Drenched but DELIGHTED...The Burrens & Cliffs of Moher

Our second school trip was to The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. It would probably have been life changing had it not been torrential downpour the whole entire time but it was insane how wet we were the entire day. Once we got to the Cliffs of Moher we were all pretty much getting abused but the elements and all we could do was laugh. Regardless of the weather, the scenery was still amazing so I can only imagine how breathtaking it would have been had it not been raining.

During our tour of the Burren, our tour guide showed us the landscape, talked about the history of the area and pointed out peculiar tropical vegetation that grew in the area along with the local plants due to the compatible nature of the environment in the area. Some of the interesting things he told us was that many of the rock wall partitions in the area actually had no real practical purpose. The Protestants made the Irish Catholics build the walls to "keep them busy". Also, the ground in the Burren is like a sponge, so the water goes straight down and is conducive to creating massive caves. There are several in the area.  Our tour guide was awesome and he ran it out of his grandmother's old house with his some of his family members. They gave us hot apple pie and coffee at the end, which was DELICIOUS, while we waited for our tour bus to pic us back up.

The Cliffs of Moher were amazing and there is a vast array of wild life that inhibit the area that you would have never expected. For instance...Dolphins! Actually, they seem to be quite a regular sight in Ireland (who would have thought!) and there is even a famous one that's call Fungi. There are also puffins, basking sharks and many more. It is definitely a must see in Ireland and although the weather stunk, it made for a wonderful story.

Our tour guide

The Burren

This I have to mention because it was so cool and erie all the same time! This tree is called the "Wishing Tree" which dates back to pagan times in Ireland and people would tie cloth or whatever to this tree and make a wish. There is also a practice in Japan where you tie your "omikuji" or wish on trees in certain shrines and temples. Our tour guide also mentioned that people from Mexico, Chile and several other countries did it as well. It just shows that even across the globe, we are all interconnected in some way.

Wishing Tree

Poulnabrone Dolmen, Megalithic Tomb

Looked right at me right when I took the picture!

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it. 

-Greg Anderson

Peace & Love,

Monique

Week Two: One of sports, good music and lovely company

Happy 4th of July to all of my American people! It's definitely weird not watching the obligatory movie "Independence Day" with Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum but I am will to let that go to be here in Galway. I am already in my 4th week of my 6 weeks here and time is flying by so fast! I am definitely playing catch here so I hope to crank out some blog entires in the next couple of days. Here's a look at what I have been doing on a daily basis...

Street performers are a regular sight down the street we live in. It's never a boring walk to the grocery store or just a stroll through town...

Double rainbow...IN IRELAND...I had to do it...it's so beautiful, WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!

There is this place called Goya's right across from where I live and they have an AMAZING breakfast menu, especially on Saturdays. Yummmm.

My first Euro football game! (or soccer for you Americans, haha) Galway United is SUPPOSED to be a professional team but it was probably the worst game I have seen in a long time. I love the game of soccer and this was just a sad sight to see. According to the locals, they are the worst team in Europe and they haven't won a game since last year. They have lost 18 games in a row...and counting. But it wasn't the game but the fans that really made the experience special. There was one man I met who has been to every game for almost 20 years, now that is dedication.

They ingrain fandom at a very young age...

Here is a video of the cheering squad. There was no alcohol allowed in the stadium but these people somehow managed to either come smashed or smuggle in alcohol which made them that much more entertaining.

Live music presides in almost every bar here and I have yet to experience a bad one. This band at the Quays were pretty amazing and we are starting to recognize the musicians in each bar. The guitar player (not show here) is also the musician that plays at our weekly spot for sundays, Busker Browne's, and he now knows my name! I guess that just shows how much I actually do go out.

I will leave you with their rendition of Bob Marley's 'No Woman No Cry', hope you are all having a fantastic holiday!

"The one advantage of playing with fire...is that no one ever gets singed. It is the people who don know how to play with it who get burned up." - Oscar Wilde


Peace & Love,

Monique

The Aran Islands...a preservation of Irish culture

Everyday is so eventful I am starting to fall behind on my updates but I am doing my best to keep you all informed and document my adventures!

This is about my trip to the Aran Island, specifically Inis Mor. The primary language on the island is Irish, or Gaeltachtaí, and many mainland Irish students come to immerse themselves in their native language during the summer seasons. There are only 896 permanent residents on the island at the moment so everyone literally knows everyone. Tourism is their biggest form of income and the moment you get off the ferry you are bombarded with offers of horse drawn carriages, bike tours and mini-bus tours.

Although it is said that the best way to see the island is by bike, as I am not able to ride one, I decided to take the mini-bus tour instead. It was my first mini-solo excursion since arriving in Ireland and I must say I quite enjoyed the alone time for exploration, admiration and self-reflection. Because we had a tour guide on the bus we learned plenty of tidbits about the island and their history. First of all, because the make up of the island is mostly of hard limestone, the people of the past made their own soil to grow food from seaweed and sand. Furthermore, because there is no wood, they use to burn and buy turf from the mainland of Ireland by trading it for rock fish.

The world heritage site, Dun Aengus, was absolutely magnificent and you could feel the energy resonating from the ground into your being. Said to be created in 1000 B.C., although it is some kind of fort, no one really knows the purpose of this massive structure. You are left to your imagination to dream up what it would have been like to live so long ago and reasons for creating such a structure. There are little shops at the bottom of Dun Aengus and I purchased a set of authentic hand-knit gloves from a feisty old lady which gave me some wise advice after witnessing a woman in the store needing to ask her husband if she could buy a sweater or not. My conversation with her,

Little old lady: "I don't know about you young girls today. Why do you need to ask your husbands & boyfriends if you can buy something? And you American girls, the worst!"

Me: "awww, we're not all like that, I promise."

Little old lady: "We Irish women, if we want something we'll get it. If we want to buy a car, I'm not going to ask my husband his opinion, I'm going to go to the dealer, find the car I want, and GET IT!"

Me: "well, I assure you some of us have our own minds and I'm single so I don't have that worry."

Little old lady: "Good girl. I hope you stay that way and stay single as long as you can. And when you're ready to get married, marry an Irish man."

the woman who went to go ask her husband: "Are you going to set her up? (laughs)"

Little old lady: "She doesn't need it, she'll find one when she's ready."

That's what you call a strong, beautiful woman. Best love advice I've ever received.

The gloves she knit were beautiful and I also bought a world famous Aran sweater to remember my time here in Ireland. They are made with pure wool and depending on the type of knit design, it represented a different clan on the island. Some were designed to look like the landscape with the rock walls, some were designed to look like fishing nets, and others had religions connotations like the celtic cross and the tree of life. They are absolutely beautiful and it took me over an hour to pick one, but I know I will cherish it forever.

The island of Inis Mor consisted of beautiful people, nature, landscape and life.

Coming into the pier

Over the cliff

One of the Seven Churches (there's actually not Seven but only Three)

The little house on the side is a Leprechaun house. Almost every house had one.

One of only 3 bars on the Island

My new Aran Sweater and gloves knitted by the little old lady :)

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Peace & Love,

Monique