West Ire 1: Dublin, Athlone, The Burren, Poulnabrone Dolmen, Lisdoonvarna, Cliffs of Moher, and Doolin

Western Ireland field trip. Champlain College study abroad program runs two field trips for the students each semester, one to Western Ireland, and one to Northern Ireland. This past weekend was the first one to the West.

Friday morning 43 of us collegiates piled into a very nice leather interior coach bus with a wonderful driver named Frankie and started our weekend journey. We left Dublin around 8:30 am and made our first pit stop in Athlone. We all stocked up on some snacks from the gas station, chips from McDonalds, and said goodbye to the last ATM we would see until Galway. We piled back on the coach and continued on to the Burren.

After seeing so many rolling green hills, and more cows than I  thought there ever was, we made our way into the Burren. The Burren no longer is an area of rolling green hills, it is all rock. Some hills make up the Burren but there is not much green to be seen.

Just before the hilltop there is a church we stopped at just to see the architecture and the graves. Really cool place thriving with history and an even cooler place to take pictures.

The ceiling or top of the Church

Grave through a grave

The roomates Ellen, Anna, and Tara

The Burren is a world acclaimed geographic site due to the limestone rocks and the tombs.The whole area is valleys and mountains that are covered in limestone rocks. The interesting part about limestone is that the water goes all the way through the limestone and follows underground waterways instead of an above ground runoff.

At what is called Poulnabrone Dolmen is a stretch of limestone rocks, sunken tombs, and freestanding tombs. It is a really neat place to walk around. A large group of us had a fun time being children again and played the lava game, where anything green was lava and so we could only step on the rocks. It was also just a nice educational place to get off the bus, stretch our legs, and be kids again. After a few students had their names created in old latin scripture on a pieces of handmade metal from the wizard there, we got back on the bus and headed for Lisdoonvarna.

In the month of September in Lisdoonvarna takes place Europe's largest singles fest. So each year the staff of Champlain like to see how many marriage invitations the group can get. Oh, did I mention this singles festival is usually for those above the age of 50 and 60....but the staff also encourages everyone to go into the pubs and watch and join some of the group dancing that happens, dance with people, or even make someone's day asking them to dance. I didn't get to explore the town too much because I was doing some RA duties and helping to buy lunch for the next two days, but it just looked like a cute place and one I would like to walk through again.

After getting back on the bus yet again we had a short 30-45 minute ride to the Cliffs of Moher. We were given about an hour to explore and my goodness it was so not enough time.  The cliffs are beautiful and while I was scared out of my mind, I could not stop taking it all in. To my left was rolling hills and fields with cow and sheep leading down to a seaside town. To my right was a 600 foot drop down into the Atlantic Ocean. Absolutely amazing views, and breathtaking drops that I was very careful to avoid.

Stunning

The narrow path with tow very different sides

Breathtaking

Gorgeous

looking below

Again we got back on the bus for a quick hour trip to Doolin. We arrived in this small town that literally just smelled of sheep and cow, and were told to meet at 7pm for dinner.

We had just under three hours to explore this hole in the wall. I made my way to The Sweater Shop, in hopes of getting my mother the perfect sweater for christmas, my own sweater, and a blanket to keep me warm.




After getting all three items I made my way towards the bottom of the cliffs and just couldn't believe the view.
 

Before I knew it, it was dinner time, so we all made our way to McDermott's. Sorry mom but I got Chicken Goujons again, but I heard the beef stew was very good, don't worry though I got some Irish Cider to be more Irish. Some of the girls and I went out again after dinner to Fitz's Pub and got to hear some traditional Irish Music and drink some house specials beers on tap. (I had the Dooliner, an Irish Red Beer). We turned in early that night because it had been a long day and we knew that we had to be up early again tomorrow for another adventure of a day.

The two Hostels in Doolin everyone stayed at

I stayed in this building!