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| Marie Rua's love nest, very Jane Austen, right? |
Whoooey! What a crazy week! In the past 6 days, I've slept in three countries, on 2 airport benches, 4 flights, and on 3 buses, but before I get too carried away with my traveling adventures or the first day of school I have to wrap up the final days of archeology. Even though the professor is maybe the cutest Irish person I have seen so far, I gotta say that I am relived to be done learning about rocks, church architecture, and copper artifacts.
The weekend before the final week of my early start class was pretty uneventful spent working on my paper, pretending to work on my paper, and of course a quick day trip to Waterford. A group of girls who live in my building and one of my roommates trekked down to the bus station on Saturday morning only to miss the bus and have an extra free hour to roam around the city center. The bus journey to Waterford takes about 3.5 hours, but you go through a couple very cute "Irishy" looking towns along the coast. We arrived around 3ish and looked around for the largest food festival in Ireland that we had planned on going to only to hear that the food portion of the event was the next day! With our spirits low and our stomachs empty we trudged along until we came across an empty Italian cafe and decided to wage our bets. We knew we had made the right decision when the waiter came to our table (1 of 4) and asked us where we were from and what we wanted to eat in a thick Italian accent. I ordered gnocchi and bruschetta and it may be the best food I have ever eaten. Who knew, Italian food in Ireland?
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| Poulnabrone Portal Tomb, aka dance floor extraordinaire! |
Once full of delicious Italian food we checked out all the shopping Waterford had to offer with the highlight being the store at the Waterford crystal factory, probably the only place containing a giant crystal harp and rugby ball. It didn't take too much exploring for us all to realize how tired we were from the long week and the girls night out the night before, so we boarded the bus and headed home. The next day I pounded out my paper, went to a real Catholic Church to watch my roommate sing in the choir, and went to B.L.T. (buns, legs, tums) an exercise class complete with a severe Irish instructor who never really meant "last set."
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| View from Cahercommaun Cashel |
Monday and Tuesday marked the last few days of class and of an empty UCC campus, both of which are welcome changes! At 7:00 on Wednesday morning I made the final trip to the class bus for my last archeology excursion, first stop: Kilfenora Cathedral, Co. Clare. I hate to be the typical American student, but it was hard to get excited by the architecture of this church when it felt like we were in the middle of Hurricane Sean (get it? It's an Irish name! I am too clever). The church is a small medieval monastery founded by St. Fachnan and used to be important enough to house the book of Kells for a bit!
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| East side of Corcomroe Abbey (the side they built when they still had money) |
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Up the road we made a quick stop at a tower house turned fortified house that was the home of Marie Rua, the wife of Conor O'brien who was apparently the original black widow. What an example of girl power, Marie had 3 rich husbands, fish ponds and formal gardens, and a house with a name! What more could a girl ask for?
From the Laemaneh Tower House we headed from the fringe of the Burren right into the middle to the Poulnabrone Portal Tomb, the largest and most bad ass of all portal tombs! Around the tomb is a fence that, according to Mr. O, was put up to dissuade Italian tourists from dancing on top of the tomb. Who could blame them? It would make for a great stage.
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| Limestone pavement in the Burren, Co Clare |
From the ancient disco tech we went to another church,Corcomroe Abbey, Gleninsheen wedge tomb, and the Cahercommaun Cashel. The Cahercommaun Cashel was my favorite of these three sites despite the fact that as soon as we hiked to the top of this huge hill it began seriously down pouring. Luckily for us, Ireland happens to go through every single season each hour, so the torrential storm quickly passed and we were able to enjoy the views from the cashel. Poor Mr. O, by the time we got to these three sites the entire class was obviously burnt out on forts, churches and tombs, so we entertained ourselves by reciting our favorite Arrested Development quotes and probably didn't appreciate the sites quite as much as we should have.
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| Respecting signage and giving tourists a better reputation. |
The Burren is an amazing place to visit, the limestone "pavement" that distinguishes it from the appearance of the rest of Ireland cannot really be captured on film. It feels almost like a scene from Fern Gully or Fantasia. For you science buffs, the Burren earned its name "place of rocks" not from deforestation after the last Ice Age but rather from overgrazing and overpopulation during the Neolithic Period. This caused the erosion of limestone into fissures called "grykes." When you are riding in a bus you get great views of how the landscape changes as you drive down into the valley where the limestone isn't exposed, but the best feature of the Burren is by far the Cliffs of Moher.
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| I wish I could do the Cliffs of Moher justice! |
There is good reason why the Cliffs of Moher attract visitors from all over the world, they are really a site to behold! Walking from the parking lot to the cliffs you look around and can see the ocean in the distance, but otherwise all you can see are fields full of cows and you can't help but think, so where are these cliffs? Once you have fought the wind and make to the edge in both directions you can see waves crashing 300m below at the edge of the cliffs. We were there around 5 so most of the tourists had headed home so we basically had the place to ourselves. A couple of my friends in the class and I were feeling daring so we took the opportunity to go beyond the recommended path, whata thrill! Standing in the wind and looking around, I realized how crazy it is that I am in Ireland, that 10 feet away is a cow grazes on the edge of maybe the most amazing attraction in Ireland. It's easy to forget that people live here and that for the next 4 months, I'm living here too.
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| Bunratty Tower House looking dapper in the sunshine! |
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| Sitting where the very important (and slim) archbishops sat! |
After trespassing, taking too many photos, and awing at the site of the ocean we headed back onto the bus and off to the hotel. Seriously, Mr. O had pulled out all of the stops for this field trip. Not only was our hotel crazy nice (complete with a double bed, hot shower, and cable TV) but for dinner we had 3 courses, all of which we got to chose! I ate a chorizo salad, salmon and vegetables, and dessert platter thing. They were very delicious, but after gorging myself I wasn't quite ready for a big night out, which is what we had planned, but I rallied and we headed off the the pub. It's amazing to travel from Dublin to Cork to a little tiny town in the Burren because you can see what the touristy pubs in Dublin are trying to look like! This pub was small, smelly, and covered in posters, cash from other countries, and Irish phrases. We listened to some trad music over a pint and then decided to call it a night.
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| Quin Franciscan Friary |
Despite the comforts of our hotel the next day was filled with yawns and nodding off on the bus. It was a quick day with only three stops: the Bunratty Tower House, Quin Abbey, and Moughaun Hillfort where great Clare's hoard was found. These three sites passed in a blur because I was too busy being excited for the next adventure I had on my plate for later that day I was getting on a plane to fly to Sweden for my first college-student-in-Europe travel experience! Check back for more on that, I have to go to class now!
