Today brought new meaning to the word 'cliff'...

Well today I had intentions to buy a phone and look at apartments but wound up on the Atlantic coast with two Italians. No I wasn't lost. Ireland has decided that Christmas and New Years are just not enough holidays in a row, so they added the Monday after New Years just for the heck of it. So no stores were open and all that little change adds up when calling scores of people to look for a house. Just as I was about to walk back to the hostel I spotted an Italian couple that looked as astray as I was. As we started talking I found that they were staying in the same hostel and they were looking for the bus station. Having nothing better to do, (I love that phrase) I decided to go with and just see where the buses went to.

It turns out that the Cliffs of Moher, something I've been dying to see, were about an hour away so we bought tickets and away we went. The Italian guy's name is Marco, and the girl's name was (no, not Polo) too hard to pronounce. A-something. The bus ride was longer than we thought but that was fine, it really gave me a chance to get out in the 'country' and see some ground. And what did I see you ask? Stone fences, sheep, green grass, palm trees!, cows, more sheep, more stone fences, ocean, little concrete houses painted very bright colors, (I've come to find this to be the typical home), and hills covered entirely with cantelope size stones. Let met tell you, these people will never run out of rocks! Oh, and here and there you'll see a random castle. No big deal. I've never felt like such a hoaky tourist, taking pictures through the bus window of practically everything. But oh well.

An hour and a half later we reached the cliffs. There's a little tourist trap shop and then you walk up the hill, past a little Irish man playing a pipe, and you walk out on this other cliff where if you look to the left you can see the Cliffs of Moher. The only thing I've seen that could possibly make you feel smaller is standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon. In some places these cliffs are over 700 feet high... not quite like the ones in Lincoln, or the 50-footer I flung myself off of this summer on the Jefferson. They are absolutely magestic, rising out of the seafoam they make 10 foot waves at their base look like splashes in a bathtub. I had heard rumors that Ireland 'loses a few tourists' each year to the Cliffs, and I can see why. The wind up there puts eastern Montana to shame. You can just stand and lean into it at about a 45 degree angle (obviously not if you're standing next to the edge). There is a rock wall about 4 feet high to keep the crazy foreigners from being blown off, but there were of course a few geniuses that just had to have their pictures taken from the other side of the wall. Near the top of the path there is a little lookout tower, that looks like it's been there since the dawn of time, but was actually built in 1835 (practically brand new by Ireland's standards). O'Brien's Tower was built to be an observation point for scores of tourists that visited even back then. From the cliffs you can look out and see the Aran Islands; Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer. (Inish is the Irish word for 'island'). You can ferry out there and hike around, there are plenty of old forts, etc. that date back to the 6th & 8th centuries - definitely something that I'll do later. 'A-something' and I hiked up one little trail that there are warning signs for... it's not rude to do, plenty of people go up there - the owners basically just don't want to be liable if someone is blown over the edge. We of course stayed in the area behind the rock wall where it would be near impossible to go over. Some people though were hiking up to the top where there is no rock wall and the trail is basically on the edge of the cliff... a death wish in my opinion. Overall the experience was somewhat surreal. For that past semester I had a picture of these cliffs on my computer screen as a motivation of what was to come next semester, but nothing can compare to standing up there with the wind blowing water all the way up from the foot of the cliffs in amounts that feel like steady rain on your face. In one area there were snowball-size puffs of sea foam swirling around in the air. Looking at the sedimentary layers within the cliff you can't help but wonder what these magnificent faces have witnessed in their time.

And back to the real world... This evening I met Mick's friends Guy and Mark, that I met Saturday night, downtown 'for a pint'. They kept asking me, "What's the craic?" (pronounced crack). I could not for the life of me figure out what they meant, finally I asked. That's basically the Irish way saying what've you been up to, or what's the news. We got into a discussion about politics, etc. and differences in our countries. They were curious about Indian reservations in Montana and weren't quite sure whether they still lived in tepees. And of course they asked me my opinion on George Bush. I explained that I'm kind of middle of the road when it comes to politics and that a lot of people have a hard time deciding in America because you're never sure if you really know the facts. They said that it's really the same way over here, choosing the lesser of two evils. I didn't realize that they had so many political parties, there are several to choose from. They run into the same sorts of problems with people simply voting by party and not actually researching the issues. I guess in America if people vote by party, at least roughly half of people are somewhat satisied since we have essentially two parties. They also explained their views on religion, abortion, and divorce. Divorce was just legalized over here in '95 so it's relatively hard to get one... I guess you have to have been married for so long, separated for so long, etc. They've made it legal to leave the country for abortion (I don't believe they practice them within the borders) but your reason has to be approved ie. rape, young age, etc. Guy also said religion isn't as strong anymore as most people believe it is here. He said maybe roughly 3 in 20 people attends church. Of course all these views are coming from a small handful of people and opinions vary in different groups. We talked for hours but now it's hard to remember everything, I need to take notes! It's also still a little hard to understand every word. I'm getting more used to the accents every day, but like America there are different accents from different regions. In the hostel there are girls from Jersey, Michigan, and Texas and it's amazing just to listen to those different accents side-by-side. When Mark introduced himself I thought he was saying Marrick. I was also introduced to their friends Cormac, Ronan (who bought me my first Guiness in Ireland, and no they don't drink it warm - it's the exact same as the States), Aaron, Frank, and Myra. I'm repeating these names mostly so I'll remember myself! They're all very nice people, Guy and a few others are already planning on coming to Montana for the summer to work with Mick, (who they call Mike).

Well I better wrap this up, it's about 9am here and just finally light outside. I'm going to run downtown and get a phone squared away, I'll post a message tonight with my new number hopefully. I'm pretty proud of myself, I'm really getting to know my way around town fairly well. It's a lot like Bozeman, if you know a couple main streets you'll get the gist. And I can tell you exactly where McDonald's, Subway, and Supermac's (the Irish version of McD's) are at. Speaking of food, I need to go grab my second round of the continental breakfast. All they have to offer is toast and orange juice, so I get up early (I'm wide awake at 7am since that's 12 US time - when I'm usually doing homework) and go through the line three times with breaks in between. Nothing like 6 slices of toast for breakfast! Yes, I'm still a tightwad, but the way I see it I would rather spend money on bus tickets to go see things.

Thank you all for reading, and writing! I was so happy to see 9 messages in my inbox this morning - made my day! Oh, and I adjusted some settings on this website so if you were trying to post a comment before and couldn't, you should be able to now. Love & miss you all, let me know what's happening over there!