Weekend Exploring in Ireland

I’m trying to catch up on my blogging, since I was a couple of days without internet this week.  The next few blogs will be shorter, but since this was my solo weekend excursion, I thought I’d add a little more content for the places I visited.

I left my classmates Friday night and went solo Friday night on a 2 hour bus ride full of sleepy college students down to Galway.  The “lively” town of Galway lived up to its name, as every pub was packed full of students enjoying their Guinness.  

I decided to skip the public bus/winging it for a trip to the Cliffs of Moher, and booked a 1-day tour instead.  The bus was full of tourists, several Americans, and our bus driver was this short, flirty old Irish man who loved to crack jokes to “the ladies” on the bus.  He was pretty entertaining.  The roads on the way to the Cliffs of Moher were windy, bumpy, and narrow, and we barreled through it with a massive charter bus.  We tried to stop to see the Dunguaire Castle, but some woman called the Guard (cops) about our bus blocking traffic.  So we high tailed it to the Burren, and our next stop was to see an ancient burial ground, Poulnabrone Dolmen, which dates somewhere around 3800 BC.

Poulnabrone Dolmen

 After that we stopped in Doolin for lunch, another town known for Irish music.  It's also the closest little town outside of the Cliffs of Moher.  I had an amazing cup of chowder with some Guinness at O’Conner’s pub. 

From there it was on to the Cliffs of Moher, finally!  The weather conditions were so bad by the time I got there, that O’Brian’s Tower was closed, and they warned people not to go up to the high point (best for viewing) because the winds were dangerous enough to blow you over the Cliffs.  I had trouble walking because the winds were so strong.  The rain was soaking everything I had, so I couldn’t take too many pictures without risking my camera.  It was pretty hard to see with the fog, but I was able to snap a couple. 

Cliffs of Moher (aka "Cliffs of Insanity" from the Princess Bride)

After we left the Cliffs of Moher, we headed back to Galway, but took a different route through the Burren that allowed us to stop and take pictures of the Atlantic Ocean, with some smaller cliffs, and the Aran Islands.  The sun came out long enough for me to get some great shots. 

From there we continued driving along Galway Bay, and were able to stop and get pictures of Dunguaire Castle without the Guard coming after our bus driver. 

The Burren coast

The Burren coast

After I got into Galway, I took a cab to Salthill, about 10 minutes west of Galway along Galway Bay, for my first Irish B&B experience.  I was soaked and cold, as I had been all day, and I had a very warm welcome from Mary at the Marless House with a fresh pot of hot tea.  The next morning I had the best French toast I think I’ve ever had, walked along Galway Bay beach, then took a 3.5 hour bus ride to Donegal for a quick overnight trip before heading into Derry, Northern Ireland. 

See the next blog for Derry…

Day 5/Sligo

Sligo was a nice change from Dublin. It’s a little bit isolated in the west, but it’s located along the Garavogue River that feeds into the (North) Atlantic Ocean.  Sligo is very small, quaint although I’ve learned that in most Ireland towns, including Dublin, stores close at 6, restaurants at 9pm.  Breathing the air in Sligo is a little more refreshing than Dublin’s, except for the peat.  You get used to it after a while.  Dinner in Sligo was at an amazing little Italian restaurant.  Yalena, one of my classmates, ordered a brie and pepperoni pizza, which I had to try.  The pepperoni is different in Ireland, it’s little small round piece of ham, without the spice that we’re used to in the US.   

 

For class today, we visited ProTek, a contract manufacturing facility for medical and surgical devices.  This company too was on a fast pace of growth.  After listening to the business development/marketing director and one of the shareholders, it sounds as if they may be heading towards a merger soon.  Following ProTek was a visit to the Institute of Technology Sligo campus, in the Innovation Centre.  IT Sligo Innovation Centre interfaces with businesses, internationally, and has an enterprise platform for startup companies.  Slightly similar to the Bard Center in Denver.  We also listened to a guy from lotusworks, which is an Irish company that works internationally, in the areas of engineering services, construction management, mass energy/power generation, etc. He talked extensively about working internationally, and their company’s experience with using joint ventures, acquisitions, and individually entering an international market.  I was extremely excited to hear a presentation like this, since working internationally has always been at the very top of my career goals.

Some observations from Sligo:

-You are greeted with a firm handshake and “You’re very welcome!” as you meet someone.

-Business dress is similar to Colorado- dress up jeans with a jacket.  Dublin was more formal.

-A little bit more respect for MBAs in Ireland

That was it for the day, I broke off and left the group for my weekend adventure, which I know you’re anxious to hear about, so stay tuned. 

 Below are some pictures from Sligo:

 Sligo city center

 Hallway in Sligo Abby

Next to the Garavogue River.

Day 4 - Heading to the Coast

For my last morning in Dublin this week, I finally visited the Old Library at Trinity College.  I haven’t seen the Guinness Storehouse yet, but it’s rank in my priority list of touristy things is far below the Old Library, if that gives a general idea of how much I wanted to see this place.  The Old Library is where the Book of Kells is kept.  For those of you not familiar with the Book of Kells, this famous Irish book was written over a 1,000 years ago by monks of the Irish church.  The Book of Kells was written in Latin about the Four Gospels, with immaculate, beautiful colors and art.  Although I only saw a couple of pages of the actual book, they had large pictures displayed on the walls to give a better view of the book’s contents.  Couldn’t take any pictures, but that’s fairly standard for historical sites. 

What was far better than the Book of Kells was the Long Room in the Old Library. This place is by far the very best thing I have seen in Ireland so far. The Long Room is the main chamber of the Old Library, has around 200,000 of the Library’s oldest books (clearly not for touching).  Also, the harp inside is the oldest surviving Irish harp, dated from the 15^th century.  The Long Room has a big display of many old medical books that doctors used, a few tools similar to the ones I saw in Sighisoara, Romania’s Clock Tower Museum, and the death mask of Jonathon Swift.  It was dark, musty, and just made me want to hang out and write my novel.  Absolutely spectacular. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my morning dose of history.   We’re pretty much off for the day, I’m writing this on the bus to Sligo, which is on the west coast of Ireland.  I’ve seen a few sheep, but this is a busy highway so they won’t be crossing the road here.  I’ll likely run into “rush hour” with sheep in the area I’m headed to.  Dublin is okay, but it’s fairly touristy and a little dirty in some areas.  I hope next week on my last two days in Dublin to see the Dublin Castle and the Guinness Storehouse, if there’s time.  My class has been invited to a private tour of the Dail (Ireland’s version of the White House), which I guess is very hard to get.  We’re feeling quite special. J  

Next blog will be from Sligo!

Oh and happy birthday to my big sister, Emily!