After a few sets of plans fell through, I took a bus to Galway with Amy, an Australian girl just finishing a month of interning at a vet's office in Navan. She lives with Atty's sister while she's here; that's how we met.
We arrived in the evening after a slow bus ride (due to traffic and snowy weather) and walked the minute or so to Kinlay Hostel and checked in. We went to Finnegan's for traditional Irish food - I had salmon and Irish soda bread - basic and delicious! We shared a slice of Bailey's cheesecake for dessert - yum.
Then we went to King's Head bar and had a few drinks and chatted. We waited and waited for the band (Knot Sure) to start, but when they finally did, they turned out to be a cover band. I was pretty tired so we headed back to the hostel and I was out pretty fast.
The next day we went on a tour of the Burren and the Hills of Moher. About an hour into the bus ride we got off for a walking tour (others went on to a cave) and did a slow, easy hike partway up a mountain. Our guide explained to us that the many, many stone walls we were seeing came from people clearing their fields. At first when they would clear the fields the stones were just piled in one corner, but as property rights became important they were used to make walls to distinguish owners.
There are also walls leading up and over hills: walls with no purpose. These were commissioned by good-hearted English people who wanted to give people work, this way they could pay the workers and the people would have a way to earn money or food. That's the people-are-kind view, the not so optimistic view is that the English didn't want Ireland to gain a decent infrastructure and become an economic threat, so instead of putting them to work building roads or doing something actually useful, they were given backbreaking, pointless work as the only way to earn some money.
Another interesting thing about these walls (my pictures don't show how they were ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE) is that they weren't just sort of slapped together - they were made by stonemasons. You can imagine that it was important to stack the stones properly since there is nothing holding them together - no binding agents, just stones.
Amy and I pose by one of the walls. Billy, our tour guide, also made it into this shot by including his shadow.
Next up, the Cliffs of Moher! There are all sorts of paths that obviously were used recently but which are now blocked off, although people don't pay much attention to that. These cliffs seem to be popular among the suicidal. I did see a sign "Need to talk? Call the Good Samaritans: xxx-xxxx" but I wasn't in need of counseling, so I didn't make use of their free services.
Hey Sarah, check out my scarf. Does that help prevent me looking like a boy?
Another shot of the cliffs, this time without someone's big head in the way.
A tomb for lots of important people many years ago. All of my knowledge of pagans comes from Eddie Izzard, so don't ask me about the significance of this stuff.
Limestone is everywhere in the Burren. Burren means "rocky country" or something like that - a very accurate description.
My understanding of why it looks like this: millions and millions of years ago, when everything was one big continent, Ireland was down near the equator and this area was chillin under water. Fish would die and their skeletons fell to the sea floor and slowly were crushed and formed limestone. As the earth shifted underneath, the cracks formed.
The soil here is full of calcium, so it's a good place to raise cows.
This was when I conquered Ireland:
Back in Galway
View from the Prom - a walk along the shortest river in Europe.
I ended my day with my FIRST EVER meal of fish and chips at a nasty greasy little restaurant.
The rest of the weekend: before this fish and chips shot, we watched Ireland beat France at rugby (a big deal - it doesn't happen often!) on the big screen at the King's Head. Then dinner, then wandering the streets, stopping in some pubs.
As usual, I was sleepy and not super interested in drinking and hanging out in pubs, so I went back and went to bed and Amy, being much cooler than me, went back out to the Front Door to hear some traditional music. She met some Irish people and hung around with them for the night.
Next day we wandered down to the Prom (Promenade) and walked through Galway, did some shopping, and caught the 2:30 bus back to Dublin, and from there the bus to Navan.
After that we headed to the Natural History museum where they have such things as "bog bodies" which were a bit disturbing. And old. Anyway your standard Natural History museum - I liked it.
