The Cliffs of Mohr. . .and More

Good morning peeps!!! First, I hope every mom reading this had a great Mother's Day and some one spoiled you a bit (or you spoiled yourself). Alright, well now that I'm all rested and mostly recovered, I'll re-cap my trip from yesterday:

The tour people were picking me up at my hostel a little after 7a.m. What that meant was my handy-dandy alarm clock would be going off at 6 a.m. (for some reason it can only do the alarm on the hour - still, better than nothing). I've apparently forgotten what 3:30 a.m. feels like. 3:30? Yup -- there was an alarm going off and it sounded like a fire alarm right in the middle of the night. I wasn't the only one out bed opening the doors to see what was going on. It turns out the alarm wasn't even from our building, but the building across the street. Some security alarm got tripped and I guess it wasn't important enough for them to shut off. After that, no matter how hard I tried, I never really fell back to sleep. I was up before my alarm even went off.

I got picked up and on the bus (it was about a 2 1/2 bus ride to Galway) where we changed buses and went for about another hour to the Burren. The tour I took was the MacCoole Tour. It's this family who runs a tour to the Cliffs of Mohr and you get to visit their family farm. Legitimately their family farm. I think they said it's been theirs for about 300 years. The farm is located in the Burren. It's this area of Ireland the translation roughly means "The land of rocks and fertile soil." Which is true. The entire area looks likes it's covered in nothing but rocks, but when you go hiking through it you can see there is a ton of land in between the rocks. And the soil is the driest in Ireland (dry soil, I know), but the rivers in that area are underground, which makes their soil about the most fertile in the entire country. It's worth a ton to own that land.

You guys, the landscape was beyond beautiful. If you want to talk about Heaven on Earth and God's creation, this was it. The fields were a brilliant green, with fences made of nothing but rock on rock that keep cows and sheep in, dividing farmlands, and a very faint smell of fresh country earth all around, but not over powering. It was gray with patches of sun, but the dark clouds did nothing more than exaggerate all the colors making them even more brilliant. And it was quiet.

On our walking tour up their (what they call Mountain - more like a bluff) the guys who were showing us around had everyone lay down on a comfortable piece of grass and just be silent for about two minutes. It was probably two of the best minutes of my life: the wind was exceptionally strong yesterday so it blocked any sound out, and if you closed your eyes you even forgot where you were. I forgot there were 30 other people around me. I could have stayed on that hill listening to the wind. It was such the perfect place to not care about anything.

After our walk back down, we went into their grandmother's house (she's passed away, but rather than sell her house or move into it, they've left it mostly the same) and got their mom's home made pies and cakes and coffee and apple cider. Their mom bakes all the stuff they serve in their grandmother's house. And you just sit in the rooms. It was so homey and while I thought perhaps they were trying to commercialize "the family farm" it was clear to see that these guys are a real family and they work hard to keep what they have. One of the cousins actually sang us an Irish ballad/tale while were were eating our pies and drinking cider. It was so entertaining. And the way they picked on each other and goofed around reminded me so much of my family. You can't fake that sort of bond. It's there or it isn't. I was actually sad when we had to leave -- it was great to feel a 'home' atmosphere.

After that we drove about another 45 minutes to the Cliffs of Mohr. Alright, here it is. I did jump the "do not cross signs" but I did not sit on the ledge. I got pretty darn close, but the wind in Ireland was extremely bad. If you want to know how bad, stand your ground as hard as you can and have someone try to push you forward from behind. It was actually picking up my camera bag, while the camera was in it. I have a heavy camera. I got some pictures, but not nearly as many as I would have liked - there were little rocks flying through the air with sand, and I didn't really want my camera lens cracked or scratched. That, and I was getting sand in my eyes too. But, all of that aside, the Cliffs are beautiful. I know we have a bunch of man made things that are extraordinary, but nothing can compare to amazing sights we have from the earth itself.

I have to admit that yesterday, despite all of the amazing things, I was feeling a bit lonely. Everyone on the tour was with their boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife, or a bunch of friends. It wasn't that I didn't talk with anyone, and everyone was friendly, but at the end of the day I was still by myself. I haven't really felt like that in awhile so I was struggling a bit again. And I've noticed I have this huge flaw and I realize now how debilitating it is: I have a Panic Button. I was on the bus ride back to Galway and we needed to catch our other bus back home. And all they had said was it was in the City Centre. I was freaking myself out thing "How am I going to find my bus if they just drop us on the side of the road?" "Am I going to be able to find it in an hour before it leaves?" And realistically I know that I could always ask the bus driver for directions and there are people around, but I can't stop these horrible panicked thoughts from getting in my head. And then I obsess over them. I know that feeling lonely didn't help with the panic because I was feeling a bit down anyway, but I know now that's something I've got to get a handle on. I didn't really know before how much it affects me, but it does.

So tomorrow I have another Ryanair flight from Dublin to Liverpool. My flight is at about 5/5:30 and it's only 45 minutes. I'm trying really hard to feel positive about the flight since I've already done one before, but I'm afraid that if I start thinking things are going to go well and I'm not worried, then something will of course go horribly wrong. But it's short flight and I have a bus picking me up very early so I have plenty of time when I get there to figure it out. And I'm just going to spring for a taxi from the airport in Liverpool to my hostel. And bonus, I already have my train ticket from Liverpool to London for Friday. I'm just going to book my hostel later today. It's weird because it's the last one I'm going to book.

Have a absolutely fantastic day! I'm jealous of your weather. I've been wearing wool socks here every night.