The Best Limerick I’ve Ever Seen (Ireland Day 3, Part 1)

Prepare yourself, this one’s a doozy. If I say there will be a quiz at the end will you read it?

Oh, you thought I was going to show you some poetry? That’s awkward. I’m actually referring to a city in Ireland. But before I tell you about Limerick, I need to tell you how my trip on this stressful third day in Ireland started. I bought a ticket from a girl to go on a non-SAS Cliffs of Moher tour that was supposed to start at 6:45am. But since I wasn’t a part of the Facebook group organizing this trip (and because I’m paranoid) I was ready by 6 and walking around the ship in case they decided to meet earlier. Anyway, 6:45 rolls around and it’s just me, Sidney, another girl, and the bus driver on the bus. Then 7:10 goes by and we have no clue where the other 26 people are so we try to contact the guy who organized it and searched the ship for people going on the trip because we were totally prepared to just go on the tour with the four of us since it was already paid for. I run into some girls on the steps (who were very rude to me) and they said that they had received a Facebook message the night before (which is so annoying because WE DON’T HAVE INTERNET ON THE SHIP so unless you were out around 11pm, you would not have gotten the email) and said that we were supposed to leave at 8:30! We tell the bus driver, and eventually people start to trickle out of the ship and Mitch¹ finally drags himself out and talks to the driver. It turns out, he had called the agency and told them we’d be leaving later and that person had not told the bus driver. So let’s recap: at this point I’ve been up for 3 hours and we are just leaving the ship after some miscommunication on everyone’s part that makes me want to play darts with their faces as the targets. I’m sorry you had to read all this, but it gets better, promise.
            After a rocky beginning we start our 4.5 hour drive to the Cliffs of Moher in which I get to nap and chill out a bit. We have a quick photo stop at St. John’s castle before continuing the drive. Right before we stop in the city of Limerick to take a quick break our bus driver tells us a story. Apparently the Irish think that every US President has Irish heritage, so when Obama was voted into office, they began their search. They found out that he has a living cousin 8 times removed, named Henry. They call this cousin Henry the 8th (the nerd inside me cheered) and he runs the service station (gas station, for us American folks) we stopped at. There’s a big picture of Obama inside and if I’m remembering correctly the area was called Obama plaza or something of the sort. After this amusing stop in Limerick (which seems fitting), we were once again on our way to the Cliffs.

            Tour guides who double as bus drivers are wonderful, I’ve decided, because the amount of information they can retain and recite is amazing. I learned about the history of the places we passed and more about cows and their breeds than I ever knew I wanted to on this drive. Eventually we arrived at the Cliffs only to see that we couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of us. CAN YOU SEE WHY THIS DAY REQUIRES MUCH DISCUSSION? So I’d paid some money and survived the drive with a dead ipod only to miss out on the beautiful Cliffs of Moher that I’d been told were a must see when in Ireland. Sidney and I walked around a bit outside and took some pictures of the faint cliffs we could see, but besides two pictures where you can faintly see more than one cliff face, I was sore out of luck. On the bright side, I’ll just have to go back to Ireland right?

1: Name has been changed to protect the annoying 

Sidney & I in front of St. John's Castle 
Our delight at not seeing the Cliffs of Moher 
This is the best picture I got of the Cliffs of Moher

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