Once upon a time there was a girl who decided to study abroad. She went to the magical Galway where you can drink a pint everyday and never face the consequences. After a night of enchanting celtic music and meeting some Irish lads, she visited the Cliffs of Moher… yeah, I am definitely glorifying it a little bit. I didn’t drink pints and the trad music that night was a track. It was more like Smirnoff by the Spanish Arch too. And the lads? Were slightly drunk and thought I looked like Miranda Cosgrove, but this does not fit the narrative of the day I am going to describe to you, so instead we are going to pretend like it was a magical Irish night that kept me up until 1:30 am before the day I had been waiting my whole life for.
We are taking this back to 4 year ago when I studied abroad in Ireland. A few weeks after I arrived in Galway. I had finally settled in and was ready to see more of Ireland, so I took my first day trip. Only three of my four roommates had arrived because the first years started a bit later, so while I was taking classes, they were still in “OMG I AM IN IRELAND” mode. This meant they were also ready for a day trip, so we found a day tour from Galway to the Cliffs of Moher to take care of the transportation since we didn’t have a car. We booked it through Lally Tour which is a Galway travel agency. It was really well put together and totally worth the cost. It was 65 euros, but that covered visiting the cliffs, the transportation, and having a guid. The guide was fantastic and the tour took us to places we would never have even considered visiting on our own, so we were pleased by the whole experience. Now without further adieu, here is what our tour and day trip to the Cliffs of Moher looked like.
Our tour left Galway at Eyre Square at 10 am. I know that isn’t that early, but it was a Saturday, we were up late the night before, and we had a 30 minute walk to the square, so it was tough. Luckily the excitement of somewhere new kept us going, or at least me going. We had a bus that took us around and it was actually pretty full. With it being September, I think it was still a bit of the tourist season with Europeans still having their summer holidays. I heard a lot of different accents and languages on the bus. They also could have been other international students like us, exploring the country they are now calling home.
After about an hour of driving we hit our first stop of the tour in Kinvara to see one of the most photographed castles in Ireland. Dungaire castle was built by the O’Hynes clan in the early 1500s. It has served many purposes like being the Royal Palace of the King of Connacht, the residence of the Galway mayor, and now serving as a location for banquets and educational sight visits. It does cost money to go inside, which was not included in our tour so we only saw the outside during our little stop here. We had about 15 minutes to walk around and get close up the the castle, but that was about it. It was just fun to see a castle! I hadn’t seen any like this yet during my time in Ireland.
From here we headed straight into the windy roads of the Burren to Aillwee cave. This is something we would never have planned to do on our own in Ireland. I never even considered it to be something you would do in Ireland. I have been to caves in the United States, but it is not something I would work into a European itinerary. The tickets were not included in the price of the tour so it was an optional stop. Those who didn’t go in the cave got to have a little break to get food and drinks. We decided to do it, because why not! It actually was really cool! It wasn’t on the same level as other caves I have been to, but it was really interesting learning about Ireland’s limestone cave. For instance in the cave bones from a European Brown Bear were found from when bears used to roam Ireland. Now there aren’t bears. There actually aren’t really many predators in general. It was also good to learn about the geology and natural history of Ireland too rather than just learning about the culture. We did have tour through the cave so it did go a bit longer than our allotted 30 minutes, but there were many others from our group doing the same thing. We weren’t too worried because it was a well worth stop.
We ended up losing about 30 minutes at the Cliffs of Moher because of leaving the cave late and due to the traffic. Yep the traffic. The curvy country roads in western Ireland are very popular for bikers and it is nearly impossible to go around them on such narrow roads, so our drive from the cave to the cliffs was slow! We were supposed to have 90 minutes at the cliffs, so we still got an hour. I don’t feel like we really were that rushed or missed out on anything though. We had enough time to check out the visitor center, get our pictures with the breathtaking view, and walk the path along the cliffs for a bit. It was really windy and cold so I feel like we couldn’t have handled very much more time out there. At least it didn’t rain, but I was really hoping for it to be sunny for some great pictures. Nevertheless it still was amazing. I think some part of me was hoping for more than it was. I thought it was going to be overwhelming, but it wasn’t. I did feel this way when visiting the cliffs on Inis Mor, which is why I tell people that you have to go there. I didn’t dislike the Cliffs of Moher! I just felt that it gets to be the natural symbol of Ireland, but there are so many more amazing cliffs, hills, and landscapes on the island that are just as if not more beautiful.
We ran out of time to go to the gift shop which was fine because I would be coming back a month later with my parents anyway so I figured I would have time then to do anything else I wanted to do there. We ended up leaving the cliffs around 2:15pm to head to Doolin, the traditional music capital of Ireland. Here we had lunch at the Doolin Hotel, which also was an expense we had to pay on our own. I had the most delicious salad I had ever had. It was a smoked salmon caesar salad. That was the first time I had smoked salmon and I was in love. It is something you absolutely have to try in Ireland.
We didn’t really have time to do anything in Doolin which was a bit sad. I still want to go back some day to really explore it. I stopped here for a meal with my parents too but we were also on a schedule when we went. I want to experience the music culture here. It is known for its trad music and I love trad music. It would be so fun to go to a pub here and listen to a trad session.
We left Doolin around 3:30pm and continued the rest of our tour. We only had one more stop before we were going to be dropped back off in Galway. We were taking the scenic road home through the Burren along the coast. We passed Blackhead lighthouse as well as cute white cottages, rundown castles, stone walls, sheep and cows, and beautiful limestone rock formations and landscape. Now imagine that all with trad music playing in the background. This was probably some of my favorite landscape in Ireland. Actually who am I kidding, they all are my favorite. Everywhere is Ireland is so different yet so beautiful. This trip was definitely how you would envision the rocky wild atlantic coast. It was not as much of meadows and fields as the rest of the country, but also not as mountainous as Connemara. You really just have to look at the pictures to see what I am talking about.
The thing that struck me most was that it was the middle of September and still so green. It is not like that in Minnesota. It definitely feels and looks like fall at this point in the year.
By the time we arrived back in Galway, it was about 5 pm and we were exhausted. I really don’t recommend staying up late the night before a day trip, but we still had fun. We spent the evening talking about the great day we had and all the sillly things that happened the night before. I think this was a glimpse into the experience I was going to have in Ireland. I was going to have so many memories with my friends from all the goofy things we got up to. I was going to see so much beautiful scenery and landscape. And I was going to feel like this is home.
That’s a wrap on my first day trip from Galway during my study abroad. Be sure to check out my Ireland page for more stories from my travels and Ireland and stay tuned for other day trips in Ireland!
The Journal of Wanderlust 