Burren and Cliffs and Castles oh my!

Photo Cred: Mum
The Burren

Photo Cred: Mildred
The Burren

Photo Cred: Mum
The Burren

On March 23rd, we began our adventure to the Cliffs of Moher. We had a nice little stop in the Burren which apparently is the coordinator person's most favorite stop of all time in Ireland (he's been on the trip 3 years in a row or something cause he's in charge ya know). So we saw the lovely Burren, which I don't really have any information on other than that its "a rugged lunar-like limestone landscape" from our itinerary. It was gorgeous though and we could go right out to the edge.

Photo Cred: Mildred
The Burren

After we spent an insufficient amount of time at the Burren, because let's be honest I could've walked around on the Burren for most of the day, we were back on our way to the Cliffs! I decided that this part of Ireland would probably make a great backpacking area with all that landscaping. I mostly decided this because I couldn't keep my eyes open on the bus but it was gorgeous and I really wanted to see it all. 

So the Cliffs of Moher were pretty cool. We were told to stay away from the edge because with all the high wind and such there could be erosion going on underneath the top layer that we  couldn't see. Apparently Tony had to watch a bunch of videos on people having the land collapse beneath them as they fell to their deaths at the Cliffs of Moher in order to become a bus tour guide person so that he would know the danger was real. Mum and I walked around for a long while, we had about 2 hours or something at the Cliffs of Moher. We went to the dangerous direction of the Cliffs where we were told no edge walking and then we went up the hill towards the O'brien's tower. The watch tower was old and apparently this was the first year people were actually allowed to climb up it on this trip, mum and I decided not to though since we could already see pretty far and everything awesome on such a high hill. The wind up there was wicked and tried to steal my hat one too many times for my liking, but not as windy as other years since that was the reason the tower sometimes was closed. Then once we were done exploring, we gave ourselves about 30 minutes I believe to go grab something to eat and explore the visitor's center/shops. In the visitor's center they had a little interactive museum thing that was kinda cool. We tried watching the movie, but it was almost 3-D and that almost 3-D was making us both motion sick so we didn't last in there for very long. 

Photo Cred: Mildred
Cliffs of Moher

Photo Cred: Mildred
O'brien's Tower at Cliffs of Moher

Photo Cred: Mildred
Cliffs of Moher

Photo Cred: Tony, the bus driver/guide
Cliffs of Mohey

Photo Cred: Mildred
Bunratty Castle

 After the Cliffs of Moher, we headed to the Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. We didn't really have sufficient time there either, but that was becoming a common occurrence so we had to get used to it I suppose. The Bunratty Castle was a Castle dressed in Victorian times and the guide for the first part of the tour had a very articulate accent that just made me think she was trying to sound like she was from Victorian times as well, she was dressed like it too. We got to climb up to the top tower of Bunratty to check out the view, so it was slightly slow going because heights and spiral staircases but we got there. It was at Bunratty where we learned the purpose of the spiral staircases, which was to help defend the castle. The way that someone ran up the spiral staircase would require them to hold their sword in their left hand, which not many people are lefthanded so that gave the defenders an advantage. The defenders also would be able to go down the stairs while carrying the sword in their right hand. With the narrowness of the spiral stairs, you could just pick off the enemy one by one, which is pretty great thinking on their part. If an enemy does get to the top though, the top step is slightly taller than all the others to trip up the enemy. They wouldn't be looking down while fighting off people anyway! I'm sure I learned other fun facts at Bunratty, the tour guide was great after all, but I can't remember since I learned so many things over in Ireland....

Photo Cred: Mildred
Bunratty Castle

After that we headed to Cork where our hotel for the night was and had dinner.