Spring Break: Ireland Part 2

THURSDAY (DAY 2)

Right so.  We had spent the night in Galway.  So we woke up, had breakfast (toast and butter - Irish butter at that...yum yum) and got back on the bus.  We had another day of small towns but we did see the Cliffs of Moehr today.

Our first stop was Corcomroe Abbey, this abbey in the middle of nowhere.  Literally.  There were cows next to the abbey.  We didn't get to pet them but we tried.  The abbey was really cool.  All run down and stone and such.

Abbey

More abbey - look at that green

Proof

COWS

 Woo.  So after that, we went to what our guide called the Baby Cliffs.  Literally, we pulled off the highway and got to walk out to these cliffs so I have no idea what they're called or where they are.  But they were beautiful.  And a great lead up to the Cliffs of Moehr.  The water was blue beautiful and the cliffs were so cool.  Even if they were super windy.

Lookit!

Ooh pretty

Climbing down for a kickass photo (nervous Mom?)

Totally worth it

And then it was time for lunch.  Finally.  We stopped at a small town for lunch - Doolin.  We literally had time to run into the restaurant, eat and leave.  I had seafood chowder and a chicken and bacon sandwich (no picture though - too busy eating).  It was a good lunch but I would have like to explored Doolin.  Eh well.  Another reason to return.

Road signs (to help me remember)

 The pub we went to had a song on the outside and part of the lyrics included white horses.  And our guide had a thing for white horses.  He literally stopped the bus to take a picture with a white horse.  Doof.

Our next stop was the Cliffs of Moehr.  WOO.  And trust me, they lived up to the hype.  Beautiful.  Incredible.  Breathtaking.  Mindblowing.  Those are the only words I can think of.  We basically just walked along the cliffs for as long as we could.  We even climbed over the barrier at one point to get some really good photos and views.  Don't worry Mom, there was like 10 feet of ground and other people were doing it.

What

Ireland stop

Castle at the cliffs

Law breaking kid

After the cliffs, we went to Killarney, where we would be sleeping for the night.  For dinner, we went to a pub.  Dinner, Guinness, live music and I was happy.  We got to sleep in the next day so even though we didn't get a chance to sight-see before dinner, we got to do a little little bit in the morning.  Definitely need to go back though.

Chicken tenders, chips, sweet chili sauce, salad and Guiness.  Dinner of champions.

FRIDAY (DAY 3)

Right so, like I just said, our day started with a tiny bit of walking around Killarney.  Mostly we just got to see the main church and the walk to and from our hostel.  There was apparently a huge park but we just didn't have time to go in.  Ooh also, for breakfast, I had toast with Irish butter and raspberry jam.  Yum yum yum.  Why don't I have a toaster.  Or Irish butter.  Or raspberry jam.

Look at that church

Are you serious Ireland

You can't be this pretty

It's not allowed

All the windows and door are painted.  Not real.  Woah.

Right so, after we left Killarney, we started our day of exploring the Dingle Peninsula.  So, for most of these photos, I don't really know where we were.  All I know is that we were on the Peninsula at some point.  So yeah. 

First stop was looking over a beach.  We didn't get to walk on it (boo) but our guide told us that later on in the day there was a beach we could walk on (dun dun dunnnnnnnn foreshadowing here).  But it was still pretty to see it from up high.

View

View

 Me!

Since we had gotten to sleep in, after our stop here, it was time for our longer lunch stop which we luckily got to do in Dingle.  All of us were really excited to go to Dingle (not just because of the movie Leap Year...but yeah mostly because of the movie Leap Year) and we were not disappointed.

Dingle is the cutest little harbor town.  All the buildings are painted a cute color with cute little Irish people and dogs and streets and yeah.  So we walked around Dingle for a good while and then we had lunch.  We stopped in an Irish pub (where I would have gotten another Guinness for lunch but it was Good Friday so no pub was serving alcohol in Ireland except for secret ones - this will come back later) where I ended up eating chicken curry again.  Which was delicious again.  I had forgotten how good curry was and now I'm excited to have real Indian food when I get home.  Also I made one of  my favorite purchases in Dingle - Guinness potato chips.  The South African couple had gotten them yesterday and had talked them up so much that I had to try them.  And they were delicious.  So if you find Guinness potato chips anywhere, purchase them.  Don't eat them though.  They are for me.

Look at all the colors

Really though

Church

Pretty stained glass

 Foxy John's - Hardware, Bicycles, Pub

They are serious with these colors

Someone really lives here

Cutest pub ever

 Lunch

 Funghi the Dingle dolphin (yeah I'm serious...apparently a fisherman found him and the fisherman had a beard that looked like a fungus or something...I didn't really get it)

 Teehee

After Dingle, our first stop around the Dingle Peninsula was to see this rock house and the ruins of an old fort from far away and the ocean.  So here's pictures!

That's a nice stone house

There were sheep...and two lambs that kept bouncing around everywhere.  They were really cute.

 It was windy but I made it!

Our next stop was at a place where you could climb down the cliff and stand on a rock that jutted out over the sea...so yeah we did it.  It was awesome and totally safe Mom, I promise.

It was basically straight down (but still safe!)

My hair just stays like that, it wasn't that windy (but basically you could lean into the wind and it would hold you up...not that we tried of course)

Yay!

New favorite

Our next stop I actually do have a name for and it proved to be the most exciting place of the whole tour, but not really in a good way.  It was Dun Chaoin beach and we stopped twice, once to look out over the beach and once where we could walk onto it.  These are pictures from looking over it.

Sleeping giant islands...I have a better picture later don't worry...well kind of better

 

Look how pretty

 Ooh ahh

Look at our green buses in the background...yeah they say Paddywagon in huge letters on the side.  Oh and we only had one bus but there was another tour that was doing the same day that we were (thank God)

Our next stop was actually on the beach.  And by beach, I might about 5 feet of sand between the waves (of the Northern Atlantic aka cold and rough) and rocks.  Keep this in mind.  Okay yeah, it was beautiful, smelled like salt water, got super nostalgic blah blah.  Let's get to the story.

So I've mentioned that Shaun was a doof.  So he had been saying that if he found swim trunks, he was going swimming here.  He didn't have swim trunks but he decided to put his feet in anyways.  So we were looking out over the wall and taking pictures when we decided to walk down the path to the "beach."  We then saw Shaun standing by himself on the beach trying to encourage others to come in the water when all of a sudden, a HUGE wave comes up and breaks.  Shaun tried to run out of it but he wasn't fast enough and got swept up by the wave and dunked completely under the water and slammed into the rocks.  Once the wave had receded, we saw him curled up on the beach and we all thought he was just in shock because of the cold water but when two other guys ran out there and dragged him off the beach, we knew something was wrong.  He couldn't really walk and one foot was all bloody.  So then we started the process of attempting to get him back on the bus and in warm clothes.  Thank God there was another tour guide there, we got him down there immediately.  Shaun tried to walk but obviously couldn't so a car came and drove him back up to where the bus was.  At that point, no one really knew how serious his injury was.  After he was on the bus, we started going through his suitcase and passing him dry clothes.  And by we, I mean the tour guide and the South Africans and a couple random girls.  Everyone else was just watching.  So, for some reason, Shaun decided to get off the bus and walk around.  He walked a couple steps and collapsed to the ground yelling and that's when we knew we had a real problem.  A couple guys then lifted him onto the bus where we covered him with a space blanket to try to warm him up because they couldn't get his soaked jeans off.  The consensus seemed to be that his knee was dislocated but not broken, so there was talk of trying to relocate it, which made my skin crawl, but we decided against it since we weren't sure if his knee was dislocated or not.  Then the tour guide tried calling an ambulance and it was going to be at least a 2 hr wait.  So after a lot of debate over what to do with all the people on the tour and Shaun since there was only the one driver, they finally got it worked out where another driver was going to come pick up the bus that the other tour guide was originally driving while he was going to drive our bus with us and Shaun on it to Dingle to the medical center.  So we made it back to Dingle pretty quickly but then had to wait an hour for the doctor to get there.  No one was there, since it was Good Friday and all, and then finally, when someone did show up, they didn't have a wheelchair so the guys had to chair carry Shaun in.  The upshot of the story is that Shaun sprained one of his ligaments and has to be off it for at least 6 weeks and that's the last we heard of it.

Phew.  I do have some pictures though!

It was really beautiful

Really though

Aw

 Kind of better picture of sleeping giants taken from the bus

After all that hooplah, we finally made it to our hostel for the night in a tiny town called Anascaul.  We really didn't have time to do anything and the only open restaurant was the one attached to the hostel.  So we ate there where I had burger (yum) and it was illegally serving alcohol so I had a pint of Guinness and a pint of Murphy's (kind of like Guinness but lighter).  We did hang out with the other tour kids for a bit and talked.  Met some girls that were studying in Glasgow and they basically confirmed my desire to go to Edinburgh so that was nice.  And then we basically collapsed into bed.

Dinner

And finally, that brings me to the close of Part 2.  Part 3 will include the last day of the tour, Dublin, flight home and what we did until classes started again (not much).  And I am working on it so yeah.  It's coming.

Ciao!!