Celtic Odyssey: His Majesty

Early in the morning, I left Limerick to head for Galway so I would have a chance of doing a tour of the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren. I couldn’t really book a tour ahead of time because the earliest bus got me to Galway at 945 and most tours left at 10, but that’s if the bus was on time and I didn’t need to check into my hostel before 6pm. Well, I’d tried calling the hostel to find out, but the number online was wrong. Mom managed to get me the right number, so I was able to ask and learned I could check-in in the later evening. Ok, great, I thought. The tour I wanted to go on had a 10 o’clock pick up near the bus station. Well, there wasn’t an info centre in or near the bus station, I get out of the bus station and find that there’s no obvious place for pick-up and I’m starting to get anxious as the seconds tick closer to 10. There’s a sign that says bus tours this way, so I follow that and find an office. It’s not for the same company I want, but that’ll do because I’ve only got 5 minutes now. The people in front of me are taking their sweet time and I don’t want to be rude, but I’m concerned I’m about to miss whatever I could possibly get. I finally get to talk to the salesperson and it’s exactly 10. But God’s awesome because who of all people do I talk to? The bus driver of a tour leaving in a few minutes and who has a good sense of humor (you need one with this or the tour will be excruciatingly long and painful, no matter what you’re seeing). Excellent – I’m set. He leads me to a separate bus station just for tour buses (there’s NO way I would have found this alone) and so we start the tour.

The first stop was meant to be a photo shoot of a castle, but it was low tide in the lake, so it wasn’t very picturesque. As we’d have to drive by it on the way back, Steve (bus driver) decided to save it for last. We drove through much of the countryside and stopped for lunch in a little town. By little town, I mean there wasn’t much other than a few restaurants and a few gift shops, maybe some small hotels. I sat next to an older man from Milan who has taught English for years and takes his students to Englad, USA, Ireland, etc so they can practice their English (and of course, see lots of places). Sounds like a sweet get-up (he even got to spend a week in the Bahamas)! We then made our way to the famous Cliffs of Moher (I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of them somewhere, or at least as their starring role in the Princess Bride as ‘the cliffs of insanity’). Now, I was sure that because I had gorgeous weather yesterday, there was no way my luck would hold for 2 days in a row and that it would be rainy and overcast today (like what happened with Killarney and the Ring of Kerry). We were SO lucky! Perfect weather – blue skies, no rain, not too much wind and it was probably low 70s. So, we had excellent visibility of the cliffs. What makes these cliffs so amazing is the combination of a massive, sheer drop-off and the readily visible, stratiated layers of rock, like someone just grabbed a lot of sheets of relatively similar sizes of stone and laid them on top of each other and threw some grass on top like a dollop of whipped cream. There are three prominent extensions jutting out into the water and they look not only majestic, but also a little menacing. There’s a different extension on the right that has O’Brien’s Tower, perched in the perfect place to see the cliffs in all their glory. Apparently these cliffs are so popular, they can get up to 3000 tourists a day at the height of tourist season and they can draw thousands on Christmas day – now that’s impressive! Give up my Christmas to see the cliffs? I wouldn’t necessarily do that, but apparently some people do. They have a visitor’s centre with different models and facts about the cliffs, but the coolest part was a virtual tour as an animal. So you’re a seal swimming around in the water, seeing the other wildlife that lives there, and then you follow a seagull as it flies around the cliffs, giving you an idea of what they look like from the sea.

After the cliffs, we drove through the Burren, which is a rocky part of Ireland. By rocky, I mean there are slabs protrusions of limestone around and the mountains (more like small hills) are covered in rocks (instead of just being more green). We went to see another megalithic structure, two stones standing with another laid across the top. When you think that people managed to not only haul that rock over there from somewhere else, but also hoisted it atop the others several thousand years ago, it’s quite impressive. The ground there was a labyrinth of rock protruding from the ground with some grass in between. Naturally, I played the ‘don’t step on the lava’ (i.e grass) game, so that made exploring fun. We dropped by another village to see this pub that apparently is the residence of a famous match-maker. People, or should I say singles, flock here to be told who they should marry because apparently this guy has a good track record. Hmm yeah I don’t know about that but ok. Finally, we headed back to that castle we passed initially, as it was now high tide, and got our beautiful photos. It seems it also holds medieval banquets, but I’m pretty sure it can’t beat the Bunratty’s.

Once we were back, I realized that google maps had failed me again, but I fortunately asked directions from a very knowledgeable woman who directed me right to my hostel. After checking in, I went out to find a place to eat and was delighted that I was seeing young people walking in the streets. However, when I looked for them in restaurants, I only found 30+. This has been a major problem in Ireland – there seem to be no young people except at 1 am when the night clubs are open, earlier than that and you have people almost 10 years older than me – not exactly the kind of age range I want to hang out with, especially when I’m by myself. I don’t know where all those young adults were going, but they disappeared somewhere. So I just found a quick place to eat and finished a book I brought in my hostel.