Ireland - Day Five

I was so excited for this day of our trip, I had been looking forward to it since I booked the vacation. Today we were going to the Cliffs of Moher! I had used a picture of this beautiful sight as my wallpaper on my computer for a few months. I had hoped we’d be able to see it in clear weather since that’s when the picture I used was taken and it looked gorgeous. Today was also the day we’d be able to switch roommates! I woke up very happy, and extremely excited for our adventure.

Melissa knocked on my door and we went downstairs with our luggage and to breakfast. Teresse was down shortly after. For the first time I was actually able to enjoy breakfast in Galway. They had the usual eggs, potatoes, cereal and toast. Then they had different meats, including bacon which doesn’t look at all like American bacon. It looks more like ham with lots of fat. I didn’t touch the stuff. But everything else was good!

Soon we were on the bus for a few hour drive to the Cliffs. I don’t remember the exact amount of time we spent driving but none of our trips ever took more than 4 hours on the bus. Also, today was the first time we got to hear our tour day song. Most Contiki tour managers assign a song for each tour, and they play it as soon as the bus takes off in the morning for the next destination as sort of a wakeup for all of us. Our tour song was “Home for a Rest” by Spirit of the West. It was pretty much just a song about drinking your vacation away, which a lot of my tour mates did but it had a cool little fiddle (I think) irish folk part after the chorus so I actually grew to like it.
We drove through some more country side, lots of greenery and mountains. About two hours or so into the drive Howie pulled the bus over on the side of an empty road and we were allowed to get out and take some pictures. On one side it was the ocean, and on the other it was a large limestone cliff that we could climb up on to try and get some better pictures. It had been raining that day so the limestone was pretty slippery and I had no intention of trying to climb up that thing. But then Melissa asked if I wanted to just give it a try and after seeing Teresse already up there I decided to give it a go.

There was a small walking path that became extremely narrow and then completely stopped and you had to climb up the last part. The next step up was about to the height of my hips and no bigger then about 18 inches wide. When I got to this point I thought there was absolutely no way in hell I’d be able to get up there. I turned around to walk back to the bottom but there were other girls lined up behind me. They told me to try turning sideways so I did and was able to get myself up to the top. This was one of the best moments of my life. I sincerely thought there was no way I’d be able to do that, but I did! I took out my camcorder and took some video and whispered “I just climbed a mountain!”. Although, it was more of a cliff than a mountain I felt as accomplished as if I had just climbed the Himalayas. After that it was back on the bus and off to our ultimate destination, the cliffs.

When we pulled up I was very confused. Based on the pictures I had seen I just assumed that the bus pulled over and the cliffs would be right there. I didn’t realize there was different trails to walk, one of which included many many stairs. The three of us headed towards the nearest view of the cliffs, but it had gotten considerably colder, it was very windy, drizzling and the cliffs were almost completely covered by a thick layer of fog. This was not what I had pictured!

It was still an incredible view, so we took some pictures and Melissa and Teresse headed up the long line of stairs ahead of us. I stayed behind thinking I had already completed my incredible feat of the day and was satisfied to just stay where I was and watch the waves crash against the giant slabs of rock. But then I figured what the heck and walked up a few steps to try and get some pictures from a different view, and when I went up those steps I noticed that in the distance there was a castle. The urge to see and get pictures of this castle became overwhelming so I started to climb the stairs. I’m not in the greatest shape and I was still sore from all the walking I had done the days before so I had to stop after about every 12 steps or so and when I got to one point where I stopped it looked like there were only a few more ahead of me.

I took smoe video and told the camera in between huffing and puffing that I was almost there! But then when I got to the top of that section there were a plenty more! I watched everyone walk past me and became even more determined to finish what I had started. But, I did it! I amazed myself for a second time that day! When I got to the top there was a clearing and then another long trail to walk. The view of the castle was much better from up there, so I took some more pictures and noticed Teresse and Melissa in the distance walking the rest of the trail but I figured I had done enough that day so I headed back down and walked to the gift shop.

When I was in there I saw this silver necklace with a few pieces of green stones hanging from the sides and a medallion from the middle that had the celtic knot and on the opposite side it said ‘Health’ in gaelic. Since I had just amazed myself and done things I had never thought were possible for me with my leg problems, I bought it! It’s still one of my favorite souvenirs. My other favorite I bought in Blarney, I’ll get to that in the next installment.

I met up with the girls in the gift shop, we made our purchases and went back to the bus. We were always told a specific time to be back at the bus by and this time there were several people who had forgotten about this I think. We were waiting for a while before Howie moved the bus in front of the gift shop and Che went inside to find the stragglers. I thought this was pretty nice considering they could have just taken off. It’s really not their problem if you don’t make it back to the bus in time.

To finish off the day we traveled to Killarney, and checked into our hotel The Killarney Heights. I had looked up this hotel online before we left and it looked adorable on the website and seemed as though it was right in the mountains. When we got there it was not as the website had depicted it but I was just so happy to be roomed with Melissa and be able to rest after the long day so it didn’t matter. The one thing memorable about the hotel was that the carpeting in the hallways was bright pink and the furniture was white and very Victorian. It didn’t seem to fit at all with the rooms or the outside of the hotel which were brown and rustic. Actually the difference was quite funny.

Che changed up our itinerary a little bit and instead of doing the Ring of Kerry (something else I had also been looking forward to) as planned next day, we were able to do it after we checked in at the hotel. Melissa and I were both tired and opted out of that tour but after seeing the pictures of the people who came back from it we both regretted it. Oh well. It’s just something I’ll have to go back there to do!

Dinner was included this night, but everyone agreed it was one of the worst we had the entire tour. There wasn’t anything on the menu that I liked so I ordered the lamb stew. When it came just the sight of it made me nauseous so I went back upstairs to rest. But then while I was up there I remembered I really wanted the dessert I had chosen so I went back down and that’s pretty much all I ate for dinner.

Melissa went with a few other tour mates to check out the city of Killarney at night, I stayed in and called my mom but she returned pretty quickly. Apparently there wasn’t all that much to see. So we went to sleep and rested up for the next day.