a Recap

Our Trip to Galway

We caught our bus to Galway Saturday morning at 10 a.m. We thought it was the last we would see the sun that weekend (and that it figured the first day we had seen the sun in what felt like an eternity, was the day we left).
Duncan and myself on the bus, ready to go!

There was a pretty big cemetery close to our hotel. We all decided to explore it. There was a bird perched on top of Jesus. I thought that was funny.

This was at the foot of a grave- and probably the funniest thing I have seen in Ireland; it captures the Irish wit perfectly.

All of the Berry kids went to a pub to grab a drink for Kelly's b-day. We also were able to catch part of a hurling match on the big screen. To reference an earlier quote, it does beat the shit out of golf (and most American sports for that matter). I recommend watching a game to anyone who find one to watch! It's quite intense.
Beth, our resident coffee drinker

The birthday girl, Kelly! and her Bulmers, of course.

Jordan, sunburned, and with his Bulmers as well

Duncan and his beloved whiskey, except it was Bushmills, not Jameson- his true heart's desire

Me- beginning to feel the long day, and my first day with more than two hours out of bed in nearly a week, accompanied by my vodka and tonic

Saturday came and we set out on our tour down the west coast- as you can see the beautiful water was accompanied by amazing weather!! How could it be?! We still don't know.

We stopped in a little town called Doolin and ate at this pub- the food was delicious, with big portions and FAST service. It was very enjoyable.

We then visited the Cliffs of Moher- 650 feet high and 7 miles long, they are quite a natural beauty. However, they are also decorated with TONS of tourists. I know, it is completely hypocritical to say the tourists kind of ruined the experience, but they did :) It was still amazing to see though.

If you can even see them, the tiny dots in the left corner on the cliffs are people, if that gives you any scale at all.

The water was the same stunning blue that we saw on the Northern coast.

Duncan with ice cream on his beard- What can we say? He likes his soft-serve.

This was an ancient burial tomb older than the Egyptian pyramids.

Sadly, everyone deemed this car cooler than the burial tomb. It was pretty cool though.

By the way- did I mention that the hotel room was somewhat of a fiasco? You're only supposed to have two people in a room, and we clearly had four. I thought I had booked a room with a double bed, a pull-out couch and a cot- enough for all four of us to have adequate room. Of course, I said only Duncan and I were staying there. Well, sneaking two other people in to the room bit us in the butt. We had only ONE double bed. But guess what- we all managed to fit- kind of.

Back to our Saturday excursion, here is a pic of Duncan and me enjoying the scenery.

We thought these signs at the cliffs were funny. Why is the man running off the cliff?

Also to our amusement, the cows here are much more comfortable plopping down and sleeping like cats. I must admit, it was alarming at first to see cows laying this way. I thought they were dead, but Beth (who is an animal science minor) assured us this was normal for a sleeping bovine.

This is me taking a photo at the Burren Mountains. The mountains are limestone, and used to be under water. They put stone mountain to shame.

Lastly, this is another castle we saw from a distance. If you look closely in the foreground, you can see a few geese and their babies.

Things that didn't make the photos:

• We tried to eat Mexican again for Kelly's birthday. Again, it was a flop. Apparently authentic Mexican food does not exist in Ireland. La Salsa- despite being only an imitation- was still oddly pretty good. I am not sure what ethnicity of food it actually was, but I liked it.
• We visited Ireland's "premier show-cave" and paid €8 to get in. It was a let-down. Think Ruby Falls, without the ruby.
• At the Galway bus-station, we saw a demented pigeon. No, I'm not talking New Orleans diseased- winged- rat, but this black thing that was kind of heaving. And it wasn't just me with my strange fear of the stupid birds- it was scaring the others.
  
• Our bus ride home was 4 long hours.
  

I finished my antibiotics today- and feel back to full-health! I had plenty to do at work, and Duncan got to go swimming (or at least to a pool) with the kiddies.

And we would like to take this time to thank our parents for their financial aid. We would be destitute our last week without the help.

We're sending love and good tidings to everyone!