The Cliffs of Moher and Moher and Moher

The Cliffs

Oh boy, never is a trip complete without an unexpected adventure, and might I say that this has been the most epic adventure so far...

Okay, so about a week prior to our trip, we went to the bus station to find out how we could get to the Cliffs of Moher. The lady handed me two time tables for the two buses that connected to get us to the the cliffs. I said okay, looked them over and planned our trip out, or so I thought...

Saturday morning comes bright and early, 6am to be exact. I make breakfast, brush my teeth, and get the gang together to head to the bus station. A long, cold, 30 min. walk later, we reach the bus station, buy our tickets and get on the bus for the long, cold, 4 hour bus ride to the cliffs.

O'Brien's Castle

We get to the cliffs and since we are obviously extremely exhausted from all that hard work it took to get there, we opted to take a nice long lunch break prior to setting out on our journey. Per usual I had some cheese and some ham placed between bread and heated on a grill, since that seems to be the only thing that they serve here!

Don't Do It!

After lunch, we walked off to begin our picture taking, and picture taking we did! I think I got to 120 or so before my camera died =(, but lets face the facts, 119/120 were pretty much the same thing, so I cannot complain too much!

We first walked towards O'Brien's Castle, a tiny little tower that gives you no greater view than the steps in front of it, but since we didn't know that, we paid the 2 euro each to walk to the top to take some more pictures! Might I say, we were one lucky group of girls, because it was as clear as clear could be with not a drop of rain in sight! It was amazing how far you cold see out into the ocean!

Anywho, we were done taking pictures of the cliffs, we wanted to take pictures from the cliffs, so we hiked down and up to the other side where the cliffs actually are and proceeded pasted the "Please Do Not Go Beyond This Point" sign. I mean everyone does it, it is just used more as a precaution to warn people that you could slip and die, luckily we all survived!

"Shep" The 3-Legged Dog

Since we did not think that the bus came until 6:10pm, we decided to walk and walk and walk and walk until we just couldn't walk no more, or at least until we decided that it was pretty repetitive and that we needed some time to shop in the gift shop prior to our departure. Along the walk, once it got to a point where the path began to diminish, we came across a 3-legged dog that guided us further and further towards to end of the cliffs. We named him Shep. He guided us back to the same point that we met him at where he then picked up the next group of people who wanted to continue down the unbeaten path. 

So after like 3 hours, we decided to head back and do what everyone must do, eat again! Do not get the ice cream, totally not like ice cream back home!! Since it was only like 4:30, we sat around and chatted before we saw they were closing down, so we ran downstairs to the gift shop, made a quick purchase and then sat around waiting for the bus to come at 6:10. 

It got to be 5:50, so we moved towards the door. 6:00, we walked out to make sure we could actually see where the buses pick up at. 6:10, we walked to the bus stop. 6:20, we ran inside to see why the bus wasn't there since the cliffs closed at 6:30. 6:21 we discover the last bus picked up at 1:30. Shit, so they were extremely nice and called a taxi for us. In order for us to make the last connection to Cork, we had to drive to the next town of Ennis which was about 45 minutes away. Tony, the taxi driver, got to us around 6:50 and our bus left at 7:20 so we had roughly 30 minutes, otherwise we were sleeping in a sketch bus station with who knows what!

My absolute Favorite Picture... The Irish Countryside

So we hop in the taxi, buckle up and start flying like a bat out of hell! I was right up front with Tony cussing up a storm at the idiots in front of us that would not slow down so we could pass. We made it to the bus station at 7:19, and thank god that bus was late, otherwise we would have been shit out of luck! 

In the middle of trying to figure out if we just missed the bus or if it was late, I some how left my awesome t-shirt that I bought in Tony's taxi. Luckily he thought that us not catching a bus was bloody crazy, so he gave me a receipt and his business card so that way I could have someone to back me up when I went to talk to the bus station and try get a refund for having to pay for a taxi when their time table was wrong.  So I called him up on the bus and told him that I left my stuff and he told me that it would be no problem and that he would mail it to me... He still has not mailed me it, but I still have faith, because he was a really nice guy!! 

Have to get the Roommate Picture

So we hopped on the bus for our long 4 hour bus ride to Cork. So frustrated and tired, I power walked as fast as I could up that damn hill and straight into my bed. After a good long night sleep, I woke up and looked over the bus time tables to make sure that it as not my fault for misreading them, only to discover that it was. A weird little number 9 at the top of the schedule denoted that the route we were planning on taking back only ran from May to Sept. 

Moral of the story, read your time tables throughly so you do not have to spend an extra 65 euro on a taxi that may, or may not get you to your connection home! 

So although it was an adventure, it was well worth seeing the Cliffs of Moher, for they are one beautiful sight to see! If ever in Ireland, I would highly recommend them and cross my fingers that you make your connecting bus home!

Until my next adventure....Slàinte!