The burren, for real
I don’t feel like updating…. I’m being a total lazy bum today. It’s lovely. I didn’t set my alarm (got up at 9:30 anyway – sheesh – what’s happened to me?). Went to the post office, the 2nd hand book store (didn’t get anything), checked out the cinema (I’m considering seeing Babel tonight, but it seems awfully depressing…). Ate at food 4 thought again (veggie Moussaka and salads) and am considering heading back to the cheesemongers for dinner. Going to repack my bag tonight and do laundry in an actual washing machine… Most of the day I’ve lazed about the common room reading my book. Oh – and I know I’ve rhapsodized about my hostel, but I’d like to point out that while I was eating dinner the other night, they were playing No Need to Argue by The Cranberries on full blast. Firstly – I have barely heard the cranberries at all since being in ireland and secondly – that is a totally brilliant album. Oh – and one of the workers plays this french cabaret music that sounds like the giant shaggy monster from the muppets.
Anyways – the tour yesterday. We left over an hour late, which annoyed me to no end and meant we did not go through Doolin, so I’m still undecided as to whether or not to go. I’m leaning towards no, but I’ll have to look over my dates/budget tonight (I’m certainly not going to Limerick with its reputation as… stabby-ville? whats the nickname?). The tour was South from Galway (for those of you with no geography, ahem). The burren means place of rock, and it is a lot of limestone. It holds 28/33 of Ireland’s butterfly species (during warmer times) and is 300 (500? I didn’t quite hear), 000 acres. We got a little bit of fog in patches, but for the most part it was an overly sunny day. Oh – and the burren has 70% of Ireland’s native plant species (again, not so easy to tell in winter – but I think it has a lot of alpine-type wildflowers which would be pretty in spring).
We went by Dungaire, which is a medieval Irish castle and, like most Irish castles, very abandoned. Then we drove through Kinvarra village (the bus driver was trying to make up for lost time, and many members of the tour very nearly got carsick). Like most of Ireland, there was lots of construction (the guide pointed out that last year saw 95,000 new homes built, which accounts for IR having 85% home ownership, which is more than anyone else in Europe). I saw some large sandpiper-type birds in some fields. We drove by a Martello tower, which is one of 80 constructed along the coast to watch for Napoleon. The we drove along the golden strand, which is a rocky coastline (and it had llamas – llook out llarry!It’s the llandllord!) Supposedly there were wild goats around, but I didn’t see any. Sheep.
Then we went to the cliffs of Moher. The cliffs of Moher are 5 miles long and hold 128 species of seabird (also during other months). The cliffs were really pretty – very dark stone with plants covering parts of them. I saw seagulls, kittiwakes, cormorants, and possibly guillemots (too far away). I didn’t actually get a chance to walk all the way out along the cliffs, because I got caught up with birdwatching (I got my minibinoculars out, and they are AWESOME). Then we went by Limerin castle, built in 1418 and attacked by Cromwell (I think).
Then we went to Poulnabrone dolmen, which is a burial tomb thing that is 5000 years old and contains the remains of 33 people.
Then we went to Ailwee cave which was so totally cool. It’s privately run, so they had all the lighting planted just right and on timers for the tour – it was super well done. Plus the cave was very cool. I wish the tour could’ve been longer (or that I could’ve seen the resident lesser horseshoe bats – but they were hibernating). Anyways, there were bear bones that were 1200 years old (they went extinct in Ireland 900 years ago – can you imagine? bears in Ireland?). The cave is exactly 50F year round, so the bears hibernated there. It was pitch dark (without lights) and a little slippery – very twisty and turny. We saw some waterfalls and cool rock formations. The walls were all limestone and sort of peachy colored. The caves were discovered by a farmer in the 40s who neglected to mention them to anybody till the 70s. I’ll put up photos in a few days when I get a new batch onto CD. Then we drove quickly back to Galway. There was another American on the tour, Eric, who is a statistician for the National Atmospheric something or other, so we went and got dinner (at a real restaurant (yummmmm)! since there were 2 of us – I’m fine eating by myself in cafes, but I don’t like to in restaurants and I can’t usually afford restaurants, anyways) and looked around the shopping district (I got a book, he looked for a movie in Gaelic, of which there seem to be none). Then I went back to the hostel, read my book, and chatted with an Irish and an Italian girl (the Italian has been here a few months). So that’s it. I liked Connemara better, but the cave was lots of fun. I’m going to go finish up my book, now…
Tags: Travel
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