On tour

I didn't blog yesterday because Eden and I were on a bus from 8:40 am to 5 pm and after that we just  bought a few provisions for the rest of my trip and souvenirs for Eden's demanding boyfriend : ) (although it's nice to know what someone wants). High points were meeting Sandy, a musician who paid for her room and board at Isaac's hostel by playing for an hour in the hostel lobby. I sang two folk songs with her towards the end of her set but did not press for a discount : ) She is spending just a few days in Ireland then heading over to Wales to visit her elderly friend.

Isaac's is a 200 year old converted wine cellar. It's nice and overrun with young tourists.

This morning I had cornflakes then walked over to my tour office and climbed aboard Shamrock Adventure Tour's very cozy bus (especially for our legs). Kim, our guide, has a heavy Irish accent, is 21 and very passionate about Vikings and Irish history. It seems like hers would be a cool job.

A fact I learned today that Eden would appreciate: since cows, historically and presently, have been an integral part of Ireland's livelihood, the Vikings valued one long sword at 14 cows.

Kim alternated between telling us the history of Ireland from the time of the Vikings to mostly present and playing some of her favorite Irish music for us. 

She recommended David Attenborough's documentary, "the amber time machine" while telling us about the Vikings' belief that amber had magical properties. 

At one point we went around and told embarrassing stories about ourselves by way of introduction and the best by far was one Kim had about a "friend of a friend" involving a hookup at a bar, a dysfunctional toilet and the woman accidentally leaving a bag of poop on the guy's bed the next morning because she couldn't flush the toilet and didn't want to leave it there but then accidentally  locked herself out before she could retrieve it. Don't know how exactly you forget about something like that but it was an interesting way to start the tour nonetheless. 

Listened to dirty old town on the way to Galway and, after our first stop at a service station, she introduced us to a "trad" (traditional) band that she actually likes called Socks in the Frying Pan.

She had lots of myths and legends up her sleeve - my fav being about Cuchulain and fairies, of course. 

Her info about fairies is as follows. There are two sacred fairy marks on the Irish landscape that people are still extremely superstitious about: fairy trees and fairy forts. There are 2 types of fairy trees: one is mushroom shaped and the others aren't distinctive except for the fact that if you bury a piece of straw in the ground beneath it and, three weeks later, the straw is undamaged then it's a fairy tree. A fort is the ruins of a circular house type structure that people absolutely refuse to go into. She had many tales of people who invaded either of these spaces and had very unfortunate things happen to them after. 

Our main attraction of the day was the Cliffs of Moher. 

On my second time up the cliffs, I walked away from O'Brien's tower (which I had already seen and everyone else was going to). Walking the paths that line the edge of the CoM I had the sense of being in an expansive cathedral (which, admittedly, might be because I've seen a lot of churches while I've been here). Nevertheless, that image stuck in my mind this time around. I sat a short distance from the edge facing the ocean and listened to the footsteps of tourists echo in the fog that had only partially lifted and the muted sound of the waves hundreds of feet below. 

Here is what I jotted down at the time:

There is the vastness of the ocean before me, blending into the sky so that I feel like everything substantial - farm hills, cows, fences - is behind me and what is actually real lies in front. The cliff walls themselves bear some resemblance to half a structure that has been built to act as a barrier between tangible and intangible expansiveness. Unlike a cathedral I am not looking up at the infinite vaults, but am suspended somewhere in between up and down, maybe at eye-level.

Only had an hour this time - am so glad I went with Eden before and spent the day climbing the cliffs. Next we stopped by a bonafied wishing tree/stream.

Our final stop was at the burren. She told us about the crazy biology/geology there then we headed to Galway. 

Got to know the group better over dinner (Irish stew) and drinks at THE MOST AWESOME OLD-LOOKING BAR that had an excellent Irish band that played such good music. We met up with another tour group, who will be with us tomorrow too, and played never have I ever and other drinking games. Woohoo bars and young people who like to pass the time bouncing coins into cups and playing never had I ever. Still, it was fun. Oh, and i am especially close with three people in our original nine who were telling me about Octoberfest and travels in Laos, eastern Asia and all over Europe. They had all been to Barcelona and said I seriously need to see other parts of Spain (they all agreed it was pretty touristy). They are from Australia, as are 3/4s of all of the tour groups (Aussies are taking over the world, ya'll. By way of tourism.)

While checking in at Kinlay hostel, where we will be for the first two nights, I saw this : )