oh hey!! The last few days have been very activities go go go.
On Friday we woke up early early to go do the Cliffs Of Moher at the off peak hours!! Was absolutely incredible but also you know when you see something so wild and stunning that it doesn’t look real? It really didn’t seem real at all. Grum is a big bird girl so she rented some binoculars at the visitor centre!! Didn’t expect it but we got to see puffins!!!!! If you ever go highly recommend you go in the morning and get binoculars bc people were passing us not really knowing and just missing out. Puffins are so cute and small with their lil orange feet’s!! They are surprisingly fast fliers too!! We walked around the edge of the cliffs and again it was one of those times where you think you got a great view and you walk 5 metres and it’s SURPRISE!! An even better one. And repeat. But honestly so so beautiful!! The walk along the edge tho is quite scary bc you are walking along an electric fence which… seems like a hazard. Loved it!! I really wanted a sticker from there but Ireland stickers aren’t really a thing it seems? Overall cliffs were better than imagined but also too good to believe. The puffin experience was so unexpected and we really got lucky with the weather!!! Sunny and then overcast.
After cliffs we went grocery shopping and then hopped in the car to go to this verrry interesting experience at Ailwee Cave - they had caves to explore, a Birds of Prey centre and cheese making?? All in one. We first hit up the Birds of Prey centre and omg it was a blast. We made it for the demonstration and Grum and I got to hold some birds bc we answered some questions right!! We fell in love with this barn owl named Jess. He was so cute and what a star. We learned about the importance of vultures to the world, and that they are unfortunately dying at a rapid rate. We saw this cute raven, Lune, that was taken in as a baby and raised here. He loves to play and is as smart as a 6 year old child. He was so cute. We talked to the people working there asking some questions and chatting with them and then it was CAVE TIME. Almost forgot bc so invested in birds. The caves were awesome to see!! They were naturally formed from flowing water millions of years ago and then bears would hibernate there. The man who found it in 1940, didn’t tell people about it and he discovered by crawling through with only candles and matches. Terrifying. Our guide was so sweet and had the calmest presence. You could tell that he was passionate about his work. He was patient and answered all our questions (sorry other group). We saw some fossils and he also explained a cute lil bat called Lesser Horshoe Bat uses the caves!! So cute so small. It was running late so cheese making was off the menu but we got to sample some!! We headed back home for the night, made pasta and watched a movie. We also started panicking bc the more we thought about it the more the birds of prey centre may have not been that ethical? Not sure bc raptoring is different here but they used the terms “conservation” for education and … not loving it.
The next day we woke up and it was a big drive day to Dingle Penninsula!!! We headed to these very cool old ruins where you kinda had to fight through the bushes but we got there!!! Super cool to see the ivy take over. Wild to imagine how big it is when it was full. I imagined how it must’ve been as a knight!! On a horse.
Very random thought but I have seen so many magical grey horses!! You’re right, Grandma they are very special.
From there we started on the trek to Conor’s pass!! This “really dangerous and scary road” through mountains. We stopped by a beach and DAMN I really don’t think people are talking about Irish beach’s enough. So so vast and wide and beautiful shells and sand with mountains in the back. So beautiful. We went to a lil path with the beautiful Irish mountains in the clouds in the back. There were all of these cute purple flowers and I learned they are Purple Foxgloves. We got to this part right before Conor’s pass and damn the photos don’t do it justice…. The mountains were STUNNING. The fog!! The mountains!! So so incredible and we hiked up to this tiny baby lake. It was then time to take on the pass and it was not as narrow or dangerous as we thought. It was also a fifth of the length but it started raining and misting a bit which was kinda cool. J is a pro at this point so. We made it to dingle and it’s a very cool lil beach town!! The houses are fun colours and all kinda the same. We went to this interesting place for dinner, where we sat at weird couch on tiny table. The man was a character. Apparently the Irish love Justin Trudeau so that’s cool. I had a pizza on like a crispy dough and a good glass of wine. We then picked up chips (or crisps I guess) to take back to the Airbnb. I picked up Monster Munch to try bc I have always been curious (I actually really like it - if you like dill pickle chips you will like this). This is when the night turned … interesting.
The Airbnb is super cute, very big and modern. We put on a movie and were laughing joking having fun (living, laughing, loving) when we get a knock on this random door which we thought was just for maintenance and the host comes in saying we were being waaayyy too loud and that they got many complaints. Poor grum was the only one in that room so had to handle it alone and she was upside down on the couch. Just apologizing her ass off. We really think she thought we were having a party so it’s kinda funny we were … not. Anyways kinda started panicking bc felt so bad but it was also only 11? On a Saturday? But anyways it was kinda scary she just entered, didn’t message or call first. Then we discovered big big spiders in both bedrooms so J wasn’t going to be able to sleep. We tried to problem solve, and they were tooooo big to move. But we figured it out when Grum offered to sleep with her in her bed in one of the rooms. It was quite late so we all passed out and got a sleep in.
This brings us to today (damn this is longer than we thought). We all got up at like 11 after the festivities. Took it slow and went into Dingle to explore. Big shopping day, and wandering around. Such cute lil spots here!! It reaaalallly helps to only have a backpack with me so it limits what I can bring or buy. Very nice fleeces and very cute posters. We then went on another “dangerous pass” and wow the VIEWS!! The cliffs!! The beaches!! We kept finding lookout spots and just went around the penninsula. It was incredible. Such lovely mountains and views. Also there are so many van life people here love to see it!! Would be so fun to do my dream with Ian of a juice and coffee van here. I think these are some of the mountains featured in Star Wars The Force Awakens!! Similar problem as cliffs of Moher, you walk 2 steps and go “totally different need it form this angle”. And now you have 2000 that look the absolute same so.
Forgot to mention we ran into our Airbnb host and she was so funny. We messaged this morning to say sorry again for noise and to message if we are loud again. She R bombed us. And then when we saw her today she was so smiley and acted like it was no big deal, the people were family and that they are gone so we can be as LOUD as we like tonight. Very odd ahaha but glad she doesn’t hate us.
Grum made us pasta for dinner and then we went back to the view point bc GUESS WHAT we didn’t get sunset pics. So now we r have 3000 of the same thing. The sunset really was beautiful tho so glad we saw it!!!
Other random thing to note is the door is impossible to lock and open. Always a toss up here idk what it is.
Some images
