I Couldn't Have Liked Those Cliffs Any Mohor

CLIFFS!

Before I talk about my experience hitchhiking from Dublin to Galway, I will first share my tales of Dublin and Galway and the Cliffs of Mohor - yes I've had an exciting last couple of days. So where do I start? Dublin? Long story short Dublin was fantastic. But long story long: my time in Dublin was a lot of fun. I explored a little bit and saw some parks, streets, pubs, went on a literary pub crawl (yes that's a thing), ate some ice cream at Dun Laoghaire (already forget how to pronounce that) and of course saw some live Irish folk music (which I didn't even know I liked until I saw it live). My first two nights in Dublin were spent in a hostel called Abrahams. I wasn't supposed to even have stayed there at all to begin with because I thought I had all my nights booked at The Spire hostel (my second hostel). Buuuut as it turned out I messed up my booking (which I may have mentioned earlier? - so my apologies if I'm becoming redundant), and I was either going to be homeless in Dublin for two nights, or book another hostel. I was to be honest kind of keen of the idea of being a Dublin bum for two nights, buuuut in hindsight I am very happy I opted not to do that.

My pub crawl homies Meredith, Matteo (Matthew?) and Jolene

I met some very cool people at Abrahams including my 60 something year old secret agent homeboy David Strauss and his 13 languages, a few Canadians, some other guy who's name I forget, some French person who kindly helped me finish my pasta the first night because I made entirely too much, Matteo, Jolene, and last but definitely not least Meredith - if you are reading this, thanks so much for hanging out with me practically every day, and it was such a pleasure meeting you and getting to know you! So far so good! Then I moved to my next hostel which was right around the corner. This was a 22 bed dorm and I figured with 22 beds, surely I would have a few people to talk to and get to know. However, that was not exactly the case. Nobody really talked to each other at all, only the people they already knew. So yeah hostel #2 wasn't exactly a win for the first few nights. Only on my second to last night there did I meet two more Canadians (can't seem to get away from them) Gillian and Ally who were very friendly! Dublin overall was a total blast! I will definitely try to make my way back there at some point.

I found a Timmys in Dublin.. why!?

From Dublin on the 27th I hitchhiked to Galway, Ireland (which you'll be able to read about in the next blog entry I make - because that is an experience on its own). Galway itself is quite neat. To be fully honest I didn't really get a very good chance to look around there. because I arrived on the evening of the 27th, went out for drinks and dinner with a few of my hostel roomies, then went to the Cliffs of Mohor today (the 28th) and then had to keep travelling. I will say however, that being in a slightly smaller city was quite refreshing, because for the last little while I have been in a fair amount of larger cities, which to be fully honest, all tend to be a little bit the same (good grief, how pretentious do I sound right now?) I had heard a lot of very good things about The Cliffs of Mohor and had originally thought that they were a lot closer to Galway than they actually are. But that didn't stop me from seeing them. I set my alarm for 9:30 this morning and had the breakfast the hostel provided (toast, cereal and coffee, yum yum) and looked into how to get to the cliffs. Unfortunately there isn't really a whole lot of transport out there on a Tuesday morning, however there was a tour bus that took people there, so I opted for that choice and bit the bullet by paying 20 euro for the tourbus. Frankly I felt a little bit weird being on a tour bus by myself when pretty much everybody else on the bus was travelling with at least one other person, but oh well, screw that noise, I just wanted to see the cliffs okay?! It was a bit of a trek out there through some very small windy roads in a very large bus, and there were points where I wondered whether the bus would make it up Corkscrew Hill or past a tractor that was coming in the other direction in the same lane as we were. Clearly we did, otherwise I don't think I'd currently be writing this blog entry.

Talk aboot a cliff hanger eh

It was windy (note: no toque)

Once we got to the cliffs I was absolutely stunned! They are such a phenomenal sight. I took a few photos with my phone camera but they are almost insulting when you compare them to actually being there. We had two hours to look around before the bus left, which sounds like a long time, but at the end I didn't think it was enough. The cliffs are very tall and the pathway along them is set quite far back from the edge for the safety of dumb tourists. However the further along you go along the path, the less secure it becomes and the less the fence is any longer a thing. But I needed to see this sight away from all the hustle and bustle and camera shots and pointing fingers, so I treked out a little ways down the pathway where things started to deteriorate. Maybe I wasn't supposed to be there, but at one point along the ¨pathway¨ the wind started to REALLY pick up. It was without a doubt the strongest gust of wind I had ever experienced, it actually almost picked me up and blew me over and I was knocked to my side. At this point I start to wonder how safe it really was where I was standing and it didn't help that this was also the exact moment that I realized there were no other ¨ignorant¨ tourists around me. I kind of just lay down and let the wind blow through my clothes. Wow. Just wow! What an experience. I haven't felt that alive for a while.

Dutch (Canadian) tilt

Less wind here - hence normal[ish] expression

All of my senses were heightened and the adrenaline was pumping! Suddenly the strong winds decide that the ocean is a better place for me toque (or ¨beanie¨ for you non-Canucks), and it blew it off of my head. I hadn't lost it yet but it was rapidly making its way towards the edge of the cliffs. I wasn't sure whether I should run after it or not but it was still far enough away from the edge and I am too proud to lose my warm toque so I galloped along the rocks to go fetch it, and it was definitely playing keep away. Eventually I got back my hat, and at this point really had the blood flowing. I decided that this was a good opportunity to just yell at the top of my lungs, just 'cause. Best idea ever! Not even kidding. So there I am standing near the edge of a cliff, wind trying to blow me around, yelling as loud as I possibly can, and luckily nobody around to witness my mental episode. From here I decide it may be wiser to head closer to the other people in case something does actually happen. So I make it back to a place where the wind isn't as violent and just sit down basking in the sunshine and watching the seagulls struggle to fly over the cliffs in the wind. What an experience though! Totally worth the 20 euro and the awful humour of the tour guide.

So now I am sitting on a bus that is equiped with wifi at 3:18AM, on the way to Dublin airport to head back to Patrick in Switzerland to catch my 6:50 flight. Next entry I will write - soonish - will be my hitchhiking day. 

Also there are SO MANY SHEEP in Ireland! And for anybody who has ever played Settlers of Catan with me, knows how much this excites me. 

Until soon :)

Photo #1 (unedited)

Photo #2 (edited)

PS. Alright so a little explanation about these last two photos here. Meredith, Gillian, Ally (some of my awesome roomies) and myself went to this Irish pub to drink beer and witness some of that excellent Irish folk music I was mentioning earlier. I asked Gillian if she could take a couple of photos of us to look back on later. As you can see, they did not turn out very well. My phone camera is absolute garbage when it comes to any form of low lighting. So I thought I would attempt to make photo #1 visable a little bit by going into the photo options on my phone and playing with the settings and turning up the brightness (I really didn't think it would work, but I figured no harm in trying..) As you can also see, it only turned up the brightness on Photo #2 on one section.. my face. When I saw the outcome that resulted from playing with the settings I burst out laughing and couldn't stop for a good 3 minutes. I was in the Spire hostel kitchen when I did this, and I think the people around me thought I was having a mental breakdown. And the harder I tried not to laugh the harder I laughed. This may not be amusing to anybody else, but at the very least I will put it up here so that I can have a good laugh later on when I look back at it.

One more, 'cause why not?