Ireland 2007: Days 4-5

Day 4
We were told that Sunday was going to be a total washout, so we went to bed Saturday night with the plan of taking our time Sunday morning and eventually making our way to Ennis. When David and I got up, it was bright sunlight! Once Emily and Brandon woke up, we decided we should get moving and head to the Cliffs of Moher. We figured we'd see as much outside stuff before the rain hit us.

We got out to the cliffs around 11am and after spending a little time in the gift shop headed out to them. It was a bit more packed with tourists this time, but it was still amazing. We first got to stop and listen to a German concertina player who was sitting on a bench near the entrance to the cliffs. She also happened to have her dogs with her -- a cute puppy of some sort and an older dog who looked like some sort of Yorkie on steroids. Then it was up to the Cliffs. We first headed in the direction David and I couldn't go last year -- they were working on something up near O'Brien's tower, so it was all closed off. We got some amazing pictures on our way up to the tower. The day was so clear you could see the changes in colour of the ocean depending on the depth and the striation was amazing. With David's zoom, we were able to see a lot of the craggy parts of the cliffs that we couldn't see with the naked eye or our other cameras. We were also able to zoom in on some people further up the cliffs who looked like they were in a place they shouldn't be. Since we could barely see them, we weren't sure if they were local kids or tourists. When we looked at the photos later, we discovered they were indeed tourists. I was pretty amazed at how many people were willing to break the rules there. And how many people were so reckless -- these people were standing right at the edge of the cliff with a major wind that was capable of knocking you off your feet.

We discovered up on the other side that a lot of people were doing the same thing. There was a sign there that said you weren't allowed past it and yet plenty of tourists were up there wandering around and some were a bit closer to the cliff's edge than they really should be! One guy was standing down a bit on a slanted part and I was pretty sure he was going to fall off. He didn't, but damn was he lucky!

We left the Cliffs and decided that we should stop for tea...and ice cream. And damn was the ice cream good! Mmmmm...

Then we were off to the Burren. We really had no major plans in mind, but we ended up basically following the first day we had over there last year -- only we had much better weather! First we stopped in Lisdoonvarna to take some pictures of the musician statues and also to have lunch (a very nice cheap lunch at a cafe). Pictures were taken of David and I in front of the statues (a bodhran and fiddle player) and we took some great pictures of Brandon and Emily posing like the dancer statues. It was a brief visit, but nice and relaxing.

We stopped and took some pictures of a ruined house along the way and got to listen to some woman complain that she couldn't get up close or even into the house to take pictures. People just don't get that others LIVE HERE. We also took pictures of a lovely ruined church and its graveyard. There was a place to kneel that was terribly uncomfortable, but David managed to look rather pious (though Brandon looked more pained than anything).

And then we were off to my very favourite place in Ireland (so far!): The Poulawack Cairn. I don't know what it is about this place, but I just really connect to it. Last year when we were there it was dark, dismal, and very windy, but so dramatic! This time it was bright and sunny, but no less magical. The nice thing about this particular spot is that tourists just don't come there. We saw two people -- one guy who made it out to the cairn, but didn't stick around and his wife who turned back as soon as she saw how far away it was. I do really get tired of being around a bunch of obnoxious tourist types who have no respect for the history of the place they're at. At any rate, we made it out to the cairn slowly, because that's the only way to do it without twisting an ankle (or at least, without twisting an ankle badly, as I did twist my right one a few times while up there). I took several pictures of the cairn, the outbuildings, and everyone wandering around. It was strange, but I spent most of my time around the cairn by myself, just soaking it in. I really did spend a lot more time with it this year, including climbing up on top of it, and examining the collapsed entranceway. From what I recall reading, the original bodies (4 of them) were buried in the cairn some 3500 years ago, with more buried over the next 1000 years. It was apparently a very important one since very few were buried there over many years. It really is a fascinating place. Near the cairn there is a souterrain (an artificial cave). Last year, David and I took some pictures of it and moved on. This year, we got much more involved in this section. All 4 of us climbed through it to the other side. We ended up calling it the "fairy fort" and we all felt rather spirtually changed after crawling through that cave. It was nice going to the places we had been before and getting to see it through other people's eyes. We never would have thought to crawl into the cave, but we're very glad Emily did!

After visiting the fairy fort, we climbed back down the hill and were on our way to the famous Poulnabrone dolmen. Even if you don't know that name, it's the image you always see for Ireland. It's overrun with tourists as its easily accessible, quite dramatic, and they've now put in a car park next to it. Oh well. It's still quite lovely. We wandered across the Burren floor for awhile and enjoyed just being outside. One of the truly amusing moments of the trip came when we were done at the Dolmen. For some reason, Brandon said we should take a picture of David as he came out of the portapotty. And we did. Which was followed by a picture of Brandon coming out of it. Silly pics, but such fun!

From the dolmen, we decided to head north up the Burren toward Ballyvaughan. We stopped a handful of times to take pictures of the limestone hills (a rather dramatic site!) and managed to find the Burren Centre for the Arts, a place that Emily had thought about applying to at one point. We've ended up dubbing the place "Emily's Centre for Mortally Wounded Dreams." The centre is made up of some new buildings, but the centerpiece is a refurbished castle (the Newtown castle, I believe). It's a gorgeous place, certainly perfect for visual artists! We also managed to head out onto the pier near Ballyvaughan and nearly got blown away. The wind was really strong!

At this point, we decided to head over to Corcomroe Abbey, which was not far from Ballyvaughan. Well, we got a bit off the path sheerly by accident. We were supposed to continue on the N67 to get to the abbey, but took a wrong turn and ended up driving up along the coast to Black head point and Fanore. It took us awhile to realize we were heading in the wrong direction, but all of a sudden we noticed that the bay should have been on our left side, but was on the right. Oops. It turned out to be a FANTASTIC mistake. The view was great and we got a lot of beautiful pictures.

We headed back via Lisdoonvarna, found one of the ruined castles we took pictures of last time we were in Ireland. and got some more pictures from different angles. One of the nice things was that this time around, we found out the name of it: Ballinalacken castle.

We rolled into our cottage quite late that evening and had a nice dinner at home of hamburgers, mashed potatoes, brown bread, and salad. Yum!

It was a REALLY long day but we saw so many amazing things. Bed that night was well-deserved!


Day 5
I awoke the next morning to blue skies yet again. We hadn't made many plans for what we were going to do that day, but I decided that it was the perfect day to head out to the Aran Islands. The only problem was that we didn't have a rain coat for Emily (as she left hers in Dublin). With swapping around coats, we managed to get her to use my coat and I used Brandon's fleece. It all worked out well!

We got down to Doolin in decent time, spent way too much to get on the boat to Inishmore (€40 a person!), and then waited around for awhile for the boat to finally arrive. The seas were REALLY choppy (good thing none of us has seasickness!), but we made good time nonetheless. The view on the way over was just beautiful. We headed up, where Emily got into a conversation with a lovely man named Jack. He invited us out to the Doolin pubs that night, told us to come down with our instruments and play some tunes...he'd be floating between the three pubs and hopefully see us there. We REALLY adored Jack. He was so much fun, and just so sweet. We decided immediately to head down to the pubs that night for our first Irish session experience.

We arrived at Inishmore around 12:30pm and were trying to decide what to do. No one wanted to take a bus originally, but then when this one guy started talking to us about getting on his bus tour, we realized there was no good way to see things on the island without a vehicle of some sort. So on the bus tour we went (luckily it only cost €10). We first stopped for some lunch and to see Dún Aengus, an amazing fort up on a cliff. Unlike the Cliffs of Moher, you can go right up to the cliff here, and look over. Talk about vertigo! Eek. David, Brandon and I all hung off it to take pictures, but I wasn't about to stand too close to the edge. Brandon actually jumped down to this tiny ledge below...crazy boy! Of course, this place was overrun with tourists, so we had to deal with annoying people, like the woman who complained that they should put a warning on the place about the climb up to it. Um...have you looked around the landscape? It's just like the Burren. And it's high on a cliff. Did you EXPECT it to be easy walking? Yeesh.

After Dún Aengus, we headed back to the bus for the rest of the tour. We got out in a few places -- one at the ocean where I could stick my hands in it, another at the Seven Churches (where we had to listen to some obnoxious tourist going on and on, saying things like "Hey did you hear that? That thing there is a privately owned roundhouse!" -- he was really fascinated by some ugly modern thing). We got to see the two remaining churches and also the graves of some saints.

We wrapped up our tour of Inishmore with a pint at local bar and hostel, and then headed back on the boat. I spent most of the trip back working on keeping my balance with the rocking of the boat. It was fun, but tiring on the legs. By the end of it, I was able to stand in place without holding onto the railing even when the water was rough.

We had a lovely dinner at home that evening, made especially more lovely after Mary and Pat Lynch (who own the cottage) stopped by to greet us and to provide us with a very lovely homemade apple tart. They were really sweet people and we enjoyed meeting them. After dinner, we headed out to Doolin to find some music. The first pub we ducked our heads into had a band performing (a very good one I might add), so we opted to not go there. The second one had a session in it and so we decided to go in and play with them. Well, it turned out that the banjo player was a very famous Irish tenor banjo player named Kevin Griffin, one of David's idols. *gulp* He was a bit nervous and I felt it too, since I'm all too aware of who he is! We managed quite well though, and realized we were doing well when he offered to get us drinks (free of course, but still!). He was a nice guy and so was the piper from Switzerland, who we got talking with for a little while after the session.

We braved the dark roads home, which wasn't too bad since we left around 1am, and fell into bed exhausted but very happy.


See pictures from Days 4 and 5 here.