the weekend

Saturday
This was a great day!
We started off by waking up really early though. We had to be at the Train station for 6:40am. We left the apartment at 6 for the 20 minute walk. We had brought sandwiches with us for breakfast which we ate while we waited. The train left at 7am. We took the train to Limerick Junction and transfered to another train which took us to Limerick for 9:15.

At that stop we boarded a bus which we stayed on for the rest of the day. Our first stop was Bunratty Castle. It was completed in 1425 and is now restored to its former glory. Everything in the castle was over 500 years old (some furnishings from other parts of the world though). It was neat to see how steep the stairs were and how high ceilings were. We learned where the phrase "turn the tables on you" came from. They had a long table which one side was smooth and the other was rougher. If you were not as welcome or they didnt like you at all they turned the tables. You knew then what they thought of you. Theres a whole village set up there as well with a blacksmith and others.

We took a lunch stop at O'Connor's Pub in Doolin. they were almost faster then McDonald's. We found a table, went to the bar, ordered, sat back down and 3 minutes later our food was delivered. Isn't that crazy?
From there we went to the Cliffs of Moher. These are really really tall! Aparently they are among the highest sea cliffs in Western Europe. And I guess a lot of people have fallen off these cliffs including a mother and 2 year old son (suicide) last month. There are a lot of the type of signs around with "call this number if you need to talk."

On the way to Galway we stopped along the burren. This was pretty cool as well as a bit boring. It means "rocky place" and that exactly what it is. A lot of limestone. No grass or anything. Well there were some flowers. In the outline of the day they included this quote from 1649 by one of Oliver Cromwells men: "No tree to hang a man, no water deep enough to drown him and no soil deep enough to bury him." I have some photos that I will upload.

An hour later we were in Galway with 40 minutes til our train. We sat in a nearby park until it started to rain and we were ready to start lining up for the train. We arrived home at just before 9pm. We came home and went to bed.

Sunday
We slept in. That was nice :) I like sleeping.

When we got up we headed over to the Charles Beaty Library. We first stopped at a fish and chip place. It was good but nothing too exceptional, very greasy.

At the library they had some really old documents from Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.
Since I wasn't feeling too well from the grease we didnt stay too long. We did look at all the documents from Christianity. They have what was known to be the oldest documents from the letters of the apostles until the Dead Sea Scrolls where found. There was a lot of cool things like that there. They also had a really old Qur'an and thats about how far we got.

We then got some groceries and then came home.

Monday

Dave went off to work after I made him bacon and eggs. I stayed home and did laundry.
We went for supper at a place called Odessa. It was a nice restaurant. They had really really good food. I recommend it if anyone gets out here.