I was just uploading my photos from the road trip we did in Ireland to Facebook and I realised how much fun I had and how much I'm missing it already. Though I was initially dreading it quite a bit, it didn't turn out to be quite a bore as I thought it might turn out.

I guess I'll start narrating from the time we left the cottage, which was on 22 Sep 07.

22 Sep 07 - Goodbye Louisburgh!

Having loaded up the car to pretty much what was a VERY FULL vehicle, we left our cottage, which we had spent 6 weeks in, and the tiny village of Louisburgh. It was somewhat sad to think that I/we might never come back to Louisburgh again, not for quite a long time at least.

After dropping Vicky off at Shannon airport, Christina, Lydia and I set off for our road trip! Our first stop was Ailwee Caves, which is set amidst the dramatic landscape of the Burrens - which is miles after miles of limestone exposure. I've never seen such rocky landscapes before!

I thought the Ailwee Caves were a bit of a rip-off. We paid some EUR 9 to be brought around the caves, where we only stopped at 6 "stations", and it wasn't all that spectacular anyway. In fact, i think we found the gift shop and farm produce shop more exciting! haha... the gift shop was exciting because it sold lots of rocks (!!!) and the lady at the fudge shop gave us an extra piece of fudge!

Christina was quite excited when we stopped at the coast for a "fudge break". ;p

We sat by the coast, enjoying the crashing of waves against the rocky shores. It was nice 'cos we could be upclose to the waves without getting splashed.

As can be seen in this picture, the waves were pretty spectacular - there was afterall nothing separating us from the Atlantic Ocean... :)

PS: We also hammered away at this pretty calcite vein, although it was technically a protected site... oops!

We then made a couple more stops along the coast before finally reaching the Cliffs of Moher, which is touted one of the most visited sites in (the Republic of) Ireland. The clouds had started rolling in unfortunately, but the cliffs were still fairly magnificent....

The Cliffs of Moher..

To be honest, I can't remember where I took this shot, although Christina looks pretty happy in this picture. Then again, Christina always looks happy.

We then drove to Gort, where we were to spend the night at the Gallery Cafe Hostel, which i must say was a really nice and cosy hostel, though there were some quirky characters as well.

Like there was this girl in our room, who was just lying in bed the whole time (for about 3 hours, from the time we arrived and had dinner), with her eyes open and just listening to the radio - not even saying high when we arrived.

Then in the morning, there were this spanish girl, who was wearing a red spaghetti top with like a red thong, who was walking around the hostel to the toilet and while she was taking a shower, another spanish girl goes into the same toilet (it's a single toilet with shower attached. imagine a hotel type toilet, but much smaller.. ;p), and when the 2nd girl comes out, a spanish guy knocks and goes in. I found it quite amusing standing outside the toilet and watching this happen... (i was waiting to wash up...)
The Gallery Cafe Hostel

Labels: Geology, Ireland, Travel