This past weekend saw our trip to the west of Ireland. This was a trip which I was really excited about and it didn't let me down at all. We headed out on Friday afternoon with sunny skies. I was told that the weather in the west is very rainy, even more so that good old Dublin, so when it started to remain, I feared that it might last for the entire weekend. Luckily, by the time we got to our hostel in Doolin it had cleared up nicely. Since we were right on the coast, a small group of us took a walk before dinner to see the Atlantic Ocean. If we were to walk down the coast a bit further, we would end up at the Cliffs of Moher, which we were scheduled to visit the next day. After taking some excellent photos, it was time for dinner.
After waking up on Saturday, we headed over to the Cliff of Moher. It happened to be an almost picture perfect day and so the views were spectacular. There is a path that goes along the cliffs where it safe to walk, but then there is that place where the path ends - with a large sign basically saying that it unsafe to go beyond this potential 'Point of No Return'. I stayed on the safe side, literally. After lunch we traveled into an area known as "the Burren." It is an area where there are lots of exposed limestone rock and minimal vegetation, which makes for a very bleak landscape. We stopped at a few old stone houses and castles on our way over to Galway, which were excellent for photos. We got to Galway and had the afternoon and evening to ourselves as there was no group dinner or activities planned for that evening. I went out exploring the city and got some interesting photos, including an impromptu shot of some local jockeys. They asked if I was associated with a newspaper, which I replied I wasn't. Much to my surprise, a moment later, they were ready for a group shot. Galway seems like a nice place to visit, but I doubt I would want to be there for an extended period of time as it is quite small and we apparently experienced unusually good weather for the weekend.
Sunday consisted of visiting a few more castles and experiencing the nice countryside along the way. Like both days before, the weather was very agreeable and didn't rain. We went to the Connemara village of An Ceathru Rua (Carraroe), where we stopped at a beach that wasn't made out of sand but coral. It looked like a beach in the Bahamas instead of the west of Ireland. I got a video below of Stephen explaining how it might be possible to have a beach of coral and not sand. I know there is a lot of wind on the video, but there is some good info. We made it back to Dublin safe that night. As usual, I have lots of photos on my Facebook account if people want to see more.
On a final note, tomorrow I set off (with my old friend Ryanair) to London for Easter break - I will be sure to have a post after what I anticipate to be an exciting few days.
With peace and love,
Scott
P.S.- This post has a video double feature. The first one is the one mentioned in the main text of the post. The other is at an Irish soccer game we went to a week or two ago. I hope you enjoy both of them.
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