Here Comes the Sun

Today was different. I attended classes, as usual, and hung out with friends, as usual. But what was different weighed heavily throughout the day. You see, today, February 20, is the two year anniversary of the passing of a friend, Ann. Ann fought so hard for so many years, but eventually cancer won the battle. She was funny, beautiful, and so brave. I have never met a single soul like hers. Anyways, I realized something that amazed me today. This past weekend in Northern Ireland, the only thing that went wrong was that I lost a bracelet. You might think that this was no big deal, but it was to me. The bracelet was white with orange lettering that said "Hearts for Haerings: Harmonious Hope." This was the only bracelet I wore, and I wore it every single day. Unfortunately, it was just big enough that it would slip off my wrist when I took off a jacket or long-sleeved shirt. I realized during the weekend that it must have slipped off. I don't know for sure where, but I realize now where it must be. 

I didn't know this until recently, but Ann loved the movie Titanic. Well as you know, this past weekend I toured the Titanic quarters. You can probably tell where I am going with this, but I must have lost the bracelet somewhere nearby. I know I didn't lose it on the tour of the quarters, because I remember having it on when we left Belfast. But somewhere between Belfast and Derry it slipped off. I like to think that it was at the Giant's Causeway, and that it slipped off into the Atlantic Ocean. I guess I will never know where it is, but I like to think that Ann chose the spot. Somewhere really beautiful. I lit a candle today, a tradition that has started so that wherever a light is shining, we know she is still with us. She impacted a lot of lives, and she continues to impact them from Heaven. 

Another way Ann is present this week: though it typically rains here every day (everyone knows that I guess), it has not rained since last week. The sun has been shining, and is supposed to continue shining for the rest of the week! I feel like her song is so fitting this week...she is here. 

Here comes the sun (doo doo doo doo)
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I sayIt's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right

Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right
It's all right

Belfast and Derry, Northern Ireland, UK!

So much happened this past weekend! I went on my first trip out of Ireland, into the UK. It was only a three day trip, but it was phenomenal and filled with fun and laughter. This might take a while to write down everything that happened, so bear with me :) I booked the trip with a bus tour company that specifically targets students at both the University of Limerick and nearby (I think) Tralee University. We took a single coach bus, filled to capacity, from both universities, up to Belfast, along the Antrim Coast to Derry. I think what made it most interesting was the history of the whole country! I knew that there has been violence in Northern Ireland, but never imagined the extent of the whole thing. We went on tours that were incredible, filled with historical events and locations. I will start from the beginning of the trip and go from there. 

On Friday morning, the bus left UL at "8 am sharp", which in Ireland is more like 8:15. The sun was still rising, so it was still a dawn grey, with the clouds and everything. We boarded the bus and met the driver and the tour guide. Ironically, our tour guide was not Irish. She was French, and spoke with a heavy French accent, but has been everywhere in Ireland and really knew her stuff. It took about four and a half hours to get to Belfast from Limerick, and most of it was spent in near silence, as almost everyone slept most of the way. When we arrived in Belfast, we drove around the city and were shown some of the most well known sites around the city. There are about 300,000 people who live in the city of Belfast, but the bus drove through the main squares, not the residential areas. The architecture was beautfiul. As Northern Ireland is part of the UK, there is a lot of British influence throughout the city. Some things were subtle, such as the architectural style of all the buildings (Victorian. More about Victoria later), but there were obvious ones as well, like the Union Jack flying on every street. 

Our first hint of violence was made shortly after we got into the city. We passed by a fancy-looking hotel called the Europa. Turns out, this hotel is the most bombed hotel in the world. It has been bombed a total of 34 times. We didn't hear why all of these bombs occurred, most of them were probably politically or religiously (or both, which happens frequently here in Northern Ireland) motivated. In fact, as we drove by there was an ambulance and a few medical personal right outside, bandaging a man's head. For all I know, he could have simply fallen down, but I found it very appropriate that something was going on outside this infamous hotel. We continued driving around the city, and our guide would point out famous landmarks or statues. Back to the Victoria thing: as a city, the people of Belfast seem to be obsessed with Queen Victoria. Everything is named after her, there are tons of statues of hers, etc. As the guide would point to things, she would have us guess what they were named after, and it quickly become clear that everything was named after her. The main street was Victoria Street, the mall was Victoria Square, the bridge was the Queen Victoria Bridge. There was even a statue in the city of her husband, Albert. Whenever she was ask what anything was named, we would all respond with an enthusiastic, "Victoria!"

I didn't actually know very many people on this trip, only a few and not very well, so I was being brave and just hanging out alone. There was a girl who is in a few of my classes and lives across the street from me, Callista, and I hung out with her and sat next to her on the bus. During the bus tour, we drove by the largest arena in Northern Ireland (seats 20,000 only), and someone mentioned that Belfast had a hockey team. Turns out, the girl directly in front of me was from Canada, and we bonded over the hockey worlds we lived in. From there it was easy: I think I finally found my best friend here! Her name is Meggan, and she was with one of her housemates Rhiannon, a girl who I recognized and had met briefly in one of my classes. The four of us (the first friend and the two new ones) bonded the rest of the bus ride and decided afterwards in our free time to walk around the city together. 

The Titanic Museum

This bus tour around the city was really just meant to kill time, as we had gotten there early and our tour of the Titanic quarters wasn't scheduled for a little while. I was really excited to go on this tour. I don't know why, but I have always had this interest in the Titanic, and we were going to get to tour the docks and places that the Titanic was built and first launched. Our tour guide was hilarious. He was a short ("wee") little man who lived his whole life in Belfast. He started the tour off with, "I know everything there is to know about the Titanic. If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask, I will answer it. Even if I don't know the answer, I'll just make it up." I knew from there is was going to be interesting. We walked past the Titanic museum (which I heard was really cool, but we didn't have time to do both), and were going to do the outdoor walking tour. We saw the Drawing Room, where the Titanic was designed (along with her two identical sisters, the Olympic and the Britannic). As the tour guide held up a picture of the designer, Thomas Andrews, and asked if anyone knew who he was, I heard Meggan whisper under her breath, "Victoria!" The joke continued throughout the day. 

The guide also had really interesting stories, the lesser known incidents that happened during the building of the Titanic. There was the story of Wee Jim, who would, at the end of every work day, leave the shipyard with a cart full of junk: scraps and rubbish. Nobody understood why, and he never said why. The guards just assumed he was a bit dumb, and left it alone. After a while, they thought maybe he was steeling other materials, and just piled the trash on top of it to cover it up, but they had him empty the cart and he wasn't. On the last day, he was retiring, one of the other workers finally asked him what he was doing with the cart of rubbish everyday. He responded with, "I was stealing the carts." Turns out, he would eat his lunch quickly everyday, go back and build an identical cart with the materials, and fill it with trash, wheel it out, and sell it. Every single day for 20 years. He wasn't dumb after all. There were other stories, like the final worker to die building the ship (there were a total of 10 that died while building it), who go run over by the Titanic as it was being launched into the water. Tragic way to go. Or the story about the worker biking to the dry docks, the 44 foot deep dock that held the Titanic in order to paint the outside, on a foggy, dark morning accidentally biked off the edge and fell. He didn't die, but he didn't go back to work for three years. 

The dry dock of the Titanic.

Anyways, the tour was incredible. The sheer size of the Titanic is not exaggerated one bit. The  museum was built to be the exact height of the bow of the ship. But that isn't the end of it. The bow is the shortest portion of the ship. The center, with all the upper decks and smoke stacks, is three times the height of the bow. So the guide had us picture this building, with two stacked on top. It was HUGE! The dry dock was built to the dimensions to fit the enormous luxury ship. We got to go down and walk in the dry dock. The scary thing is that the water was being held back be an enormous gate. Thankfully,  since the original gate was in service for over one hundred

years, they built a new one. So the really old gate was still there, just not actually holding back any water. There was water that trickled along the edges, which was slightly nerve-racking, but we were told this was perfectly normal and safe. Rhiannon, not thinking said about the dripping, "It's not like water's ever killed anyone." She quickly realized the error of her statement, as we were ironically standing directly where the Titanic was, which about 1,500 of it's passengers were, in fact, killed by water. We still haven't stopped giving her crap for that one. Just little jokes about this place were made throughout the tour. As the tour guide repeatedly stated about the three sister ships (two of which sank, one was sold for scrap parts by the British), "They were perfectly fine when they left here." 

Callista, Me, Meggan, and Rhiannon

After the tour of the Titanic quarters, we went to our hostel (my first experience staying in one!) and were told we had the rest of the night to do whatever we wanted. The four of us dropped off our stuff in our rooms, and headed out to walk around, find the mall, and explore. We took beautiful photos of the Belfast City Hall and statues surrounding it, looked for "relatives" on the list of victims of the Titanic disaster, and eventually made it to the mall. The mall was beautifully designed. It was partially indoor, partially outdoor. There was a domed roof over the center, and the spindles off the center of stores were covered with a glass roof, but there were doors containing the shops, it was just open on the ends. I have never seen anything like it. We wandered around the mall, ate at T.G.I Friday's (I know, total Americans, but it was really good...), and eventually made it into a Claire's. Meggan ended up getting her cartilage pierced (again), and we had a few laughs with the employee. She just kept bringing up stereotypes about Americans, and we would respond in turn with stereotypes about Irish and British. When we told her that the four of us had just met about four hours before, she didn't believe us. By then we were just having a grand ole time, and laughing and goofing off. It was a lot of fun. We were getting tired from all of the walking and bus ride, and had to be up early the next morning for more activities, so we walked back to the hostel and just hung out there for the rest of the night. 

The next day, we had a more detailed tour of Belfast on the bus. This is the day we heard about the Troubles and the violence was very apparent. It was all very eye-opening. I knew about the conflicts between the Protestants and the Catholics in Northern Ireland, but this was more in a general sense. Definitely not to the extent I heard about it the rest of the weekend. We drove to the Peace Wall, the wall that divides the Protestant neighborhood from the Catholic neighborhood. There were gates that were around both neighborhoods, that close at a certain time of night and on certain days of the year (religious holidays, mostly), topped with spirals of barbed wire. There was one street that made me (and the rest of us, I think) incredibly uneasy. This was the street where there was recent fighting and rioting (only about a month ago, it was in the news). Our tour guide didn't make it any better when she said, "There are many buses from the Republic that don't even drive into this part of the city, it is too dangerous. We just aren't going to stop here, we will keep driving and get out at the Peace Wall." That was really fun to hear...

The Peace Wall

The Solidarity Wall

At the Peace Wall, we all got out, and were able to write something on the wall. Hundreds of thousands of young people like ourselves have done the exact same thing, in many languages, all about pleas for peace and end to violence. All up and down the walls are murals and paintings about the wall, it's history, and it's purpose. We also stopped at another wall of murals (there are murals all over Belfast). This one was called The Solidarity Wall. The pictures on this wall depicted not only please about human dignity, civil rights, and peace in Northern Ireland, but in other areas around the world (hence "solidarity"). There were a few aimed specifically at the Israeli-Palistinian conflict, as the people of Northern Ireland can relate on a different level to their situation-religion vs. religion, hatred and suppression and violence in such a small area for such tragic reasons. Both of these walls have powerful histories, and were incredible to visit and read. The violence becomes so real when you see the barbed wire, the smashed windows, the walls that divide in order to protect. Most of the buildings in Belfast, especially in the areas around both of these walls, had metal cages on all the windows, not for fear that people will break in, but that the violent confrontations might shatter the windows by accident.

The entire city remains on edge constantly. Like I said, only a month ago there were riots and violent protests going on in the city. We left Belfast around noon on Saturday, and as we were walking back to our bus, we walked past the city centre, past city hall and everything. On every street corner there were at least three police vehicles (big boxy, sturdy vehicles with cages on the bottom that prevent people from going under them and cages on the small windows with bars on them. Just these police cars were a sign of violence and riots, built to withstand and prevent riots and retain protestors. We saw all of these vehicles and the police standing on each corner in their bulletproof vests. We were confused and nervous, and started to walk faster through the center. We seemed to be the only ones on edge and nervous about the police presence, so it must be a regular thing to prevent violence. It is so sad and scary that that is necessary to keep the peace. 

Police cars parked on every corner around the city centre

The Giant's Causeway: basalt pillars 

Nature's very own stepping stones!

Our next stop was at The Giant's Causeway. We drove along the Antrim Coast, the northernmost coast of the island of Ireland. It was a beautiful drive, and the sun was shining (I always seem to luck out-all of the trips I have gone on have had beautiful, sunny weather, not typical for this island). When we got to the Causeway, we got out and had two hours to explore. For those who don't know what The Giant's Causeway is (I didn't have a clue before this), it is a coastline covered in basalt rocks/pillars that are hexagonal in shape. There are approximately 40,000 stones that were formed from a volcanic eruption about 60 million years ago. They form natural steps that are easy to walk on. They were just incredible! There is also a legend that goes along with the formation that I think is pretty cute. It tells of an Irish warrior named Fionn mac Cumhaill. It is said that Fionn built a road that connected Ireland to Scotland, but was then threatened by the Scottish giant Benandonner. In David vs. Goliath fashion, Fionn needs to outsmart Benandonner in order to beat him, and comes up with a plan: he pretends to be a baby, and his wife Oonagh tells Benandonner when he comes that Fionn is not there, but shows him "Fionn's son". Benandonner, seeing how big Fionn's son is, fled back to Scotland and tore up the road so that Fionn could not follow. 

On the walls of Derry

We spent the few hours there, and then drove on the bus for another hour and a half to Derry, a very old and historical city. Derry (also called Londonderry or The Walled City), is the only completely walled city in all of Ireland, and one of the few in Europe. As a historical city it was fascinating. It used to be a departure city, where immigrants would walk to in order to immigrate to North America, England, or even Australia. It is one of the oldest established cities in all of Ireland. It is the UK's City of Culture for 2013. 
We stayed in another hostel on Saturday night in Derry. This one was more of a house-like atmosphere. We watched "Easy A" and hung out in the living room. It was fun and relaxing.
We (Meggan and I) started to plan our trip over Reading week, to London (Harry Potter studios here we come!), Germany, and Austria. We went to bed relatively early, but at one am we had a terrifying awakening: an alarm started BLARING. It was the loudest alarm I have ever heard, but it didn't sound like a typical fire alarm. It went off for about 30 seconds of sheer terror, confusion, and cursing. It stopped on its own, but one of the girls in our room (there were six of us) peeked outside to make sure the place wasn't on fire, and we all slowly got back into bed. I still have no idea why it went off.

The site of Bloody Sunday

Today it is peaceful, but Derry is unfortunately known throughout the world as the location of rioting and protests during the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1960s. The most infamous one is the Battle of the Bogside (an area just outside the walls of the city that is almost 100% Catholic), where Catholic protestors took to the streets and fought with the police. They were protesting Internment, a process of accelerated trials (or sometimes even no trials at all) of 'rebels' and their subsequent imprisonment (sometimes even execution). These protests were the start of the Troubles throughout Northern Ireland, the civil rights movement, the conflicts between the Catholic and the Protestants. The Bogside is also known as the location for the infamous Bloody Sunday (you know the U2 song?), where thousands of peaceful (unarmed) Catholic protestors, on Sunday January 30, 1972 marched in the streets. The police opened fire on the crowd, killing 13 people, injuring 13 more, and one died later on from his injuries. At the place that this happened, there is now a memorial garden and statue, and the walls of the buildings have murals that depict the events and the desire for peace in the area. 

"The Death of Innocence"

The most tragic of all the murals, though, is one titled "The Death of Innocence". The mural is of a 14-year-old Catholic schoolgirl named Annette McGavigan. In 1971, in the early years of the Troubles, Annette was walking home from school and was hit by a stray bullet fired by the police during the clashes, and was killed. Her father would come, up until recently when he died, and sit across from this mural and talk to her. Many people would pass him, but would leave him be to grieve. They say he never recovered after the death of his innocent little girl, and died of a broken heart. This is the only mural in the Bogside that has been changed. When it was first painted, the artist said that he would change the mural only when strives for peace have been made. In 1994, the peace talks began and the artist changed it. Originally, the rifle on the side was painted black and was intact, and the white circle was blank. Once the peace talks began, the rifle was paint red and broken, and the butterfly was painted in the empty space. This just shows the tragic results of the Troubles, and it was incredibly eye-opening. 

We drove home on Sunday afternoon, about 5 and a half hours to get back from Derry to Limerick. I was exhausted, from all the walking and fun. Once back in my room, I got to check Facebook for the first time in a few days and uploaded my pictures. I then walked over to Meggan and Rhiannon's house and we watched "Bridesmaids" (Meggan and I had been quoting it all weekend, and Rhiannon had never seen it). It was an excellent end to the weekend. :)

New best friends!

Just chillin' with a guy we nicknamed "Wee Jim" in the dry dock

"No more ships in here"

Fraud Prevention and Spiders

Good news and not so good news. Good news first: I officially booked my trip to Budapest for March 8-10! I have paid for the tours, the hostels, etc. This good news is unfortunately connected to the bad news. Bad news: I tried to book the flight and my credit card was declined. This is the first major (and I mean major problem in my travels so far). I thought maybe I was just inputing the information wrong, but I tried many ways and none of them worked. I then tried using my card on another site, and it was declined there as well. This was relatively good timing for this to happen (I would have rather had it not happen at all, but), as I was able to pay for my student visa on Monday without any problems. So I am working (or trying to work with) the bank to get this all straightened out! I sent them a long and descriptive email about my problem (free of any expletives, I was very proud of myself). I am having my dad call them in person today to see if that will make it go faster. What makes me most angry is that I even contacted them to tell them I would be in Europe for four months, and they put a note on my account. I have online banking, and even that still says my card is active and there are no blocks on my account. Grrr! **Problem solved, hopefully. After searching for phone numbers and collect call numbers in order to find one that works, I finally was able to get ahold of the bank and get it all worked out. Talked to the fraud prevention department, had them put a real travel notice on my account, so I shouldn't have any more problems (fingers crossed)**

On a side note, I have had few interactions with the mysterious Irish lad across the hall. I finally met him, his name is Kevin. I don't actually run into him that frequently, surprisingly enough, but there was definitely reason to yesterday. I was sitting in my room, minding my own business, when I heard this noise. It was coming from the general direction of my radiator, so I looked over. To my horror, I watched as a huge spider stepped slowly across a piece of paper. Now, I don't have a major fear of spiders, and I don't have a problem with them when they are small. But this one was big, and had thick, scary legs! Legs and body combined, it was probably the same diameter as a shot glass. It thankfully stayed put for a while as I tried to figure out what to do. I decided I would ask Kevin to get rid of it for me. I opened my door and knocked hesitantly on his. He came to the door and I asked him, quite embarrassed at this point, "Strange question...I have this problem with spiders, and there is just this big one sitting near me. Could you possibly kill it or get rid of it for me? Please?" He looked at me as if I was slightly crazy, and kind of chuckled at me. He agreed nonchalantly, and I pointed at the spider for him (it was quite obvious where it was, but I felt I would help him out a little). I expected him to just pick up one of my shoes that was nearby and smash it, but no. I wasn't that lucky. Instead, he picked it up with his bare hand. It tried to scurry away at first, but he lunged and got it the second time. He then walked by me with it squirming in between his index finger and thumb. I watched as he just went back to his room. I don't even know what he did with it. It looked like he just put it down on his own radiator. Ew. Now I am all paranoid that these monster spiders are living everywhere in my room.

I also finally made plans to go to the grocery store today. I have been living off of bread, jelly (I ate all the peanut butter. whoops), noodles and cheese (I have made homemade macaroni multiple times), frozen pizzas and sandwiches, for the past three weeks now. It is time to actually go to the store. It is only about a 20 minute walk from my house, so it shouldn't be that bad. I just have to find a way to fit everything I need into two canvas shopping bags and a backpack. I'll maybe regret the whole walking thing later on, but it is basically my only option, and it is silly to pay almost two euro to take a bus for three minutes. There is also a possibility that I will be purchasing a few basic baking supplies that aren't provided here in our on-campus housing. They supplied: three different sized pots, a noodle strainer, a large glass bowl, one wooden spoon, one bread knife, one small ineffective knife, forks, butter knives, two different sized spoons, a cheese grater, a wine bottler opener, a potato masher, a whisk, two cutting boards, and assorted things I don't recognize. Missing from the list (insanely...): a baking sheet, a pizza cutter, and measuring cups and spoons. Let's just say, some interesting improvisation has been going on for three weeks. I might have to buy a baking sheet in case I want to make anything involving the oven...

Immigration and Transportation

Had a little mini adventure today. It was...interesting. I had my immigration appointment, which was next to the Henry Street Garda (police) station in Limerick City. We had to get there ourselves, but we didn't get to choose what time/day we were scheduled for, so it was kind of a pain. First of all, I had to leave one of my classes early to make it to my appointment, and when classes don't start until about 10 minutes after they are supposed to (they aren't big sticklers on being on time here in Ireland), that meant I sat in class for a total of 10 minutes. On the plus side, it was Traditional Irish Music and Dance, so I learned the difference between a reel, a jig, and a hornpipe, then took off. 

The fruits of my labor

Anyways, we took a city bus to get there, and we were given some directions by the international office. These directions were not very helpful/inaccurate, so we had to walk a few blocks to get to where we were supposed to be. The weather, as it is frequently, was strangely temperamental. It was sunny when we got off of the bus but started to rain about a block into it. With the sun still out, it began hailing after a while. It was only little pieces of hail, but they pelted us in the face and eyes. We eventually found the immigration office, but by that time we were soaking wet. Obviously we needed to have our photos taken for our international registration cards, we looked fabulous. We sat in the office waiting with other study abroad students, and eventually gave them all the necessary papers, had our pictures taken, passports stamped, and fingerprints filed. The whole process took about half an hour, along with another half hour of waiting. 




Once completed, we started to head back. I stopped briefly at a music store to pick up a tin whistle for my music class, and then we had to find a bus stop to take a bus back to campus. As a public transportation failure, we got on a bus that was the correct route number, but one that took nearly twice as long, went in the opposite direction, and then doubled back and was a complete waste of time. We got on the bus at about 4:30, and got back to campus at 6. This meant I had missed one of my classes. So it was an interesting trip, but I am now legally able to stay in Ireland as a student without any problems! 

But Wait, There's Moher!

Great adventures were had today! I went on my first day trip to different parts of Ireland. The trip included stops at The Burren, Doolin Pier and Village, The Cliffs of Moher, and Lahinch Beach! Unfortunately, my camera battery died before the day was over. Fortunately, it was at the END of our time at the Cliffs, and I am going to visit Lahinch Beach on another trip later on! We had a GORGEOUS day, weather-wise. It was about 50 degrees and NEVER RAINED. I know what you are thinking, that never happens here, but honestly it was sunny the entire day! Luck o' the Irish, I guess! 

The Burren limestone

First up was The Burren. I honestly had NO idea what that was, I was just on the trip to see the Cliffs. But as we were getting on the bus, we were handed nifty pieces of paper that had information about all the places we were stopping/seeing. So, I found out what The Burren was. Turns out, it is a really beautiful landscape that covers about 250 square km of land in County Clare. It is what's known as a "karst" landscape: limestone plateaus that are chemically weathered by rainwater. The resulting effect is enormous areas of rock with crevices and dips throughout, and moss growing through the cracks. It was amazing to explore and hop along the huge rocks. Because it wasn't raining, the rocks were dry for the most part, which made them even easier to walk across. These rocks are even more amazing, as they are incredibly old. They were actually left behind from glaciers after the last Ice Age! It is protected land, so remarkably well preserved and wild. 

Poulnabrone Dolmen

We walked right up to an old tomb, called the Poulnabrone Dolmen (portal  tomb) that is estimated at about 5000 years old! I love this kind of stuff, the history and the beauty, so this was like heaven. We spent over an hour exploring the landscape before we loaded the buses back up (there were three coach buses full of students from UL).







We then stopped briefly at a dock on Galway Bay. It was a beautiful little place to take photos, and a wonderful day for it. We had some fun and walked on the wall of the pier, and wandered up and down it. The views were spectacular, and the water was calm and blue. 

They had pretty good food

The next stop was in Doolin Village and Pier. We ate lunch at a cute little pub, called O'Connors Pub. The food was really good, and much needed late into the afternoon. Before we ate, we spent a little time at Doolin Pier, where you can take a ferry to the famous Aran Islands. We took pictures off the end of the pier, and since it was low tide, we were able to explore some of the tide pools. 

One of my favorite pictures so far!

After lunch, we finally headed to the Cliffs of Moher. I now understand why we did this last. It was simply breathtaking. The cliffs reach 700 ft above the Atlantic Ocean, and are covered in moss. They were simply amazing! We joked that, had the cliffs been in the USA, there would have been 10 foot fences on the edge around, and no one would be allowed to go near them. Thankfully, they aren't in the US, so you could literally walk right up to the edge (not that I did, the exposed edges made me extremely nervous, especially with the wind that always blows from them). We spent almost two hours walking along the edges of the cliffs, and I took a lot of pictures. For the rest of the day, I was thankful for the sun, but actually when first taking pictures of the cliffs, the sun was a bit of an inconvenience. It was right above the cliffs and therefore cast a shadow when trying to photograph the Cliffs. Eventually the sun was low enough that I could snap a few good ones! 

Classic Cliffs of Moher shot

We were all pretty exhausted at this point, and it was dusk and getting cooler. We still made one more stop, at Lahinch Beach. This beach is popular and internationally known as a great surf spot in Ireland. It was pretty, but by the time we got there it was just cold and we were too tired to appreciate it fully. Thankfully I am going back on another day tour, and I will take pictures of it then!