We are continuing our honeymoon journey through the rural areas of Ireland. If you have ever been to the state of Pennsylvania in the springtime, then you can get an idea of what Ireland looks like. A lot of farmland with stonewalls, fairly flat in most areas. But the smell of the sea is always there, even when the ocean was miles away.
We were looking for interesting outdoorsy things to do at our stay. We found the Connemara Mountains which was beautiful. We hiked the trails and then went to the museum.
Almost everything that we read was how the Irish were doing just fine until the Vikings came and pillaged everything. Since I am Norwegian and my husband is Irish, I would always bring up that we beat them.
Nothing like a little fun rivalry to start a great marriage.
At three o’ clock, everything stops for teatime. We really need to institute something like that over here. Everyone sips tea, eats a pastry and chats for about half hour to forty-five minutes. Just to rejuvenate for the rest of the working day.
One of my personal fondest moments was when we decided to just hop in the car and drive all the back roads. We came across a little pub that was built into the side of a hill.
We were hungry and decided to stop for some lunch.
When we walked in, there were two construction workers having a few alcoholic drinks and a sandwich on their break. Something that I have never seen living in upstate New York. There were also a couple of farmers in the pub. They were the total cliché of an Irish shepherd. Thick off-white wool sweaters, drinking a beer while discussing the sheep prices.
Of course, my husband started chatting with them because farmers love to talk with other farmers. They explained that the lamb prices over there during that time weren;t very good. They were basically keeping sheep to meet the expectations of tourists. Who knew? I do know that every restaurant we went to had some sort of lamb available.
One place that was suggested to us to visit by a family friend was the Cliffs of Moher, and I am going to suggest that you also visit the cliffs if given the chance.
I have to say that I loved it there more than my husband did. Sure, he thought the sea was neat and the castle was cool, but he didn’t understand why I thought this place was so great.
The beauty of the sea meeting the cliffs and the feeling of being so small really transpired over me being at this natural world wonder.
There are two path options for visitors to take. One is a path that has a fence and railings and the other is on just the other side of the railings. It is just the ground beneath your feet and then a plummet into the ocean. Can you guess which one we wanted to experience?
Off we trekked with no barrier or railing to save us if we were to slip or someone accidently nudged us. My heart raced and the anxiety sweat started, but we walked the trail. It is advised that you don’t walk on the beaten trail, but on the responsible railing path. At some points, the path turned into a narrow passageway where you needed to wait for someone to come from the other side in order to cross.
I was almost in a panic when I saw people sitting on the edges with their feet dangling off the edge.
No thank you.
It was a little unnerving to see some of the signs they have posted. One of them is a picture of the cliffs with a stick figure falling off the edge with a statement at the bottom that said, “Need to talk” with a phone number.
On a happier note, it was rather amazing to watch cows grazing while you take in the sights around you.