 |
| prime cliff sitting |
Allison and I went to the Counter after work on Friday. It was a weird day at work, as both Nicole and Chloe weren't there, but the Counter's burgers and cosmos made everything better. So I was in a happy place by the time we got on the train at Heuston Station.
The train ride's scenery was pretty familiar, seeing as I had only been there a couple of days (or hours, really) before. We left at 7:15 and got into Galway close to 10. Luckily our hostel, Snoozles, was less than a 5 minute walk from the train station. When we got there, the staff was super helpful. Since I had booked separately from Megan and Kari, I was put in a different room, but they called one of the guys, John, in Megan and Kari's room and convinced him to switch. When we got up to the room, there were two guys inside, John and Marcel. John was a large 250 or 300lb IT geek who also played guitar in the park at night for cash. Marcel was a Chinese student, studying in France. Once we got in the room, we had a very interesting conversation with John, whereby he told us that someone is robbing Ulster Bank from the inside, showed us some battery thing that he brought, and then informed me that I wouldn't be able to fit in a seat on my Ryanair flight. He really knows how to make friends, that one.
After he left the room, Megan, Kari, and I started to get ready to go out. Marcel wasn't interesting, saying that he had class the next day. We thought that was kind of odd, given the next day was Saturday, but we just kind of shrugged it off. We left the hostel at around 11, and after wandering around Galway's small city centre for a little bit and accumulating a wrist full of stamps for clubs, wandered into a night club called Carbon. When we got there, there was no one there, but we decided to stick it out and ultimately had a pretty fun night. We got back kind of late and Marcel was asleep. However, the other two guys in our room had not shown up yet.
The next day, we woke up early to head out on our Aran Islands tour. We got up at 8:30 and started talking, which seemed to tick off the other two guys in our room. They had gotten in late, and kept Kari all night with their drunken snoring. None of us really hit it off with them.
We hurried out of the hostel to meet up with Michael Faherty, the man giving us the tour of the Aran Islands, at the bus station. After paying him, we got on the small bus to take us to Ros a' Mhíl where the ferries depart from. The entire ride, there was a never-ending loop of popular Irish songs, including the Belle of Belfast City, the Wild Rover, and the Rocky Road to Dublin. We drove through Connemara again, which was always cool to see again. After about 45 minutes of driving, we made it to Ros a' Mhíl. And while we were waiting for the ferry, who do we see...Marcel. "I thought you had class," Kari said to him, "but we thought it was weird, since it was a Saturday." His response? "Yeah...I should have thought of that."
After getting lunch at a small cafe, we made our way to the fort. At the fort, it's absolutely incredible. You can sit right on the end of the 300 ft. cliff. It's an indescribable feeling, terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. Perhaps the most terrifying part is that, when you are sitting with your legs dangling on the edge of that cliff, you have an impulse to jump, which led to an interesting discussion about human nature between Megan, Kari, and myself. Once we finished our cliff-sitting, we made friends with a small dog running around named Yogi. He was thirsty, so we gave him some water. His owner showed us a bunch of Yogi's tricks, and I feel pretty confident in saying that Yogi is the best dog.
At 1:45, we started making our way back to the four way intersection with shops to meet up with our tour guide. We were supposed to meet him at a beach, so instead of getting on the bus once we got there, Megan and I decided to take off our shoes and wade into the water a little bit. Afterwards, Mr. Faherty took us around the island. We drove by famine houses, where he told us all about Cromwell's lovely atrocities, such as evicting whole families from their already tiny houses and putting them on the streets. And how before the famine there were 2,500 people living on Inis Mór (and now there are 824...). We then made our way to the Seven Churches, the ruins of ancient churches. Mr. Cromwell, of course, burned the roofs off them, which is why they are simply stone ruins today.
We then made our way out to the last fishing village on Inis Mór on the most westward part of the island. There, Megan, Kari, and I got off the bus and tried to make friends with a seal who was kind of close to shore. We named him Ralph. So many animal friends! At 3:30, we finished our tour and arrived back in Kilronan, the main village on the island, where the ships depart from. We had an hour, so as per our usual, we ate, going to a cafe and getting some okay seafood chowder (the stuff I had in Carna will always be the best).
Eventually, Megan, Kari, and I made it out of the hostel. We met up with Evan and Allison at the King's Head very briefly before we needed to go and find food. We ended up in an Italian restaurant across from the Quay's. The food was delicious. I wish I had taken pictures. Bruschetta and pasta...nomz. Sorry if I am making you hungry. I am making myself hungry if it's any consolation. After dinner, we walked over to the Quays. It looked like a hoppin' place, and we had stamps to get in without cover before 11:30. As we were all very tired, we didn't stay very long, but I am sure it would be great craic if we were in the mood for being out. When we got back to the hostel, we were shocked to see not only Marcel (which was expected) but also Cormac back asleep, given his stories of his Friday night. Kari was right about his snoring, though. It was quite loud, but I managed to fall asleep anyways, because clearly I am a champ.
It's a two hour ride to the Cliffs via bus, which you don't really expect, given how clearly you can see them from various parts of Galway, Connemara, and the Aran Islands. But it's a lot of winding roads, hills, and such. It's also super incredible. The landscape Co. Clare (the area you have to go through to get to the Cliffs) is super beautiful. I compulsively took pictures of it, while everyone else slept.
We hopped on the ferry and got to Inis Mór, the largest of the three Aran Islands, in an hour and half. Inis Mór is home to 824 people. All these people speak Irish, and the main industries on the island are fishing, farming, and tourism. They have their own Aran culture, which they seem determined to preserve. There is only one bank, an Irish bank that's probably 30 sqft (a generous estimate) and opens only 2 days a week.The landscape is very similar to Connemara, tons of rocks, rock fences intertangling throughout the landscape. There are cows everywhere, a few sheep, but not as many as you would expect. Needless to say, it's on par with Connemara for being a whole different world, if not moreso.
 |
| sealzzzzz |
Michael Faherty started our touring by driving our bus (like a champ) through the tiny Aran roads, to the seal colony. Sidenote: driving on Inis Mór is insane. The roads are only big enough for one car, but it's a two way street. Instead of passing someone on the side, one person has to back up to an intersection or pull off and let the other person pass. Anyways, we got to see the seals, and then we drove to a small intersection with tourist shops. He dropped us off and told us to go and see Dun Aoghasa, a fort on top of a 300 ft cliff.
After getting lunch at a small cafe, we made our way to the fort. At the fort, it's absolutely incredible. You can sit right on the end of the 300 ft. cliff. It's an indescribable feeling, terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. Perhaps the most terrifying part is that, when you are sitting with your legs dangling on the edge of that cliff, you have an impulse to jump, which led to an interesting discussion about human nature between Megan, Kari, and myself. Once we finished our cliff-sitting, we made friends with a small dog running around named Yogi. He was thirsty, so we gave him some water. His owner showed us a bunch of Yogi's tricks, and I feel pretty confident in saying that Yogi is the best dog. 
At 1:45, we started making our way back to the four way intersection with shops to meet up with our tour guide. We were supposed to meet him at a beach, so instead of getting on the bus once we got there, Megan and I decided to take off our shoes and wade into the water a little bit. Afterwards, Mr. Faherty took us around the island. We drove by famine houses, where he told us all about Cromwell's lovely atrocities, such as evicting whole families from their already tiny houses and putting them on the streets. And how before the famine there were 2,500 people living on Inis Mór (and now there are 824...). We then made our way to the Seven Churches, the ruins of ancient churches. Mr. Cromwell, of course, burned the roofs off them, which is why they are simply stone ruins today.  |
| Ralph |
We took a 4:30 ferry back, got back to our hostel around 6:30, and took a nap. The guys (we later learned their names were Eric and Cormac) were there and trying to recover from their wild night out the previous night. They were a little bit nicer to us this time, but Cormac still insisted upon smoking in the room, so that was less than pleasant. Eric ended up being pretty nice though. Kari had left to go downstairs to change rooms so that she could actually sleep, and Megan was still passed out. But him, Marcel, and I had a nice discussion about China, politics, and other things.
This morning, we woke up early again, and this morning, we actually kind of got along with Eric and Cormac. Eric started playing his guitar, and we chatted about living in Dublin. After we checked out of Snoozles, we went to Ceannt Station to catch a bus to the Cliffs of Moher.
It's a two hour ride to the Cliffs via bus, which you don't really expect, given how clearly you can see them from various parts of Galway, Connemara, and the Aran Islands. But it's a lot of winding roads, hills, and such. It's also super incredible. The landscape Co. Clare (the area you have to go through to get to the Cliffs) is super beautiful. I compulsively took pictures of it, while everyone else slept.
Finally, we got to the Cliffs, and they were great. Technically, we aren't supposed to go past this plaster fence, because too many people have died walking the cliffs, but everyone ignores that and just jumps it anyway, and it's totally worth it. The views you get on the other side of the fence are incredible. I have no words. Also, fun fact, the cave scene in Harry Potter 6 (you know when Harry and Dumbledore go into the cave to find the horcrux), yeah shot at the Cliffs of Moher. Megan and I freaked out a little when we found out, and I know have a new thing to add to my bucket list: explore the Cliffs of Moher Caves.
 |
| Harry Potter cave |
At 2:30, we had to take a bus back to ensure we made our 6:05 train, and since, we had an hour and a half, Megan, Kari, and I went to, you guessed it, get more food. We stopped in a different, not as good Italian place, but it was still a yummy meal. We made it to our train with about ten minutes to spare. And lucky us, we got the car with obnoxious teenagers on it. Now I know I am an obnoxious teenager, but it's still mind-boggling to me that I was closer to these kids' ages than I am to Megan and Kari. This group of guys, who seemed to have just come from a Gaelic football match given that they smelled like Billy after a basketball game, were hopelessly trying to flirt with a group of girls that were sitting behind us, which got old quite quick. To try and ignore them, I immersed myself in Hunter S. Thompson's Las Vegas drug-binge. We were almost to the station when the ride got slightly more exciting. Just before we got to Heuston, there was just some bro, presumably drunk, chilling on the train track area. Not like suicidal or anything, just drunk and lost. The guards promptly got off the train and walked him off the tracks, and one of the younger girls that the Gaelic football guys were trying to flirt with sighed, claiming "only in Ireland." Final fun thing about the train ride, after we got off, the group of guys were gathered around a part of the train. A sticker on it said "isolated cock box." (Hehe, cock...you know you are giggling a little bit.)
So that was my weekend. I already sent out a Facebook message to my friends at Tufts who want to study abroad, but I am serious about us going to Galway one weekend when we are all studying abroad. Because that would be so much more than a blast and a half.
No comments:
Post a Comment