cliffs of moher

Well, to really understand what these cliffs were like you’ll need to look at the pictures on facebook. However, seeing them in person is incredible. The sheer magnitude of them is unbelievable, but also the café and stores built inside of the hills on top of the cliffs is a pretty astonishing thing as well. The bus ride to the west coast of Ireland where the cliffs are located was not bad. The countryside was beautiful with the emblematic stonewalls lining the properties and the cattle grazing in almost every plot of land. The landscape was just like what I’ve seen in books or magazines about Ireland; gentle hills covered in lush grass for as far as the eyes can see. Papa brought up a good point and that was how you really must be a farmer to live in this part of Ireland because there isn’t that much out there. The road to the cliffs was extremely narrow, barely big enough for the coach bus never mind another car, god forbid another bus. Back to the cliffs though.. They’re INSANE. At the end of the “real” trail there is another one that belongs to private property that you aren’t really supposed to go on but everyone does it anyway. On this trail there aren’t any stonewalls blocking you from falling off the 800-foot high cliffs which might just be too much for someone afraid of heights. Papa and I were fine though. However, we did almost see some nerd fall off though. The only negative thing I can think of about the cliffs is that because of all the cows in the area there were massive swarms of flies everywhere that would attack you and fly into any orifice they could. You could barely talk or even smile in a picture without swallowing a few flies. Also, I don’t know if this is common or not but there was a young kid, maybe 5-6 years old who was freaking out while walking along the trail. I don’t know if it was because of the flies or if he were possessed by some kind of mischievous sprite but he wouldn’t stop screaming in tongues. It was ridiculous. Other than those two minor things our day at the cliffs was absolutely unforgettable and I hope to take my family there some day.

After backtracking to Ennis, we caught our bus to Galway. It was an hour-long ride and I sat next to a girl from Seattle who I talked with a little bit. By the time we arrived and found somewhere to stay it was pretty late so we didn’t get to explore the city, which was unfortunate, but I can’t complain because what’s missing one city in a trip covering so many different places. After skyping for a few we strolled down to the hotel pub around midnight and had a pint. Being a Saturday night, the bar was packed and by that time everyone was piss drunk but us so we had a few laughs watching the locals sing and dance to classic American songs that only a really drunk person would sing and dance to. After seeing a lad almost puke we decided to call it a night.

· Later that night while I was trying to sleep I noticed something. Papa is one of the strangest sleepers I’ve ever seen/heard. I’ll do my best to describe what it was like.

o So we hop in bed and I decided to stay up and chat a little bit. Almost as soon as he hit the bed he was asleep. Soon after that he seemed to be in a deep sleep. Casually snoring, which isn’t strange, but he would mix in a phrase or two like “Oh boy” or “Ow/Ouch” while he turned over. Sometimes he’ll even mumble something or say actually sentences or phrases. For example, last night I heard him say, “Item.. In this case..” They’re just little phrases like that but it’s just strange. There were other things too but I can’t remember them.

o Another thing is that he’ll snore in many different tones. He’ll go from a deep long snore to a quick snort blast as I’d like to call it. Then he’ll begin to wheeze, also in different tones. A high pitched wheeze, tapering off to deep one, almost sounding like a long grunt.

· Anyways, that kind of stuff continues throughout the night. I woke up this morning at 8:30 before he got up and he was still mumbling and what not. It’s sort of funny to listen to him but also at the same time hard to fall asleep because I can’t concentrate on sleeping and just chillin’ because I’m just listening to him do his thing. So I think I’ll try to get to bed and fall asleep before he does in the future to avoid this type of thing.

We’re on the bus to Dublin right now where we will hang out until we board our bus which will take us on the ferry to London. I have excite. Okay well, until next time. Ciao

-Cameron