St. Patrick's Night in Ireland

We arrived in Galway on St. Patrick's Day afternoon and the main square of town was crawling with people dressed in green with a beer or two in hand.  Everyone seemed to be enjoying the last sunshine for the day.  The main pedestrain walkway was little different with bars roping off big sections of the street and people crowding in despite the cold night.  We checked out a couple of hostels, but all had increased their rates for St. Patrick's Day, so we opted for a room at the Victoria Hotel which was the same price, but larger with a better breakfast.

We went out and pushed our way through the crowds looking for a place that was still serving food.  Most of the pubs had closed their kitchens early to deal with the rush of punters asking for drinks.  We finally found a place that looked nice and had seats available.  The food was actually really good.  Deciding that we had little interest in waiting in line to squeeze into a pub, and possible end up out in front in the roped off section we headed for a quieter section of town.  We found a pub that had a small band playing some traditional Irish music with seats available.  We pulled up a chair and did what everyone else does on St. Patrick's Day:  Had ourselves a Guinness.

The next morning we took a walking tour through the small streets along the canal that lead towards the Galway Cathedral.  Galway sits on the coast where a river flows out to the Atlantic Ocean.  But the river has been diverted around town to create a number of small canals and islands in the center of town.  We wandered through these narrow streets along the main channel enjoying the many old buildings that have been preserved.

After our walk through town we headed out towards the Cliffs of Moher.  We saw Dunguaire Castle, which is situated on a penisula jutting out into a bay.  However the castle is only open to visitors from April to September so we had to settle for a walk around the outside.  We continued our drive along the rugged coast stopping at Black Head where I walked out across the large stone flats while Michelle watched from the car.  It was a little windy and cold and she did not feel up to climbing out across the rocks.  But it was interesting as it is a huge relatively flat plain of rocks.  It is not one solid rock, but rather a bunch of smaller ones.  However, after walking across it I can tell you that it is not that flat.

We decided to spend the night in Doolin as they had everything that we needed a place that did laundry and had internet.  It also is located ten minutes from the cliffs of Moher.  Despite a nice day and still having time before the sunset, we opted not to go to the cliffs the next morning instead of that afternoon.  We had thought about trying to see the sunset from the tops of the cliffs, but just drove around and ended up watching the sunset from a small peninsula with a view of the cliffs.

The next morning when we woke up we could hardly see out the window the fog was so thick.  We started wondering if we would even get the chance to see the cliffs at all.  Fortunately there was a very strong wind and the fog started to move out.  The strong wind did make it very cold to be walking along the edge of the cliff.  We walked up to the remnants of the castle that are still there, before Michelle decided she was going back to the car.  I walked until the end then turned and walked to the other side, as the fog continued to clear finally getting a good view of the cliffs.

The cliffs provide some great sights.  This is an area that just jumps up from the coast.  For most of the time we drove along the coast it was pretty flat with rolling hills, but for this one stretch it suddenly the cliffs suddenly rise providing a stunning piece of coast.

As we started to head back to Drogheda to meet up with Shana, we passed through a large area of unique limestone formations called the Burren.  There were a number of old round forts here, though today they are little more than circular stone piles.  The only place we stopped and walked around was at a grave older than the pyramids called Poulnubrone Dolmen.  It looks kind of like one of the arches at Stonehenge except a lot shorter.  The rocks that were once used to seal off both ends had fallen down, leaving an odd shape in the middle of this field of limestone.

The only other thing worth mentioning was our lack of ability to get inside a nice castle.  Along every road in Ireland there are signs pointing out old castles.  Some of these are little more than towers, like the one we had lunch at.  Others are just a couple of walls that look like little more than rock piles.  While others are full fledged castles with dried moats, walls around the outside, and an impressive keep in the middle.  We found one such castle in Trim, however again we were not able to get inside as they had winter hours and no one was admitted after 4.  However, I think I could have jumped the small section of moat and scaled the wall, but there were just too many people around to try a risky maneuver like that.  Anyways from the outside the castle was extremely impressive.

When we arrived in Drogheda we drove to Shana's house, ready to finalize our plans for a weekend trip with her and John to Northern Ireland to see Giant's Causeway.  However, a convention on living and working abroad was being held in Dublin and John had work on Monday, so for a second time our plans of a joint trip were dashed.  Since we still had not gotten a firm date on when our passports would be returned to us, we decided to spend the weekend in Dublin and return our car.

Bill