We Made It!!!!

Town of Killarney Cliffs of Moher

We made it to Ireland! Everyone arrived safe and sound this morning, even after multiple flights, various layovers, and a couple of delays! Needless to say that we are all exhausted and wanted nothing more than to sleep, but we pressed on and headed from Shannon up north to the Cliffs of Moher. Along the way our coach driver, an Irish gentleman named Patty, who will be with us during our entire stint in Ireland, began telling us about the Irish history, culture, native plants, and all sorts of little tid-bits. We enjoyed the Irish country side as we made our way down the narrow, winding roads until we reach our destination. The cliffs were breathe taking! They dropped some 650 ft straight into the Atlantic Ocean and continued for miles. The paths wound along the cliff edge offering some incredible views out onto the ocean and even when you turned around and looked inland all you saw were rolling green hills. It was incredibly relaxing! The only downside was that it was a brisk 50-55 degrees out and add that to a very strong and continuous wind and it makes for some rather chilly viewing conditions.

Once we all reassembled on the bus we headed for an area called The Burren, which is Gaelic for rocky land. And it was rocky! There were giant rocks every where! The neat thing was that even though most of the land was just rock there were still small flowers and plants growing between the cracks and in places you wouldn't think it possible for a plant to grow! It was very cool!

So once we finished up at The Burren we began our journey south to Killarney, which is the town we are staying in today and tomorrow. It was a 2 - 2.5 hour trip and despite our best efforts not to fall asleep, I can say with a great deal of confidence that we all ended up falling asleep at one point or another. We finally reached our hotel around quarter to 7. We got our room assignments, dropped our luggage off and then all met downstairs for our first real Irish meal. I have to say that it wasn't anything particularly exciting, it was actually a meal I could have had at home. Patty explained to us that Ireland actually imports most of their foods from other countries, so that explained why we didn't have anything that screamed Irish!

After dinner we all went exploring the town of Killarney. I found it to be a very exciting town. It is of medium size and has plenty of activity on the streets! The building line the narrow streets and have a historic charm to them that you don't find in many U.S. cities. Eventually our group began splitting up as some people went back to the hotel to shower and go to bed early and others decided to hit the pubs for a little while and experience some nightlife. And as I write this now in the hotel lobby I can hear all sorts of music playing from the various pubs around our hotel so I would say that is definitely alive at night! I plan on going out tomorrow once I've gotten some sleep so I will give you more details on the nightlife tomorrow. Till then I am going to sign off! Good night from the green isle!