More Moher

Scotland?

Thursday morning, Anna and I left Cork on schedule via the insofar reliable Bus Eireann (Irish Bus) service for our two hour journey to the Shannon airport. We read, we napped, and then we began to realize that we were still a considerable distance from our destination, and check-in for our flight was closing very soon.

We knew from recent (recall last week in London!) experience that Ryanair was very strict about its deadline for check-in, 40 minutes prior to the flight. It was obvious that we weren't going to reach the airport in time to meet that deadline. Still, we piled off and ran into the airport and were informed, as we had feared, that we could not check in for that flight. What we could do was pay a missed flight fee of 75 euros and fly the next day.

In our defense, our bus was an hour late, as were numerous buses that morning because the roads were icy. Apparently this is an unfamiliar thing in Ireland, these icy roads. At the Ryanair desk the clerk told us that there were many people missing their flights because of late buses, but apparently they still weren't allowing any wiggle room on their forty minute deadline. Disappointed and frustrated though we were, Anna and I decided the expense for a severely shortened trip to Scotland wasn't justifiable, but we didn't want to just turn around and go back to Cork. So, we opted to go on to Galway, a city we'd visited only once before but had hoped we would have an opportunity to see again.

It was raining and cold but Galway's charm at Christmas is hard to beat. If someone were filming a movie that required an Irish Christmas village, Galway would be it. Its cobbled streets were hung with lights, music trickled out of store windows, buskers in Santa hats strummed on the streets. We spent Wednesday afternoon and evening settling our hostel and doing a little shopping, then got dressed up for dinner and went to a pub. The next morning, we took a bus to the Cliffs of Moher for a more leisurely visit. The forecast: rain and gale force winds.

You might remember when I visited the Cliffs of Moher before; we went on a tour bus, and there were enormous crowds. This time, we saw less than a dozen other visitors while we were there, and we were the only ones to cross the barrier into the "illegal," or at least unsanctioned part of the path. Compared to the last visit, this felt much more treacherous! We intended to walk as far along the cliffs as was possible, and as it turned out with the weather that wasn't too far. We were walking up an incline and as we got higher the wind got stronger. We got to the point where we thought there was some serious peril in battling the wind on the slippery trail, and turned back.

Having the cliffs practically to ourselves, and seeing and hearing the rough water breaking so far below, was so powerful. Rainwater streaming off the cliffs was literally blown back upward in big sprays. Chunks of seafoam were thrown the several hundred feet upward from the foot of the cliffs to pepper the pastures. And as we started to turn back, a complete rainbow spread itself from the ocean toward the little town of Doolin nearest the cliffs.

All in all, we had a great weekend. My list of countries to visit was always topped by Scotland, but at least now I have a great reason to make another voyage to Europe in the near future. This time maybe I can coerce some family into coming along.

Battling the wind and trying to keep the camera as dry as possible, I still managed a few decent photographs:













I am anticipating Christmas more enthusiastically than I can remember anticipating it before, and I've always been a fan. I have just two days of class, quite a bit of packing, an exam and three essays until Megan and I leave for Barcelona, Spain on Sunday. We return late Wednesday night and I depart early Thursday morning, and I will be seeing my favorite people in the several days following that.

That's that for my penultimate blog post. Back to studying.