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Limerick
Frank McCourt's hometownn If you want to know how I saw an alpaca in real life you need to read through.
This Saturday I headed out to the west of Ireland for a sightseeing adventure. I went with a friend of mine from JMC, Kelly, who came here to study abroad for a month! I went with her and a bunch of people from her program who were all really nice girls, one guy, one woman who was in her 40's, and their program faculty people---interesting mix, huh? All nice people, all happy times.
We headed out wicked early on Saturday (6am) to catch the 8am train from Dublin to Limerick. It took a few hours and the train ride was grand. We got there and met up with our tour guide who collected us (I am picking up the lingo) all into a bus and from Limerick we made our journey north along the coast and through the countryside. It really was countryside too. I mean, completely small town, rolling hills, exactly what you picture Ireland to look like. We drove through County Clare for awhile and stopped at a few sites.
The first thing we came to was
a midevil castle (Leamanagh Castle) that was made out of stone and mostly looked like it was used for battles. It is abandoned now but the state keeps it up..it actually looked fairly in tact considering how old it was. We took some pictures but didn't get to go inside.
Next we stopped at ancient fort called Caherconnell that was used by the celts during who knows what century, but a really long time ago. All that is left now is the base of fort that was made of stone. I played around it for a bit, although it wasn't terribly exciting. They tried to make it more interesting by giving you this map that says what everything, "used to be". For example, "the stone that is marked #1 used to be the entrance way and is now mostly eroded but this is where the people that lived and fought entered the fort". Duh. Mostly it was just beautiful and green, so I enjoyed that.
After this we continued on and....THERE WERE ALPACAS GRAZING ON A FARM!!! I thought these creatures only existed in my dreams, but I thought wrong. They were so cute, and I felt so
exotic being able to see one because they're a cousin of the Llama. There is this house that is near my home in Plymouth that looks like an irish cottage. We live in the middle of the suburbs, everything is built colonial style around the 1960's-70's, but there exists this one random cottage at the corner of Beck and Ann Arbor Trail (for all you Plymouthites). It has a rolling roof and looks like its from 1700's Ireland. The reason this excited me when I was younger is because they have a small farm too and Llamas running around the yard. I used to always want to stop to pet them, and I think my mom was more excited about the Llamas than I ever was. But still, on the 7 June 2008, Emily Castle saw her first Alpaca.
More driving....more driving...more beautiful scenery. Then we reached the Cliffs of Moher (MO-HER) You have to say it in two words like that or else the locals will slag ya (make fun). It began to rain a little when we got here but the group of us climbed to the top. We went right past the "do not go past
breaking into the fort..muahha
this was called Caherconnell, from the "bronze age". Whatever that means, according to 4tours.biz this point" sign. It was clearly obligatory for insurance reasons only because there were a ton of people climbing around past it and no one seemed to care. We hiked out there and walked all around the cliffs for a while. It was absolutely breathtaking. The water was blue and it splashed up against the rocks when it hit the cliffs. I could have sat out there just watching the great Atlantic for hours...ahhh
We came back via Limerick and looked around for a place to eat but nothing was open. Limerick, also dubbed, "stab city" is known for the River Shannon that runs through it as well as a whole lotta crime and for being Frank McCourt's hometown. I walked around the town for a little bit while the others got ice cream and it felt fairly run down and poor to me. It was nothing like any of the places I've been to yet. I didn't get stabbed, so that's good.
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