Dublin: II

December 13, 2009, Sunday

I forgot to mention that the reason we decided to voyage Saturday-Monday is that we would not have to miss our Friday class with Thierry, which I have already missed a lot of times. Also, our flights were SO cheap—5 euros for the flight to Dublin and 3 euros for the return trip!! I kid you not. I love RyanAir.

Anyway, we woke up today around 6 (woo hoo, got to sleep late! Haha) and had breakfast in the hostel before meeting in the lobby around 7. The Paddy Wagon had a full bus today and we got good seats near the front. The Cliffs of Moher are on the west coast of Ireland, and you can cross the whole country in about 3-4 hours, which I think is pretty cool. Still;, this means it was a long trip in the bus. Mike, our driver, was hysterical, though I don't know if he meant to be. He told us no less than 50 times how lucky we were because of the weather. It was true, even in Summer you might not get clear skies and sun like we did today. It would have been a shame to go all the way to the Cliffs and not be able to see them because of fog. And Mike made sure to repeat himself...again...and again...We passed by the field where the battle scene in Braveheart was filmed! The sun did not rise for a while, but it was beautiful when it did. It was amazing to speed by the rolling green countryside of Ireland. And speed by we did, because Mike was a maniac driver. Safe, but so fast! I wore my seatbelt. We stopped at King John's Castle on the River Shannon. There were a lot of medieval castles around, the ruins just scattered all over the countryside. It was kind of like how the ancient ruins were scattered in Athens. We were on a very strict schedule, as Mike also kept reminding us; so we did not have a ton of time for photo opportunities, though we got to take some. Luckily, we stayed on schedule all day. We drove through the parts of the country that were devastated by the Potato Famine, which the Irish call the Great Hunger because the rest of the country was well-fed, just not the peasants in the countryside who were so poor they could only live off potatoes. When they were allowed to work for their food, the government in the east made them build stone walls to literally nowhere, all day, for just one penny a day's worth of food for their family. During the time of the famine, Ireland's population decreased by 3 million, from 8 million to 5 million—1 million died and the rest fled. Today, the population is not as high as it used to be. Seeing the walls was very striking and a sad reminder of the atrocities the Irish had to endure.

We stopped for lunch in a very small village named Doolin, at an Irish pub that had SUCH good food for a great price—and lots of it! It was so picturesque and quiet and beautiful, especially at this time of year when there are not a lot of people around. Things are so remote that people in Doolin have to drive over an hour to get to the closest grocery store. I wonder how long it takes to get to school? Doolin is only 5 minutes from the Cliffs of Moher, which is the most-visited sight in the whole country. Of course, my camera stopped working right as we got there, to the most important part of the whole trip! I was furious. Luckily I can rely on Michelle's camera, but it was still a huge bummer. The cliffs are simply stunning, especially when you get up close and see just how high they are—440 meters or something like that. The water was a sparkling blue and it matched the sky and we had warm sun-it was perfect! There were almost no other tourists there too, which made it even more serene. In the summer I think it would be too hot and too crowded. We seem to get very lucky on trips like this. :) It was so nice also to just be silent and listen to the murmur of the waves as they hit the rocks. It's very magnetizing, and I forgot how much I missed things like this while being in Paris. We stayed for an hour and a half and got to climb both sides of the cliffs, even passing a point that is interdit (sometimes I honestly can't remember some words in English). Everyone went beyond that point, you just have to be careful. Great photos!

We made a similar to stop to another castle on the drive home, but Miche and I slept more on this trip. Since it gets dark so early, we were not missing much of the scenery outside the bus. We got back to the hostel a little after 7, a little tired but so happy that we decided to take the day trip. It was getting the best of both worlds, to be able to profit from the city and to see the famed, incredible countryside. We found an Italian place for dinner and both ordered the same dish, which Miche and I noticed we are very good at doing, haha. It was in the Temple Car area, a lively stretch full of bars and pubs with live Irish music, but it was a little pricey for us. We were really tired again so we retired to the hostel, watched more X Factor, since it was the final vote night (oh, please, just listen to me now). Went to bed early again :)