Ashley's Visit, Part 2: Cliffs of Moher

Saturday night swing dance ball. Picture stolen from Ashley--www.caminodeashley.blogspot.com. Check it out!

    We went to bed Saturday night after dancing for four hours, and woke up three hours later to depart for the Cliffs of Moher.  While waking up was pure misery, and I couldn't think properly for at least two hours, my motto is to always sacrifice sleep for adventure. And what an adventure we had!
    We had booked the rental car the day before, planning to drive to the Cliffs of Moher in the morning.  It's about a 90-minute drive, which wasn't terrible.  We looked up the rental rates online, and knew we had either used up all our life's luck in one shot, or it was too good to be true.  It was too good to be true. The 14.99 car rental rate online turned into 80 euros in person, which was definitely expensive, but we figured it had to be worth it. After signing all the paperwork, the car man told us that the (very expensive) insurance covered absolutely anything and everything--except tires.  But we were only driving for a few hours; there was nothing to worry about.
    So after blearily stumbling around Galway for half an hour trying to find the parking garage, which was better hidden than the Holy Grail, we drove off into the sunrise.  Although she had been worried about it, Ashley was actually quite a talented left-side-of-the-road driver.

What a pro.

    About twenty minutes into the journey, a strange noise began emanating from the left side of the car, and Ashley and I looked at each other--no way. No. Way.  We then learned what it means to have a good business plan.   You see, Budget Car Rental never has to pay for replacement tires; instead, their unlucky customers do, and we happened to be the unluckiest of them all.
   We had a flat tire.

Very, very flat.

    We wrangled with the new tire for a few minutes, then realized something was wrong when we (read: Ashley) couldn't get the hubcap off. (I tried to help, I really did, but I mostly stood around being cold.)

 
     I then took the duty of flagging down another car upon myself, and may I say, I was a fantastic car-waver.  Some people even waved back. (Much more effective than I would have been at jacking up the car.) Finally, after about ten minutes of enthusiastic waving, one car pulled to the side to help.  A very nice man named Peter came to our rescue, told us that the hubcap we were trying to remove was actually the rim, and proceeded to change the tire for us.  He seemed surprised when we told him how long we'd been trying to get people to help.  When we suggested that folks might be headed to church, he astutely observed that church wouldn't be much good if they weren't even willing to assist two young ladies clearly in need.  He politely refused our offers of help, and when I asked again, he told me with a twinkle in his eye that Ivy Leaguers were managers, not manual laborers, and I should stay back and properly run the operation.
   After Peter got the spare on, we thanked him profusely and were good to go, although we knew we would need a new tire eventually.  We found a lovely bit of boggy land near some kind of castle and took some touristy pictures.

 
     We passed through the Burren, a barren, rocky landscape that looks the moon.

The Burren. Picture stolen from Ashley.

   We drove along the coastal route from Galway to the Cliffs. This picture doesn't do it justice--the water was the kind of aqua blue you only expect in the Caribbean, and contrasted with the grey grey skies and the rocks it was so fiercely lovely.

    And finally we arrived at the Cliffs of Moher. Aside from having a cool name, I'm not so sure what makes them different from any of the other coastal cliffs in Ireland, but I suppose it doesn't really matter. They are beautiful nonetheless.

I have proof I was there!

    It was bitterly cold, but we withstood it for as long as humanly possible, and then headed back home.  We had a long drive ahead of us, and also needed to get that tire fixed.  As it turned out, getting the tire fixed was a bigger problem than we'd thought.  Because it was a Sunday, every normal tire place was closed, and we had to call a tire company that charged an extra 50 euros just to get the guys out there on a Sunday.  That plus the paying for the actual tire made this journey the most expensive trip to the Cliffs of Moher ever conceived. At least we have a story to tell for it!
   We got back to Galway and immediately headed to our second and final swing dance lesson.  This time we learned Lindy Hop, a tricky dance I had never been able to master before.  I have to say, I exceeded my own (very low) expectations for myself; I learned Lindy Hop, and was doing pretty well by the time the end of the three hours rolled around.  In fact, I only fell once during the whole weekend, and that wasn't even my fault--my partner was trying to dip me, but dropped me instead. I guess this means dieting is in order....
    We took the train back to Dublin, and went for dinner as soon as we got there.  We ate at my new favorite pub, wolfing down some excellent Beef and Guinness Stew (me) and Bangers [sausages] and Mash (Ashley).  We lugged all our stuff home, but my backpack was refreshingly light, since we had eaten most of the food I carried.
   Before packing, Ashley revealed a parting gift from the relatives she had recently visited--holy water, taken from a holy well near their farm.  We weren't actually sure what to do with it, so we first drank a sip (because hey, holy water makes you holy, right? I'm sure my intestinal system could use some purification), and then decided to bless our claddagh rings to ensure we'd find good boyfriends/husbands. We weren't sure how to do that either, so we splashed it on our hands and said that we blessed it in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  As a final act of blessing, we made the sign of the cross with our fingers dipped in holy water.  Now, we weren't sure if the fingers went up-down-left-right, or up-down-right-left, so we did it both ways, just to cover all the bases.  Now we are completely blessed, and fully expect a great life from hereon out.