Today for Irish Studies we learned about the neolithic man in Ireland which was pretty neat. There are all these tombs around Ireland from different times and they're all different kinds too. After that we had a break for tea (that happens a lot here) and after about an hour we left for our afternoon out and about in the Burren. This is what happens every week in Irish Studies, but this is the first week where it hasn't been a soft day or just plain raining. In fact it was BEAUTIFUL out today. There were barely any clouds to be seen all day long. Gordon D'Arcy, our teacher, is freaking amazing because he's in his 60s and he hikes all over the place like he was twenty something. He decided that we were going to go on this hike up to see a caern on top of one of the hills near Ballyvaughan that's about 3 to 4 thousand years old. A caern (spelling may or may not be correct on that one) is just a pile of rocks in any shape or form, and that fact may or may not be correct. Anyways, he dropped this bomb saying that we were going to go on a hike and then told us that it's 6 miles and going to be a couple of hours. I just got really excited about the whole thing, We normally only go on a bus around and get out at random times, but this was going to just be us walking. Then we left finally heading to Bell Harbour, one town over, to head up this hill (when I say hill I really think I should be saying mountain because they are huge but everyone around here says that they are just hills).
We started out at about 12:30 on a cattle herding path up, up, up the hill. It's all pretty much grass and mud at this point. We don't really stop until about a half hour in. We stopped at this holy well (there are a lot of them all over the Burren and Ireland) and rested for about 15 minutes. Then we were off again. Still kind of on soft ground that rapidly turned into limestone. It's so hard to explain how it was up there. We climbed over one of the many many walls and started to ascend into oblivion. We had to pretty much find our way up these huge cliffs. It actually was much easier than it looked, but it was still hard. Everytime we got over one of these cliffs there was another one to climb. They just kept surprising us. I seriously think we went over at least 6 or 7 each time thinking that it was the last. Finally after probably a half hour or more of trying to climb up these we were on flatish land and stayed there for a while. We walked around this enclosed area (probably about a quarter of a mile across maybe more and once we were done hearing what Gordon had to say (which I never really heard because he was always waaay too far ahead of me for me to hear, seriously he's like a 60 year old goat) we started up some more steep landscape. There weren't too many other cliffs but it was very hard to walk up. Even though it was less rocky, on top, it still was really hard to walk on. There was just grass on top of this rough landscape which meant that there were plenty of places to fall into a crevace or hole that didn't seem to be there until you were on top of it. Once we were finally at the top we were at the caern. This is where we had some lunch. We were there for about 20 to 30 minutes before heading back down. It was amazing. You could see everything. All around. Once we were done eating and relaxing we decided to make the descent. It was so difficult. There were the same steep cliffs going down that there were going up. You had to be strategic. I fell a couple of times and I have scratches all over my hands and arms from the thorny bushes and sharp rocks. I don't know how long it took to get back down but the loose rock beneath our feet probably didn't help. When we finally got back down to the bus it was about 4:30. We were hiking for 4 hours which is just amazing to me. It felt like so long but at the same time seemed shorter than 4 hours.
On the bus I felt the need to reflect on what had just happened. Also I was really glad to be back on steady ground. I rolled my ankles quite a bit. And also almost fell straight into a rock so when I caught myself it really messed up my arms and back. I ached all over but it was worth it totally. When we got back to the house we all relaxed in the kitchen and then watched The Gremlins. In the middle of the movie one of our housemates, Isa, came in from outside and said that we needed to see the moon. We went outside and it was one of the coolest things that I had ever seen. The moon all orange and yellow rising above the misty blue mountains in the purple blue sky. I can't even explain it. We stood out there for about 5 minutes just watching it. That was probably the perfect ending to a great day. Upon reflection I can't believe all of the stuff that I did and to be perfectly honest I am proud of myself for doing it. Even when it got really hard I kept going and I'm so glad to have done it. It's been a good day.
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