Friday: We drove across the island to Ennis town in Co. Clare. We stayed in a magnificent hostel (www.rowantreehostel.ie) in this quaint town! We had a great dinner at the Hostel and then went out on the town. Caroline's cousin, John, and his best friend, Louis, lived in Ennis so they took us to three great, traditional Irish pubs for a pint! One of the pubs was wonderfully decorated with flags and currencies from various countries, as well as other random possessions collected from visitors over the years!
Saturday: We left Ennis at 9:30 and headed south-west to the Cliffs of Moher. No words can even begin to explain the beauty of the cliffs. The cliffs are one of Ireland's most visited destinations, and rightfully so. Looking beyond the drop and out to the vast Atlantic and the Aran Islands made life and its struggles so insignificant.
From here, we drove along the coast and into the Burren Mountains. John's family owns a lovely farm, so we stopped and he gave us a tour of the farm before we hiked up into the Burren Mountains. This was another spectacular view, looking down onto the farm land and out onto the ocean.
There are fantastic stone walls up the mountains, called peace walls. During the famine, the starving Irish people needed money, thus the English payed them to build these useless walls over the mountains.
After our hike we had a delicious, homemade meal, made by John's mother! An unbelievable quiche, curry rice, fresh salad, potato salad...nearly everything grown on the farm! We sat around a woodstove and listened to brothers Padraic (15) and Thomas(13) play traditional Irish music. I could have stayed there all day! (www.burrenwalks.com)
On our way to Galway, Caroline took us through the town in which she grew up in! A lovely little village! On the way through it she was able to literally name each person residing in every house! Very Irish!
We arrived in Galway and hit the city! A bit bigger than Ennis but certainly smaller than Dublin! We did yet another pub crawl, listened to more live music, and drank more pints!
Sunday: A few of us, headed out to explore Galway in the morning! Stopped in multiple shops, tried on traditional Irish (Aran) sweaters and hats and hung out at a little Cafe!
We left Galway and headed back to Dublin, stopping at Clonmacnoise on the banks of River Shannon. This old monastery is believed to be one of the first settlements in Ireland.
This tour was truly fantastic and I'm looking forward to another one this weekend! We head to Northern Ireland for the weekend. Without a doubt, this tour will be full of history and current affairs!
What did you think of Galway? I'm not a big fan of cities, but I could live there...did you get to see the university? Beautiful! We saw the Cliffs of Moher on a verrry rainy, foggy day, so it was mystical and gloomy, yet still positively enchanting. Looks like you caught them on a clearer day!
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