Blogs from The Burren, County Clare, Ireland, Europe - page 2

After spending a glorious night with the howling Atlantic outside and a glowing hearth of peat at our bedside, we awoke to radiant sunshine. Breakfast in the sunny veranda room facing the Atlantic was remarkably good. Laurie picked the fluffy pancakes with warm maple syrup and Axel experimented a bit with the smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. The salmon was mixed in after the eggs were scrambled to make for one heck of a flavorful combination. The intent for today was to spend the day driving through The Burren and finish up with the Cliffs of Moher. The Burren is a large limestone plateau made up of bare rocky hills interspersed with lakes. It is the product of thousands of years of human habitation which removed the forests that once covered 99% of Ireland, thereby allowing ... read more

When we landed in Dublin i was shocked to find that all of the signs were written in english. Conversations going on nearby were in english. my native language was so familiar but its ubiquity was out of place. we arrived after midnight and were promptly herded to the city buses. even though the hostel was right across the street from the main bus station, there were no buses going anywhere near the hostel. we walked 15-20min down dimly lit dublin streets. we slept in bunks with a family of four from utah. we stored our packs in a cage in the basement of the old hostel while we explored. as we left the hostel a taxi driver dropping off a customer, said,"...but i wouldnt walk down this street at night." We bought tickets to Ennis ... read more

This was a wonderful day almost ruined by a bank, and a drunken Irish asshole. Let me say this, I am very displeased with Bank of America right now. For starters, they blocked my ATM card, because it was being used internationally. Not a big deal, only took them a week to do it, but they did it. After trying to contact them at their toll free international number, which I had to use my credit card at one point to dial, I decided to chuck that in and head out to the Aran islands with the tour group. These islands are amazing. They are just off the coast and still use Irish Gaelic as the primary language. We rented bikes for 10 euro, which I had to borrow (quick aside, Brandon from Australia, great guy. ... read more

This weekend on a whim I decided to book at coach tour of Galway and the Burren area after discovering a daily tour through Rick Steve's guide book. The tour is O'Neactain tours. My guide's name was Desmond Murray and he was wonderful despite the thick fog, which destroyed much of our morning view. The greatest part of the trip was seeing Poulnabrone Dolmen/portal tomb and also seeing the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs were also misted in fog and each layer of cliff appeared a different hue of blue. It was quite beautiful. Lunch was at a pub in Doolin and the homeward drive was gorgeous through Kinvarra, Blackhead and the Burren area.... read more