A Visit to Eire

The Burren

We're still using the free internet at the hostel in Doolin which has a hidden tower so no pictures again, sorry!

Last night we went to McGann's and had seafood chowder and Guinness and Irish music. It was great, better than our pub experience in Dingle which was basically all Americans drinking Miller. This was definitely more authentic and they did this Irish-pub-music-rendition of U2's 'Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' - gorgeous!

Today we went to the next biggest town closest to here (last night we went to buy groceries in Doolin and they didn't even have a Spar! Or a bank machine so we had about 24 euro to our name, which will still buy 2 seafood chowders and a pint and a half of Guinness) Listoodervin or something close to that, but they didn't have an ATM (although they did have a grocery store) so we had to head to Ennistymon where there was an ATM (happy days!) and a Spar.

Then we were off to the Burren which is a national park that is basically all limestone. The ground is rock with tufts of grass and the limestone has worn in lines and things so some of the limestone sticks up and there's these deep lines in the rock (like 2-3 feet deep). It's like nothing I've ever seen although if I lived here I would rename it the Brrrrren because it is still so cold. The wind blew a hole in my ear, I'm sure of it.

We saw a stone fort, Caherconnel (gaelic lesson: 'caher' is 'rock' and 'rath' is 'earth') and a dolmen, a stone burial monument thing. Both date back to 500-1300 BC. It is such a strange feeling to actually contemplate the fact that 3000 years ago, human hands touched these stones, walked on this ground. This trip has been very humbling in many ways and the history is definitely one of them.

Anyway, we stay in a hostel in the middle of the Burren tomorrow, Clare's Rock. Should be good for pics.

Hopefully we'll be able to post some more pictures soon!

posted by Michelle @ 6:10 PM