Cliffs of Moher

Also on our trip to Galway we were able to visit the Cliffs of Moher.  If you have ever seen the Princess Bride you will probably remember that in the movie their name is Cliffs of Insanity.  The cliffs were truly breath taking.  They are about 700 ft high and you can get right up to the edge of them.  You do this at your own risk though, the rocks are known to fall and about 30 people die at the cliffs every year.  There is no chance anybody would be able to survive a fall from the cliffs.

 

We had seen picture of the cliffs on a nice day but we weren't lucky and were stuck with a crappy day.  The wind at the top of the cliffs was insane, it was as if we were going to be blown over.  It was slightly scary.  There is even a little castle on the top of the cliffs.

 

There are many trails that anyone can take to various cities or sites from the cliffs.  The only wrong with these trails is that one wrong step and you will fall off the cliffs.  These trails don't have a railing or barrier.  There are signs everywhere telling you the "extreme danger" you face if you go on a trail or jump over the barrier.

 

 No matter the weather the Cliffs of Moher were well worth it.

Cong

This past weekend our group was able to visit the city of Galway and along the way we made many stops to sight see and try other things.  One highlight of the trip was the town named Cong.  Yes it is pronounced like the video game Donkey Kong.  The town itself was pretty small but unlike the area of Louisburgh that we are staying at, Cong actually has trees.

It also is right next a river or creek but this was very high because of all the high the rain that Ireland has been getting lately.  This town, Cong was the place where the film "The Quiet Man" was filmed with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.

I also said earlier that the river was very high, a couple more inches of rain it looks like some peoples homes will be flooded.  It is amazing that people have built there homes so close to the river, it would be a little scary seeing the water get higher and higher and not being able to do anything about it.

Also there is a castle in Cong, Ashford Castle.  It has been turned into a 5 star hotel and even has its own private road to the castle.  We had to sneak onto the road to even get a picture of the castle.  We didn't get very close and it is under construction but it still looked very nice.

Also what made Cong so nice was the fact that the rarely seen sun decided to pop its head out and give us a day.  There was also this little fishing house made of stone and brick.  The monks used it to fish in the river and it was actually kind of spacious in there.  They even added a fireplace and with a chimney.  They mainly fish salmon in this river.

Snowy Valentines day???

We woke up on Friday also known as Valentines day with it snowing in Ireland....

 

This is my roommates reaction when he noticed it was snowing.  We were all a little bitter about the whole thing but being away from the dreary weather in Minnesota kind of makes you miss the first snow fall of the year.  I'll admit the light, fresh snow did look good on ground and the best part was that it was above 0 degrees and it was gone the next day when we woke up.

By midday there was a little accumulation on the ground and almost all 20 of us decided to have a snowball fight.  It was perfect snowball weather and it was not very cold.  After we got bored of chucking snowballs at each other, we decided to play a little Irish sport called rugby in the yard.  The yard was one giant puddle and was super slippery but that just made it that much more fun.  It did get a little cold when you were tackled into a puddle but you got up laughing and shook it off.  It was a great time.  When we were playing many locals drove by and slowed down and gave us the weirdest looks.  Some of them even yelled "YOU'RE CRAZY!!"  We showed the whole town what us Minnesotan's are all about.  We made the best of the snow but we hope that it was the last time we see the snow over here.

Running

It is so nice being able to run outside in shorts in the middle of February.  A huge change from Minnesota and a great change at that.  The scenery is a lot different too.  Over here you can see the ocean out of one eye and in the other one you can see mountains.

It is a little distracting when your running but in a good way.  There aren't any trails in Louisburgh so your running on the road but once you get out of the little town the roads are so tiny that it does feel like your running on a trail.  There are also different different loops marked with signs to help us Americans not get lost.

This loop runs right next to the ocean for a bit but there is a giant hill.  You can see it the background of the last picture.  It is .30 miles up and .25 miles back down.  Once you get to the top you do feel like your on top of the world.  You can see for about 20 miles on a clear day.  You can see the Atlantic ocean on one side with a couple of beaches and where the Bunowen river spills into the Atlantic ocean.

Also when you reach the top of the hill you can see over the whole little town of Louisburgh.  It looks even smaller than it is and that's saying something because the population of Louisbugh is 422.

   Also the beaches in Louisburgh are easy to run to but not to run on.  Well running on a beach is never easy but with all the bad weather that Ireland has been getting the beaches are covered in seaweed.  This seaweed smells bad and is incredibly slippery.

 

With all the bad weather it is cool to run to the rocks when there are big waves and see the waves crash into the rocks.

Local Tour

Last Friday we went on tour of our local area around Louisburgh.  We saw a couple beaches, cemeteries, lakes, mountains, bridges, and got to visit the city Westport.

This picture is of an old Pagan tomb.  People's cremated ashes were put in this tomb.  It was created before Christ but you can still find a cross located on the tomb.

It is somewhat hard to see but it is there.

Also we went to a bridge that was made with just rocks over a small creek.  It was the only one found that didn't have any concrete used.  They had to use concrete in the later years to keep the bridge standing.

We then visited a place called the valley of tears.  During the famine it was where many people had to walk to try and get food and many people died.  It was surrounded by mountains and there was a lake in the middle of it.  There was also a monument remembering all the people that had passed away during the famine.  It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Straight on view

The Mountain to the right of the lake

View a little off to the right

Mountain off to the left

The monument

Tough to read but it is in memory of everyone who died during the famine

We also stopped and took a look at the only Fjord in Ireland.  It comes in from the Atlantic ocean and is 5 miles long.  It was said that in WWII that the submarines would come into the Fjord to hide.

I also said we visited a city called Westport on our tour.  Westport is the closest, biggest city near Louisburgh only 24 kilometers away.  We were able to get out and venture around the city.  We walked around and just got a feel for the city.  We walked into to a Guinness store that sold anything you can imagine that said "Guinness" on it. For Example they had golf balls, hats, shirts, rugby balls, soccer balls and much more and all they had on them was the name Guinness.  We looked at the prices and decided it was best not to buy anything.  We then continued to walk around the city and we saw a fresh bakery full of treats.  We all decided to go in and take a look.  We got in and the only thing we recognized and knew what it was in it, was a gingerbread man.  We all decided to try something new.  I decided to try a biscuit with a big marshmallow on top of it dipped in chocolate.  I didn't get a picture of it because before I knew it I had already eaten the whole thing.  It was like a S'more but better if you can imagine that. 

Major Differences

It's been about week since we have arrived and I had a decent amount of dirty clothes building up on my floor so I thought I would be the first to try and wash my clothes.  We had heard to wash our pants and socks together without our shirts because of some type of dust that is everywhere, and if we did wash them together it would ruin our shirts.  So I threw my pants and socks in the washing machine, that's when the problems started.  First problem was which cycle to choose.

I had never heard of a washing machine and dryer combined into one machine.  Also had never seen any washing machine with two knobs on it.  So I just guessed and hoped not to ruin two of three pair of jeans that I had brought on my trip.  After that I couldn't figure out how to start the machine.  My roommates looked at me like I was stupid.  I stood there hitting every possible button for about ten minutes and the machine still wouldn't start.  I had pressed the "on" button so I knew that it was on but it wouldn't start for me.  I finally asked my roommate Max to help me try and figure it out.  He came over and it took him about a minute to figure out what the problem was.  The washing machine door wasn't completely shut.  I have done this many times on other machines that I actually knew how to work.  The machine's start button lit up and we watched as my clothes started to spin around.

After what felt like forever for my laundry to finish, the machine's light that said it was done, lit up.  I went over and opened the door to find that my clothes were still soaking wet.  The machine was supposed to be a washing machine and dryer all in one.  It turns out it is mostly just a washer.  I then had to resort to putting my wet clothes on radiators all over the cottage.
 

This is just one of many radiators full of my clothes.  It took them a couple hours to finally dry but I didn't ruin any of my clothes.  Which is a huge relief.

That is just one difference I have noticed inside the cottages that I am not used to growing up in Minnesota.  The other one is the length of showers that we are allowed to take.

In Minnesota it is nice to take a long warm shower in the dead of winter but here in Ireland they told us we have to get in the shower, wash ourselves, and get out.  Peter, the man who runs the place where we live here in Louisberg, told us that he knows how us Americans take showers and we can't "read a book" in the shower he said.  We all laughed and understood that there isn't hot water for us to take long showers that some of us are used to.  I personally love to take long hot showers in the morning to wake me up or pretty much anytime really, so this is a difference that I will have to get used to.

Another and probably the biggest difference I have noticed here is that the Irish drive on the opposite side of the road.

I knew that before I came here.  I had experienced it before when I visited England a couple years ago.  The major difference is the size of the roads and how fast it seems that the drivers are going.  The Irish seem like the nicest people alive before they get behind the wheel of a vehicle.  When they do get behind the wheel of a vehicle it's as if they have the worst case of road rage imaginable.  It's actually slightly scary.  We drive around in a big coach bus and I have no idea how the driver maneuvers around the tiny  Irish roads.  Most of the time it feels as if we are going to either hit the car that is coming opposite of us or the fence that is right next us.  It feels as if I could reach out and touch the fence if the windows were open.

All of these are different from what I am used to back at home and will take some getting used to but aren't the end of the world.

First Couple of Days

We arrived in Ireland at 6:00 in the morning in Shannon.  We then boarded a bus to Louisberg.  We got to our Cottages at about 11:00.  We then tried our hardest to stay awake as late as we could to try and get our sleep schedules sorted out.

Our cottages have heating but it is nice to start a fire in the fire place to help keep the place warm.  It is a different type of cold over here.  The rain and the wind make it cold sometimes but I'm not complaining it's warmer than Minnesota.  Our Cottages are about a ten minute walk to the ocean.

Ireland has been having some Gale force winds and some storms making for some flooding and very high tides.

This road leading up to the beach was not covered in rocks a couple days ago.  They were left here by a big storm on Friday.

Also all this sea weed was left by the same storm.  The locals say that the next really high tide will take all this gross sea weed away and they will get back their nice beach.

Funny story here: the first night we got here we were invited to the pub for some welcome drinks and food.  It was an opportunity to get to know so locals.  Somebody had paid for our drinks all night so I tried a Guinness and I wasn't to fond of it.  So I then went up to the bartender and asked him if I could get a screwdriver.  He kind of looked at me funny and then went into the back room and actually came out with a Phillips screwdriver.  I then told him that a screwdriver was vodka and orange juice.  The next time we went into the pub that bartender had told almost everyone our little incident and everybody was giving both him and I a hard time for it.

Also everybody here is unbelievably friendly.  They make "Minnesota Nice" seem like nothing.  Everybody says "hi" to each other.  They will also just stop you on the street and start talking to you and the next thing you 10-15 minutes has passed and you're still talking to this person you were just passing on the street.