{backpacking 3}: the cliffs of INSANITY!!!

monday june 13, 2011

ahh, dreamy no?

...

okay i'm putting more because i can't resist those eyes like the sea after a storm.

moving along, day three was the bus tour to the cliffs of moher, more commonly known as the cliffs of insanity! from princess bride.  we went with a group called barrett tours because the more popular paddywagon tours don't run on mondays (add that one to the list of things that went wrong in limerick).  barrett tours = a guy and his wife (last name: barrett...who'da guessed) decide they've had enough living in england.  so they move to ireland and buy a bus and start a tour company.  i hope i marry someone who would at least occasionally entertain ideas of doing things like that.  because what with my longing for an ice cream truck, i mean....

on account of the tour was lots of seeing beautiful sights and very few deep thoughts by carolyn, i think the most true-to-the-tour post would be to just let the pictures tell the story.

BUT FIRST.  to get the full effect of the day on the cliffs, you must be listening to this song of the day.  i sang/whistled/hummed/head-sang it allllll the live long lovely day.

(if her voice doesn't melt your heart, you have a rock heart.)

1.  leamenagh castle  (or the signs by the castle, which were cooler than the castle, promise.)

2.  caherconnell stone fort (again, awesome view)

3.  poulnabrone tomb...a burial site from 3800 b.c.  (if this makes you think of lord of the rings, you get a free ice cream when i get my ice cream truck)

4.  gus o'connors pub in doolin

5.  the cliffs of moher

a sound of music moment on the cliffs ("...cuckoo! cuckoo!")

wait wait wait, what was that face, diana?  

(and to think.  it had only been three days at this point and already she was ready to shove me off a cliff.)

6.  waiting for our bus to dublin...pretty diana.  

we met a really cool guy (first real person met) at the bus station who lived in dublin and worked reviewing music for a newspaper.  ginger hair and tan cords.  a plaid shirt and quite the brogue.  we talked music--told him about my love for mumford&sons, to which he rolled his eyes and said he's had about enough of them.  the shock on my face elicited the following: "well, it's like beyonce.  i mean, you guys hear her all the time, so her music isn't that different to you.  that's how mumford & sons is for us."  good point, ginger man.  although i do love me some good beyonce every now and then.

boarded the bus, turned on my eva cassidy, and this is what is got...

and this is why eva cassidy is so important: because she's kind of buried way down deep inside, so when i hear her music, a flood of memories and feelings come back to me.  warm feelings.  feelings i'd imagined up as being tied to vistas similarly imagined.  what "fields of gold" feels like.  not just what it looks like, but what that must feel to be there.  and something in there about a tender-hearted boy and golden summer evenings and falling in love that years and years ago i imagined.  and here i was, riding through evening sun across these fields, remembering those dreams.