A Matter of Perspective.

Two people rarely have the same perspective.  I knew that coming here, but it has been fun to see how different cultures influence perspectives. I told my Irish housemate that the rolling green hills and stone walls were my favorite part of Ireland, and she laughed.  She has lived here all her life, so she is used to seeing the countryside, which makes perfect sense if I just think about where I've come from and what I am used to seeing everyday at home. Regardless, I still find it breathtakingly beautiful here and would not mind waking up to this everyday.

Most of the Irish I have spoken to here don't understand why tourists come to Ireland.  Its just rocks and grass right? They find it amusing that Americans come here and spend days and days looking at nothing but castles and cliffs.  You can drive down one road here and pass three ruins of castles. No big deal. I have a hard time explaining how we just don't have things like this in America.  Nothing is really that old there.  That's at least why I find it fascinating.

So I went against all the Irish norms and became a full fledged tourist this weekend.  I took a bus tour around the west coast and it was GORGEOUS.  The weather cooperated, for the most part.  I've gotten used to the 15 minutes of clouds, 10 minutes of rain, 2 minutes of sun cycle that seems to happen every day. We saw some amazing old rocks and beautiful landscapes, so here is my little mini-tour and history lesson of the day.

Leamenagh Castle - 1480 built by Turlogh Dunn (one of the last of the High Kings of Ireland)

Caherconnell Stone Fort- 400 AD (so I guess those stones used to equal a house)

Poulnabrone Dolmen- a tomb (they found 30 bodies here. yuck) 

carbon dating places it from 3000BC

The Burren

The Burren is the landscape that makes up a large portion of County Clare. There's a whole scientific explanation, but I don't know it. So basically its just rocks. Everywhere. But so gorgeous.

Seven rainbows in one day. 

Still looking for a pot of gold. I'm starting to think leprechauns don't actually exist?

Beach anyone?

Cliffs of Moher

Still amazing, even the second time around. 

I could just keep putting up picture upon picture, but I'll show some restraint. I do apologize for this hugely long post, though. Props if you read the entire thing! You now know as much about Ireland as I do. 

Who needs to take a history course, right? I think I learned more on this bus tour than the past two weeks I've sat in my early modern Ireland history lecture.  Maybe I should just skip class and take tours instead? That sounds like a good plan.