Ireland Day 5 - Cliffs of Moher

(Mom, obvs)

We woke up around regular time to get breakfast. And by we, I mean everyone else. Having forsworn breakfast for being a useless meal I slept in instead. After everyone returned fueled up for the day we headed out to hike the cliffs! Well, first we watched the recycling truck crane-game a ton of glass bottles out of an alley and into its bed, but after that we headed out to the trail!

Even given the same source material, we all took very different shots.

(Mom)

(Adam)

(Brice)

(Dad)

(Ethan cantilevered off Brice)

The hike was amazing. Cliffs / rocks / ocean to our right, and pastures / horses / a castle to our left. I love the ocean, I love rocks, and I love the ocean dramatically crashing against rocks -  so it was pretty ideal for me. Highlights include: Feeding grass to horses (the grass may not be greener on the other side of the fence, but it is much longer), ocean caves, waterfalls (including one where the wind blew a majority of the water back up the cliff), and cliffside goat-trails where almost everyone chooses to walk closer to the edge than the official trail goes. Mom was not a fan of these goat trails, and often left us behind, turning her nervous energy into forward momentum. Maybe she hoped that  we'd have to catch up and would have less time for shenanigans?  Needless to say, shenanigans were still had.

(Ethan) taking a picture of (Brice) taking a picture of a waterfall.

(Ethan)

After a few miles the trail turned steeply uphill and the going got tough. The tough started stripping off layers and kept going. This brought us up to the higher, rockier part of the cliffs (prior to now the top layer had been coated in a thick self-weaving mat of grasses). Seeing the bare rock absent of any groundcover underlined how sketchy the cliffs actually are. I overheard part of a conversation detailing recent deaths... there was a base jumper who's 'chute didn't open, and a pair of abseilers who suffered a rockfall when they were only half done their rappel. As I listened to this, I noted all the people nearby creeping out to the edge for the perfect Instagram picture. To be fair, if my mom had been in a different country, I would have been out there with them. Heck, I would have brought gear and gone for it full-tilt. Perhaps it's best she was there. Finally, five miles of hiking behind us, we arrived at the visitor's center. The viewing platform and proper side-walks (with railings!) were a stark contrast to the paths we came in on, but definitely more relaxing. Another change was the paraglider who floated over us waving. The visitors center itself was definitely not worth the 8€ entry fee, but they waived the fee for hikers! So we ate some crowded cafe food, checked out some so-so exhibits, and most importantly found the penny-smasher.

(Brice) taking a picture of (Adam) taking a picture of flowers. 

As an incredible amount of fog drifted in, we caught a shuttle bus back to our car, and prepared to head back to Dublin. But first, a castle! We went down no-name streets so narrow we couldn't even pass a stray kitten and dead-ended at some farmer's driveway. There it was! Covered in sheep and keep-out signs. I snapped a few pictures from the outside and we headed towards Dublin. This consisted of narrow roads and narrower roads. At one point, on a "back up if there's an oncoming car" width road, the lines disappeared. We took this as a sign that we could move to the middle of the single lane. Unfortunately, the local behind us took the lack of lines as a sign he could pass us, and clipped our mirror in doing so. Surprisingly everyone stayed calm and no damage was done, except for some additional frazzling of nerves.

That's our hotel in the background!

(Ethan)

As we drove through the countryside we saw ruins in the distance everywhere we looked. It's ridiculous. Most of these are on private land and completely unlisted  -a concept I still struggle to understand. Regardless, when we saw a tall tower in the distance Dad asked if I wanted to check it out. I, of course, said yes! The Kilmacduagh Monastery was only a few hundred yards off our route, and  has the tallest tower in the country! The circular tower was a refuge built to escape to during raids. The bottom 20' is solid stone, so when the monks pulled up the ladder there was nothing for the invaders to attack. It also leans a creepy 6' out from vertical... After eyeballing the entrance for a while and finding no obvious climbing routes, we wandered around the rest of the church buildings snapping pictures and exploring. The compound was built in fits and spurts over a thousand years, starting in the 7th century. When we finally got back in the car, my mom told me "I saw you climb into that church." I didn't have the heart to ask her which one.

After the surprise-abbey we finally got onto the main roads, did a bunch of standard highway driving, bought groceries / dinner at a gas station, and finally made our hectic way into Dublin and our apartment for the night. First impression of Dublin: It's dirty, hectic, and full of too many people. So a lot like Baltimore, really. Tomorrow we'll see if experiencing the city properly changes those impressions.

(Adam)