smack it way down the field to a teammate. The goal is sort of like a soccer goal but you get 1 point for over the top and 3 for in the goal...something like that. Anyway, fun to watch there with the Galway peeps and they ended up winning.
After lunch, we went back to the cool local pub and had a round of Galway gin and tonics while we finished watching the hurling match. Galway gin not as good as Dingle gin, but still good! We talked to one of the barmen — he told us a lot about hurling but also mentioned they don’t like having TVs because it gets too loud. I love this place!
Speaking of loud — remember I was mentioning this before. Every place we’ve been has a set quiet time and everyone seems to follow it. Dead quiet from 10PM- 8 AM and then still pretty darn quiet after that. it’s SO refreshing!
We went to check into our apartment— a very nice 3 bedroom place right in the middle of everything. We knew we wanted to do laundry that night so we were pleased to find a washer/dryer combo. The dryers in Ireland are interesting. First, it seems most hang everything to dry, so dryers are uncommon. I don’t mind this in principle, but when you only have one night to do laundry and need to do 4+ loads, you really need a dryer. Well...we had some heartache over this one. First, we couldn’t get the door to open again after it washed. Then we couldn’t get it to start. The buttons are labeled differently than ours would be, so nothing made sense. I finally downloaded the user manual and we figured it out. But, it took 4 hours to dry one load. That was insane. Since it was a washer dryer combo, we couldn’t get through all the laundry we needed to do. Oh well.
We wandered back in to town for dinner but found many places closed. That meant the rest of the places were crowded. We ended up at a nice place but no live music:( After dinner, Ash, Jason and I walked around trying to find some live music but either it started at 10:30 PM or wasn’t happening that night. Dang!!
This reminds me — they have an incredible amount of daylight right now. It would be light outside until 11 PM if not longer and would be light again around 4 AM. Really cool!! Although, it did make it harder to fall asleep at night. I enjoyed that we never had to be anywhere out in the dark.
We got to enjoy a lot of tiny little Irish roads on this portion of the trip. When I say tiny, I mean the roads are meant for two way traffic, but one car’s width scrapes the plants on both sides of the pavement. There are some turnouts as you go — but not often enough for those of us who aren’t Irish. We knew some basic rules — the person going downhill backs up if 2 cars meet. We all sort of held our breath and said a prayer that we wouldn’t encounter a giant bus on one of those roads.
The scenery in Ireland is exactly what you imagine in your mind and hope for when you go. Having been to Iceland, there are certainly similarities. But where Iceland is more raw and untouched beauty, Ireland comes across as pristine, well cared for beauty. As though a master gardener, farmer and shepherd are secretly living in every square mile and personally ensuring everything is impeccable.
At some point, I saw some tiny signs along the road urging no cutting or mowing so as not to propagate an invasive weed. Fascinating! So the flowers and bushes were growing wild and free and were as lovely as anything you can imagine.
Speaking of signage, another great thing in Ireland is the lack of billboards and signs. There are some in the large cities, but by US standards, very, very few. It was liberating to not be constantly marketed to. On the other hand, the lack of street signs on every street makes being a tourist without WiFi difficult at times;) Major streets had signs — always posted on the sides of buildings and not out on the street corners or hanging from signal lights.
We found the Irish to be very calm, chill drivers. Occasionally we heard a honk in the city, but it was never a road rage thing, more of a warning thing. You know, as in when someone uses the horn for its intended purpose! They let people over, generally don’t drive wild and way over the speed limit (but when they do, it’s an Audi). The trucks try to get over so you can pass. I loved it — of course, I wasn’t driving. But, I just found it refreshing. I’m so tired of the constant stress, speeding, anger and rudeness you get in the US when you drive.
Oh, and get this — their gas stations are AMAZING. Like — fresh, wholesome food. Bakeries with amazing breads and scones. At some gas stations, they had small laundry mats outside. Just pull up, through in a load. Come back later. Wow!!! We often got our coffee from a gas station/convenience store type place. As in Australia, every where you go for coffee, it is made by hand. No stagnant overnight pot of stale drop coffee sitting on a burner.
Anyway, we rolled into Galway, the second largest city in the west (after Limerick). It’s a super cute city center all wrapped up with rivers and bridges. We parked at a cathedral for 5 euros a day and went to grab some lunch while we waited to meet our host to check into our apartment.
It was a gorgeous, sunny day and Galway reminded me of San Francisco in that when it is sunny, everyone comes outside, lays in the parks, enjoys being out and soaking up the weather. It was great people watching!
Mom had looked up some cool pubs to go to so we cruised over to check them out. They were indeed cool — but drinks only. And we needed food! We quickly found a place nearby and went in for lunch. It was a huge place with lots of tvs— something we hadn’t seen a lot of yet. We noticed right away there was a hurling game on and Galway was playing Kilkenny. Hurling... you must be wondering what it is. I know we did.
Turns out, Ireland invented their own sport and they are crazy about it! It’s quite fun to watch, actually, especially when you have no idea what’s happening! So, they have these weird paddle/bats that they can bounce the ball on (like paddle ball). They have to bounce the ball on the bat every x number of steps but other wise they can hold the ball and run or smack it way down the field to a teammate. The goal is sort of like a soccer goal but you get 1 point for over the top and 3 for in the goal...something like that. Anyway, fun to watch there with the Galway peeps and they ended up winning.
After lunch, we went back to the cool local pub and had a round of Galway gin and tonics while we finished watching the hurling match. Galway gin not as good as Dingle gin, but still good! We talked to one of the barmen — he told us a lot about hurling but also mentioned they don’t like having TVs because it gets too loud. I love this place!
Speaking of loud — remember I was mentioning this before. Every place we’ve been has a set quiet time and everyone seems to follow it. Dead quiet from 10PM- 8 AM and then still pretty darn quiet after that. it’s SO refreshing!
We went to check into our apartment— a very nice 3 bedroom place right in the middle of everything. We knew we wanted to do laundry that night so we were pleased to find a washer/dryer combo. The dryers in Ireland are interesting. First, it seems most hang everything to dry, so dryers are uncommon. I don’t mind this in principle, but when you only have one night to do laundry and need to do 4+ loads, you really need a dryer. Well...we had some heartache over this one. First, we couldn’t get the door to open again after it washed. Then we couldn’t get it to start. The buttons are labeled differently than ours would be, so nothing made sense. I finally downloaded the user manual and we figured it out. But, it took 4 hours to dry one load. That was insane. Since it was a washer dryer combo, we couldn’t get through all the laundry we needed to do. Oh well.
We wandered back in to town for dinner but found many places closed. That meant the rest of the places were crowded. We ended up at a nice place but no live music:( After dinner, Ash, Jason and I walked around trying to find some live music but either it started at 10:30 PM or wasn’t happening that night. Dang!!
This reminds me — they have an incredible amount of daylight right now. It would be light outside until 11 PM if not longer and would be light again around 4 AM. Really cool!! Although, it did make it harder to fall asleep at night. I enjoyed that we never had to be anywhere out in the dark.
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