holy cow. two days without a computer and I thought I was going to go insane. I like updating tripto as much as you all love reading it, so this has been hard for me. really hard.
saturday my roomies and I hopped on a train and went to Limerick. yeah! cool innit? once we got to Limerick we hopped a tour bus and drove out on the western coast and visited Bunratty Castle (aka tourist trap) and saw Galway bay...from the bus. no stopping for us. luckily once we got to the Cliffs of Moher we did get to stop and go out on the cliffs and click as many photos as we wanted. you have all seen the photos of Irelands cliffed coast - that is where I was! it wasn't the best tour I have taken, but it got me to the places I wanted to see. we also stopped at the Burren, translated it means rocky place and it was really cool. it was a barren landscape that I never would have expected in Ireland. apparently it used to be a glacier and when that melted it left limestone, which is susceptable to water, so now it is this rocky area with large cracks and holes all around. it was really fun.
we didn't get home until around 11pm though, which is why there was no post about it.
also, since I haven't been able to download pictures here, my memory card filled up!! eek I know! I had a back up (with only 32 pictures) so now I am going to have to find a kodak center and have my memory card burned to a disc. sucky.
Sunday, we were up bright and early to catch a tour bus in Dublin to take us through Wicklow. it has mountains, Glendalough, Peat bogs, and amazing scenery. however, we silly Americans are just too illogical. we figured the buses would be running on Sunday, the way they run everyday. no one told us they didn't. and we figured they would have. yeah...no. get to the bus stop and the first bus is at 9:15. we have to be at our tour bus at 8:50. Feck! (that is the irish way to say it. hee hee) so we had to call a cab, which also didn't want to come, and take it to our bus.
this tour was amazing! the guide was very Irish, and told us like it was. he pointed out cheap pubs, told us stuff about the Irish (factoid: Southern Ireland has a pop. 4,000,000. Dublin has 8,000,000 visitors each year!! factoid: 80% of Irish own their homes. only 6% live in 'social and affordable' housing. aka they rent.) and was all around more enjoyable. it was an exciting adventure because on our way out of Dublin we had to take three different detours. 1) the main street was closed for a film crew. 2) there was a car accident 3) we had to backtrack and pick up two more people. so we were on Plan D before we left town! this becomes important later in the story.
so off we go on this 25 person bus tour in seats that are uncomfortably close together. but we drive out to Dublin Bay and get to get out and walk on the beach and feel the water. warm enough, my friends and I think, that we are going to attempt swimming in the bay today! cuz, seriously, who else can say they did that!? after that we head to Glendalough. possibly the most beautiful place I had visited on this trip. glen (valley) da (two) lough (loch = lake) means glen between two lakes so my pictures have mountains, valleys, lakes and green! in every one of them. it is also the site of one of the oldest christian monasteries in the world! 1198 or somesuch year. so we saw the old graveyard and the really old Irish round tower (think rapunzel) and of course I have amazing pictures that you just don't get to see.
after Glendalough we drove up on top of the Wicklow Mountains! WOW! we stopped at a high point and got out for pictures, and in just that one hour difference it replaced Glendalough as the prettiest place I had ever seen! I know! you could see for miles and it looked down on a valley that is owned by the Guinness Family.
as we kept driving we got into the imfamous Irish Peat Bog. looks a bit like a tundra desert. (in fact a lot of this tour reminded me of vacations with my parents) our guide told us that it was extremely unstable and if we were to walk out on it we would sink! however, the bog is amazing at preserving stuff, and they have found bodies from hundreds of years ago in the bog that are perfectly intact. skin and everything. you can tell how the person died. crazy cool! Peat is used as a fuel source in rural areas in Ireland. they call it turf. they literally burn bricks of ground as fuel! crazy!
this leads us to why the detours are important. while we were on the bog, we could see a wild fire in the distance. our guide said they had been fighting fires out here for a week and a half and the problem is that the ground is on fire, but it burns underground. so it is virtually impossible to put out. it reminds me of when the everlast firelog factory burned down in Tucson. what are you going to do?! they are made to stay on fire forever! haha. same with the bog. it is an effective fuel source because it burns for so long.
anyhoo, our guide tells us that we are headed straight for the fire because we are on the only road back to Dublin. great. so we get to the wild fire and it is mostly just smokey, we only saw a few flames. but it is literally burning on the side of the road. the only thing keeping it from being on the other side of the road is the road! so our driver speeds up to get through the fire...yeah we drive through the smoke. and halfway in we hit a road closed blockade. that doesnt stop our driver, because this is the only road to Dublin, so he drives over the cones and we get further in (mind you, the windows are open and our bus is smokey and ash is coming in) and then there are actual firefighters along the road fighting the fire and there are fire trucks in the road. our driver tries to get us through but the fire marshal is having none of it. and makes us drive in reverse out of the fire.
there was a little side road that met our tiny road like an on ramp. meaning that it is an impossible turn for our bus. we had to pull forward (towards a huge drop off) and then back up (towards fire and burning) and then turn sharply to make this turn.
we get onto this other road and our driver is like 'ok folks we are on Plan E because I have no idea where we are or where this road leads.'
can I just say, it was awesome!! you know, except for the near death part. what an adventure! our driver was excellent and I found out later he was worried that we would run into some low bridge or something that the bus couldnt get through and we would have to turn around again and go back through Glendalough and it would be hours before we got home. turns out we see more pretty countryside, end up in some small town named Ennisbrook or something and are able to get on the Motorway back to Dublin only about a half hour later than we should have.
and by then the buses were running and we were able to catch a ride back home by 6 pm. only to discover that my account of my escapades has to wait another day because it is Sunday and the computer lab isn't open! how I love the American way and 24 hour service. I miss it very much.
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Ok, so we are back home and able to keep up again. The only bad thing about being in the wilderness was not reading the daily blog! I am glad to know you are aware of some of the things you've been exposed to on family trips. There is, in North Dakota, a state park created to display a vein of burning coal. It has been burning for something like a hundred years, and can't be put out. Where the coal has burned, the ground has caved in and they move the boardwalks periodically so visitors can view where it is currently burning. I wonder if peat can burn forever like that.
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