Republic of Ireland: Aran Islands, Cliffs of Moher and Blarney Stone

On July 22rd we left Northern Ireland and traveled to Galway, in the Republic of Ireland. We only had a few hours to explore the city, and from what I saw of the city I enjoyed it.  At this point in the trip I was getting annoyed with Contiki (the tour group that I was traveling with). We had been visiting many cool cities and sites, but we weren’t given too much time to actually explore them in detail. We had approximately 1-2 hours in Galway, which in my opinion is not nearly enough time to visit a city and get a good sense of the area. Either way, since I was unable to change this fact, I made the best of it and took my little time in Galway to explore the pubs and shops along the main street. They have a pedestrian area downtown that is full of pubs and stores and lots of souvenir shops. Below are some photos I took of the city.

There are also a lot of jewellery shops selling the traditional Irish Claddagh ring. This ring depicts two hands holding a heart with a crown on top of the heart. The hands represent friendship, the heart represents love and the crown represents loyalty. The ring can be worn on either hand and with the heart facing either towards or away from you – all depending on your relationship situation. If you are single then the ring is worn on your right hand with the heart facing away from you (so the pointy part of the heart is facing out - it looks like the ring is upside down). If you are in a relationship but not engaged then the ring is worn on your right hand but with the heart facing you, so the pointy part of the heart is facing down towards your wrist. If you are engaged then the ring is worn on your left hand with the heart facing away from you, and if you are married then the ring is worn on your left hand with the heart facing towards you. The origins of this ring come from the village of Claddagh which is part of Galway City, and many rings are passed down through generations of family members.

The following day we spent the whole day exploring one of the Aran Islands. This was probably the best day I’ve had since arriving in the UK. The Aran islands are a group of 3 islands off the west coast of the Republic of Ireland. We only had time to visit one of them, and we spent all day on that island exploring it by bicycle. The island was just beautiful! I really enjoyed biking along the water, past cows and horses, beaches, rocks and cliffs.

Biking along the paths and through the fields was so peaceful and beautiful.

We saw many animals along the route as well.

On one side of the island there is a large fort on top of a massive cliff. We climbed up to the fort to explore the cliffs. They were really cool – and very scary! There is no barrier to stop people from falling off the cliffs and down onto the rocks below!

The following day (July 24th) we headed off to visit the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland’s most visited natural attraction. These cliffs are about 214m high (at their highest point), and they are much larger than the cliffs we saw on Aran islands!

After visiting these cliffs I was able to compare/contrast them to the ones on Aran Island. Although the Cliffs of Moher are much larger than the cliffs on the Aran islands, I liked the Aran island cliffs better – mainly because we were able to get closer to the Aran island cliffs.  For the Cliffs of Moher we had to stand behind barriers and could only see the cliffs from afar. I understand that this is done for safety reasons, but I did really enjoy getting right up to the cliffs edge on Aran islands!

Our next stop was Blarney Castle, home of the famous Blarney Stone. This castle was built by the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty and dates back to 1446.

The main attraction while visiting the castle is the Blarney Stone, which is a famous stone that, according to legend, will give the kisser the “gift of the gab”, meaning that it will give them the gift of eloquent speech. Once you enter the castle, you must climb up narrow staircases and through narrow passageways in order to get to the top of the castle, and to find the Blarney Stone.

 

Once we reached the top there was a long line up of people waiting to kiss the stone, and there were two attendants manning the stone. One was to man the camera (you can buy a souvenir photo of the kiss) and the other holding tourists as they are kissing the stone (just so they don’t fall through the hole!). After every few people the stone is sanitized. 

Kissing the stone is pretty awkward; you must lie down, grab on to two metals bars and lean upside-down and kiss a wet shiny area of the stone. Hopefully it was all worth it and I have now been blessed with eloquence!

We slept in Cork that night, and the following day continued making our way through Ireland.

Northern Ireland: Belfast, Derry and Giant’s Causeway

On July 19th we left the Scottish Highlands and traveled to Glasgow. Unfortunately by the time we arrived in the city there was very little time in the city to do anything other than have dinner and explore the nightlife. The following morning we left Scotland and traveled to Ireland by ferry. It took us the majority of the day to travel from Glasgow to Dublin, and again we had little time to explore Dublin by day – I felt ok about that though since I will be returning to Dublin in about 5 or so days before I go back to London.

On July 21st we went back to regular touring, and we traveled to Belfast – in Northern Ireland, and the home of many struggles and conflict that continue today. It was a very sobering visit and I was able to see first hand many of the struggles that the people of Belfast are still going through. Without going into too much detail about the history I will try to give a brief synopsis. The main issue that caused the decades of conflict and violence in Belfast has to do with different opinions between two distinct groups: The Unionists (or loyalists, or Protestants) and the Nationalists (or republicans or Catholics). The Unionists were mostly Protestant and they wanted Northern Ireland to stay within the United Kingdom, while the Nationalists, who were mostly Catholic, did not want to be part of the United Kingdom and wanted a free and united Ireland.

Today the Unionists and Nationalists groups still exist and the conflict is still very present in the city (although now the conflict is not violent). The city is divided into two halves, one for the Unionists and one for the Nationalists, and between the two halves is a large wall. During the day there are gates open in the wall to cross over from one side to the other, but at night the gates are locked and everyone retreats to their separate side. People on one side of the wall do not associate much with people on the other side of the wall. Unionist children go to school with other Unionist children, and Nationalist children go to school with other Nationalist children.

We took a tour of the city (by bus) and were able to drive through the two sides. Below is a photo of the wall that separates the two sides, most of which is covered in graffiti.

One of the gates to cross from one side to the other:

Throughout the city, on both sides of the wall, you can see murals depicting the viewpoints of either side.

The city does not feel “warm”, welcoming or safe. Many fences (for regular property) have barbed wires or sharp tops so that people will not climb the fence.

I found my visit to Belfast really sad, I had heard about the conflict in Northern Ireland, but I did not realize to what extent it was currently impacting the people of the city. I was so surprised to see the wall, and to learn that the people of the city do not want to remove the wall. They are estimating it may take another 10 years for the wall to come down.

Belfast is also known for being the location of where the famous ship Titanic was built, and because of this they have an enormous Titanic museum. Unfortunately we did not have enough time to visit inside the museum, but we visited outside the building. The building was designed at a height to demonstrate how tall the ship was if you were standing at the bottom and looking up at the ship.

Later that day we visited Derry (also known as Londonderry). This is a city in Northern Ireland where many of the conflicts are also still taking place. The city is divided in two parts, just as it was in Belfast. We had a very interesting tour guide who took us on a walking tour through the city and explained many of the conflicts and how they are currently impacting people. Our tour guide was a Buddhist Irish, which gave him an interesting viewpoint (since he was neither protestant nor catholic). We learned the difference between calling the city Derry and Londonderry – if someone calls the city Derry it means that they are Nationalists (or Catholics), and if they call the city Londonderry then it means they are Unionists (or Protestant). Our guide explained that when someone meets a new person, in order to determine which side they are on they will ask some sort of question or turn the topic to the city name in order to find out whether they call the city Londonderry or Derry.

Our tour manager told us to be careful when talking to locals, and not to take any side, or to discuss politics with anyone! We were also told not to dress wearing a Union Jack flag or have anything that would indicate which side we preferred.

Our tour guide explained how separated the city still is (like Belfast), and that people live parallel lives on either side of the wall – where children grow up on their side of the wall, only going to school with other children on their own side. He explained that the people of the city also do not want the wall to come down and, as in Belfast, it could take another 10 years for the wall to be removed. In order for this to happen, he explained that children of both sides need to start growing up together and attending the same schools. Teaching children under one curriculum poses it’s own set of problems – how do you teach children the history of their city when one side believes strongly in their freedom fighters while the other side believes these freedom fighters are terrorists?

Below is a photo of the wall separating the two sides in Derry/Londonderry

 

As we walked into the Catholics/Nationalists area of the city we could see large murals welcoming us to “Free Derry”.

As in Belfast, there were many murals on the walls throughout the city.

Visiting Derry/Londonderry was an interesting experience and I was glad I had the chance to hear more perspectives on the conflict from our local tour guide.

To break up the mood of the day we left these cities and visited an incredible site: the Giant’s Causeway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom. This incredible site has hundreds of hexagonal interlocking columns at different heights, leading from the cliffs into the sea.

We had to hike about 15 minutes in order to reach the causeway, and along the route we had a very picturesque view of the sea.

We finally reached the causeway and it was amazing to see the columns. I found it incredible that they were formed naturally!

There is a legend associated with the how the causeway was formed, and the story goes that the columns are the remains of a causeway built by an Irish giant (Finn MacCool) in order to cross the North Channel to get to Scotland to fight a Scottish giant Benandonner. There are different versions of the legend, but the common theme is that Benandonner crosses the causeway and finds Finn’s wife who introduces Finn as her baby son. Benandonner recons that if Finn’s baby was so large then Finn must be an enormous giant, and he flees back to Scotland in fright and destroys the causeway behind him so Finn could not follow him back to Scotland. Whether or not you believe in legends, the causeway is an incredible sight, and photos do not do it justice!

My stay in Northern Ireland was really good. I learned a lot about the conflicts the Irish have gone through, and I also saw the most incredible natural wonder in the UK. I’m not sure I would visit Belfast or Derry again, but I am happy I was able to see first-hand the impacts of the conflict on the people of Northern Ireland.

Scotland: The Highlands

On July 17th we left Edinburgh and traveled north to the Scottish Highlands. Our first stop was the city of St Andrews, famous for being the meeting place of Prince William and Kate Middleton while they were attending university there. The town is very much a university town, and as you walk through the streets almost every second building is associated with the university. St Andrews is also known as the “home of golf”, and this is because the Royal and Ancient Golf Club is located there, and this club has legislative authority over golf worldwide (except in the US and Mexico).

While in St Andrews we visited the St Andrews Cathedral, a Roman Catholic Cathedral built in 1158 that is now in ruins. Although it’s in ruins now, it was the largest church ever built in Scotland. Walking around the ruins and remaining cemetery was actually very pretty.

I liked the buildings in the town, many of them were old and historic and others were newly built but still had the “historic” feel to them.

St Andrews is located right on the water, so it has a beach, which for UK standards is pretty beach (but since I had just spent over a week on the beaches of Croatia I was missing the beautifully clear warm waters from there!)

That evening we made our way to the town of Inverness on the shores of the Loch Ness. Our hotel was right beside Nessieland – a museum dedicated to the mysterious Loch Ness Monster (also known as “Nessie”) which is believed to live in the Loch Ness. Evidence of the existence of this monster is much debated, and there is very minimal photographic evidence (almost all photographic evidence has been found to be manipulated). It is believed by many that Nessie lives deep in the Loch Ness, maybe hiding within one of the underwater caves. The Loch Ness is 812 feet deep, and the volume of the lake exceeds the combined total volume of all other lakes in Scotland, England and Wales, so the idea that Nessie is living somewhere in this vast amount of water could very well be possible, but has never been proven. None the less, we had a lot of fun exploring the museum and the life-sized representations of Nessie!

The following morning we took a boat cruise on the Loch Ness – just to see if we could spot Nessie ourselves. The cruise took us along the shores of the Loch Ness and we could see the beautiful green hillside surrounding the lake.

The boat took us right past Urquhart Castle, a castle now in ruins after it was destroyed in 1692 by government soldiers. First records of this castle date back to the 13th century, and the castle has changed hands over the years between the Scottish and the English.

While in the boat we had a little visit from a duck and her little ducklings!

On our drive through the Scottish Highlands we stopped at Eilean Donan Castle, a famous castle that often appears in photos of Scotland. It is located on a small island (the “Island of Donnan”), connected by a stone bridge. The castle was founded in the 13th century, and has since been reconstructed.

I loved driving through the highlands! It was just beautiful everywhere you looked!

We drove to the Isle of Skye, an island off the coast of the West Highlands of Scotland. It is covered in hills and makes for very picturesque scenery!

We ate lunch of traditional Fish and Chips on the Isle of Skye, and we ate our food overlooking the water. The only problem with this was that the area is full of seagulls, who sit around and wait for food – and they get really aggressive! One seagull swooped down and attacked the fish and chips of one guy on our tour. We had to constantly watch your food and protect it from the seagulls! Apart from the vicious seagulls, it was a wonderful lunch!

We spent the evening/night in the town of Oban, right on the water, and had amazing views of the sea.

That evening we attended a Scottish dancing show, where we watched Scottish dancing and we learned a few moves ourselves!

I really enjoyed the Highlands of Scotland! The landscape was beautiful with tons of greenery and hills. Now… onward to Ireland!