Day 27 - Europe 2010

We had just one thing to do today – the Cliffs of Moher - and the rest of our time was spent on the bus!  We got up at 5:15am and took a bus at 6:15am to Limerick and from there we went to the Cliffs of Moher, arriving at 11:20am.  We had about two hours to explore the place and I was pretty excited!  This is a very famous spot in Ireland because the cliffs are so impressive, with a 700 foot drop to the ocean below!  On top of the spectacular view of the cliffs, the whole place is bird heaven!  There are scores of birds that make their home on the cliff face and the rocks all around so it makes for quite a sight (and sound).

This was my last chance to see the PUFFIN!  We brought our binoculars and were searching the cliffs for them, especially this one huge rock jutting up from the ocean that was completely crowded with hundreds, if not thousands, birds.  But they didn’t zoom enough for us to get a clear look at them!  I knew they were on that rock though because you could tell them apart from all the gulls.  I could just see their darker backs and these little specs of red-orange on their faces.

We went searching for a well-placed set of binoculars but they all looked at cliffs far away and weren’t much better than the ones we had.  They need some facing that crowded rock!  So I was standing there wondering how I might see these puffins when I heard two guys beside me, looking into their mega-binoculars on tripods, commenting on the “puffin party” below.  Aw man, I want to see the puffin party!!!  So I said, “You see puffin downs there?" and the guy adjusted his binoculars to find a pair of puffins on the cliffs and told me to take a look.  And I saw them!  They are so stinkin’ cute!!!  I just love their big silly red beaks and their big orange feet and their cute black and white bodies.  I think my new favorite bird is the puffin!

So I was pleased that I finally got to see puffins, even if they were so far away.  Mission accomplished!

Our next mission was to explore the cliffs!  They have rock walls along part of the cliffs to keep you safe but then it ends and they have a sign telling you not to come further and that the land beyond is private property.  But I had already read that no one enforces that and plenty of other people there were hopping the wall.  So, we ignored the sign and walked along the open path that runs all along the cliffs.  And it was gorgeous!  You came upon new vistas as you walked further so it was fun to stop for photos.  And we enjoyed seeing all the birds on the face of the cliff, though I spotted no more puffins.

I was worried about Nick and his fear of heights but I was pretty nervous myself sometimes.  That path got close to the edge at times and we very carefully and quickly walked past those areas.  I did take a chance to very carefully bend down and look over the edge for just a few seconds.  I felt the wind come up from the sea below, bringing smells of fish and birds.  Nick said it would be a glorious death to fall from the cliffs.  “How many people can say they have died on the Cliffs of Moher?”  He answered his own question with, “Zero.”  Haha!

So that was it - just a short but very impressive stop at one of the top sites in Ireland.  From there we had to take another bus back to Limerick and then another on to Dublin where we will be staying the next two nights until our final destination: England.

I did have one very bizarre and kind of scary thing happen on the bus.  I have had allergies pretty bad on this whole trip.  It’s kind of gotten less brutal as time has gone on.  Germany was terrible, for example, Italy was really rough, France was milder, and Ireland hasn’t been too bad.  I’ll have sneezing attacks, sometimes sneezing ten or twelve times in a row, and then in the evening my eyes will itch like crazy.

Well, on the bus from the cliffs I was suddenly having a serious allergy attack.  My eyes were so scratchy and burning, like I had something inside my tear ducts and no amount of rubbing could make it stop.  So I rubbed and rubbed and finally took a quick nap with my hands putting pressure on my eyes, the only way I could make the itching stop.  When I woke up, I felt like I had something in my eye and rubbed a bit more but it wasn’t going away.  Finally I asked Nick for my mirror and my eyes were so messed up!

Seriously though, if you get sick hearing about weird and creepy stuff happening to the body, then do not read this next paragraph.  I mean that 100%.  It looked like some sort of membrane from under my eye ball had crawled up to cover almost my entire eye except the iris and pupil.  I mean it was scary and gross and this was in both eyes.  But then I figured out that it wasn’t something from under my eye but was my actual eye that had puffed up with liquid.  I mean, it was bulging beyond my lids, people, it was sick and wrong.  Wow, I was really scared about my eyes but I figured it was kind of like having a blister and it would eventually go away.  So I spent a good deal of my six hour bus ride to Dublin with my eyes closed, except that I got tired of sleeping and ended up catching up with my writing and doing some reading.

I am VERY happy to report that by the time we reached Dublin my eyes had returned to normal, except for slight amounts of puffiness and redness.  I will need to be careful with them over the next few days and make sure not to rub the daylights out of them.



We went back to our first hostel we stayed at and I spent the evening blogging and laughing about all the fun adventures we've had.  Tomorrow is our last full day in Ireland and I am a bit sad about it.  It's been a beautiful stay.

PHOTOS:

The Cliffs of Moher!  If you open it up, you can maybe spot the people walking along the cliff over there.  Squint a little - they're there.

Do you like my crazy hair?  And look, a new shirt!  We have not been able to do laundry - nothing available, no time, and too expensive - so we have been buying more clothes instead.  Anyway, enough about my shirt.  I've got nothing but lots of cliffs shots.

This is the big rock where all those birds were hanging out.  You have to open it up in order to see the community there!

Here I am being such a rebel and walking right past that sign.  No guilt.

I love this shot of the cliffs.  Now we're looking at where the stone wall keeps you safe, where our first pictures were taken.  Also you can see the big stone in the water to the left.

And we continued along the cliff trail here.  We wished we had more time to walk along the whole of it.

And our last view looking back over the cliffs we have walked along.  Awesome!