How to See the Cliffs of Moher & The Burren

The Cliffs of Moher and the national park of Burren are the most visited nature attractions in Ireland, and that's for a reason. But how do you get around rural west Ireland if the idea of driving on the left terrifies you, or if renting a car is out of the question? We hopped on a bus of Galway Tour Company that took us to the Cliffs of Moher tour from Galway. Here's everything you need to know!

Galway Tour Company offers many different varieties of their tours to go and check out this magnificent piece of cliff, but we took the Cliffs of Moher and The Burren one, since it was offered with a discount by our hostel. The price is 30€ for adults, 25€ for students and seniors, and 20€ for children. In 8 hours you get bused around the coast with a very, very talkative tour guide who might make you sing if you're late from the bus. Be prepared.

Important: since we're in Ireland, make sure to dress properly! The weather gets infernal at the cliffs, so make sure to have good shoes, preferably boots since the pathways are muddy, and a good coat. If you're visiting outside of the summer season, save your ears and take a beanie with you. And hold it tight.

DUNGUAIRE CASTLE

Our first stop was by the Dunguaire Castle close to Kinvarra. The castle originates from the 16th century and got its name from the Dun of King Guaire, the king of Connaght. Our 15 minutes was spent by admiring the impressively low tide (seen in the photo below!) and trying to circle around the castle like a hoard of lemmings. Back to the bus we go.

The barren landscape of the Burren is astonishing. Our enthusiastic tour guide Gary was able to tell us that all of this used to be under water millions of years ago, thus all the limestone.

POULNABRONE DOLMEN

Now that you guys are in Ireland, you better get used to these seemingly impossible gaelic names! The second stop was Poulnabrone Dolmen, one of the 174 portal tombs in Ireland. It dates back to the Neolithic period, approximately between 4200 BC and 2900 BC. So damn old.

This is the closest you can get: as you can see, it's circled with a rope fence. Some time ago a group of idiots decided it'd be funny to try and move this prehistoric tomb, so now there's a 24/7 surveillance. This surveillance is a guy sitting in a car next to the tomb.

It was so windy we survived outside for a solid 5 minutes. Again, please dress well. The land is so barren the few trees are all grown crooked due to the never-ending gust.

KILFENORA CELTIC CROSSES

Our third stop, Kilfenora, is an adorable little village in the heart of the Burren. The reason for stopping here is their famous celtic crosses, dating all the way back to the 12th century. The cathedral around it is pretty much destroyed, but it's still possible to explore the cemetery and admire the graves.

What is this? A door for leprachauns?

DOOLIN VILLAGE

We stopped for lunch after noon in the village of Doolin. It's the tiniest thing. We had a solid 45 minutes to eat, but after the waitress screwed up my order at least two times, in my case it meant more like 15. Reminds me again why these tour buses are really not my way of travelling, but sadly the options to get around in here are quite limited.

THE CLIFFS OF MOHER

Finally! The admission fee to the cliffs is included in the price of the tour, but please take this into account in case you decide to arrive by car: visiting the cliffs is not free. There's a visitor centre with a cafe and a museum where you can gather your strength before facing the gusts of the cliffs. Check out their website: Cliffs of Moher

The cliffs stretch for 8 kilometres and are 214 metres at their highest point. It's easily one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. We were lucky to have a good weather during our visit, but our very own enthusiastic Gary told us it's not always the case - sometimes the fog gets so thick you can't see a thing. Make sure to check the weather forecast in advance or you'll end up paying to see the tip of your nose!

Now, the wind. It can easily get as fast as 120km/h, and hear this from someone who's been there: it can sweep you off your feet. It can rock the bus from side to side. So as you approach the cliffs, please for the love of God don't get on the wrong side of the fence! Here's how it all looks like around the cliffs:

You can walk along the cliffs as far as you like, but Galway Tour Company allows you 1,5 hours on the location. Our sensitive asses survived a solid 20 minutes outside, and after the excruciatingly strong wind caught my bag and broke the strap, we headed inside and devoured warm beverages for the rest of the time.

This is how it looks to the opposite direction from the cliffs:

This area was beyond the maintenance of the Cliffs of Moher visitor centre. People actually jumped the fence and posed for pictures a metre away from the edge. I personally preferred to squeeze the stone fence so hard my hands turned white. Fear of heights? Yes. Fear of dying? Hell yes.

As seen in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince!

COAST ROAD

Our last stop was by the Coast Road to have a view of the Aran Islands on the horizon. The drop in itself isn't as impressive after seeing the cliffs of Moher, but 8 metres is enough for me to not get too close to the edge. The barren soil gets unstable, so watch where you walk. Our 10 minutes in here passed fast taking Instagram-worthy photos of us staring at the horizon.

The bus took us back to Galway bus station at 6pm. Crazy wind, crazy tour guide, crazy landscapes and one absolutely gorgeous Ireland. There's something about the barren land and the winds of the Atlantic Ocean that create quite a magical atmosphere on the west coast of the island.

 Have you been to the Cliffs of Moher? How was your experience there? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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HOWTH: CLIMBING THE CLIFF

Now I know Ireland usually isn't on the Top 10 travel list of anyone - you can't really imagine how many times I've heard "Ireland? Never really thought of travelling there..." after moving here. BUT believe me, there are some pretty sweet spots on this isle. That is, if you enjoy rambling through empty moors and climbing cliffs to stare at the endless horizon of the Irish Sea or Atlantic Ocean. And who wouldn't?

Howth is a town not more than 40-minute train ride from Dublin, and undeniably one of the places you absolutely need to visit if you ever get crazy enough to plan an actual holiday to an island where it never stops raining. The town is a perfect afternoon getaway from the crowded streets of Dublin. The town lives from fishing, so if that traditional fish and chips is what you're after, head to Howth and the fish will surely be fresh.

But I'm not here to talk about the village, nevermind how cute it is. The best part of Howth is a bit further past the docks: Howth Cliffs. That's where I took my Finnish friend Annemari, who came to visit me for the weekend. The climb doesn't take more than an hour. Follow us to the top!

Check out the rock on the left. See those wooden planks pointing towards the water? The residents of the house next to it use them to jump to the water straight from the rock. Oh god.

Now, the path can get muddy at this time of the year (January), so good shoes are a must along with appropriate clothing. The hardest part of travelling to Ireland is to realise how to dress: it took me a solid few months before I was able to feel comfortable outside. It gets pretty damn windy in here.

Facing the Irish Sea. There is nothing but the vast water between us and the Great Britain at this point. I once took a ferry from Holyhead, the closest peninsula of the UK to Dublin - worst seasickness of my life. You really cannot help but feel tiny in front of a horizon like this.

And this wouldn't be Ireland if there wasn't a farm on top, right? Looking at a landscape like this really doesn't make you wonder why it's called the Emerald Isle.

Finally on the top:

I admit struggling to find a common ground with Ireland a while after moving in here, and a part of me still does. But standing on a spot like this, admiring the never-ending emptiness of the horizon of the Irish Sea, surrounded by nothing but wild nature and fields with horses and sheep, you kind of have to fall in love with Ireland. I've been ridiculously busy from the moment I returned from Finland a bit before New Year, and a little getaway like this was exactly what my mental stability needed to survive all my upcoming assignments. Seriously, the life of a postgrad student. What is this?

Have you ever been to Howth? Do you think exploring the nature of your new home country somehow helps you to adapt? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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CHRISTMAS VLOG #4 & 5: NORTHERN LIGHTS

Day 4 and 5 included corny spa treatments for couples and northern light sighting on our street. Pretty exciting!

I made the decision not to continue the vlogs. It was a bit stupid of me to imagine it wouldn't take as much time as writing traditional blog posts - in addition to editing the footage, the filming in itself is super difficult! I struggled to find time and space to sit down and have a monologue with the camera because I was never alone - you can't even imagine the discussions had in the background of my clips if I hadn't muted the film... (My favourite: beautiful scene from a picturesque little street - Alex's voice in the background says "What makes you think you're a bitch?")

Another reason is the obvious unpopularity of the vlogs. I figured people might not have as much time to read blogs during Christmas time, but the stats for my last two posts have been a bit sad: compared to my normal 300-500 clicks per post, my latest one was viewed only 90 times, out of which a mere 30 people actually watched the video. It's simply not worth the time. I'll stick to normal blog posts and written rants in the future! Thanks for everyone who watched the vlogs, I actually had a lot of fun doing them.

Merry Christmas for all of my lovely readers!

Have you ever seen northern lights? Is the experience worth the hype? Share your experiences in the comments below!

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OUR BORROWMYDOGGY.COM EXPERIENCE

Life as an international postgrad student can get unstable: the hunt for a job or a flat you know you're probably going to lose to a local, constant bureaucracy, flexible timetables and endless nights at the library. Alex and I decided to find a common hobby to take our minds off things - a dog turned out to be a good one. Meet Marley.

Well, it's not our dog to be exact. I stumbled upon this ad on Facebook a while back - BORROWMYDOGGY.COM. It's a service in the UK and Ireland where both dog owners and dog lovers can register and meet up: owners with little free time can find people with a dog-shaped hole in their lives (that's us!) to spend time with their woofs. We signed up in an instant!

It's like Tinder for dogs. A 10€ verification fee and a few supporting documents (proof of address, passport etc. to make sure it's safe) later we had a catalogue of local dogs in front of our eyes. You can select your location and the page will display all available dogs in your area. We found Marley 1km away from us.

We have been chatting with the owners for a few weeks now, and today we were finally ready to meet. It was kind of scary at first - you just enter a stranger's house and go out with their dog. We decided to head out for a walk both with Marley and his owners to get Marley used to us, bribe him with some treats and then discreetly leave him to our company while the owners retreated back home.

Marley turned out to be the easiest dog to get along with. After 3 hours he was really fond of us (or the treats, who knows).

There was something oddly relaxing in playing with a dog in the park for the afternoon. For a moment we had a completely different kind of life: not the one of assignments and economic uncertainty, but a suburbian dream on a Sunday afternoon with a dog, a tennis ball and a runny red nose.

An Irish November. It's cold all the way to your bones and covered in fog. The grass is layered with dewdrops and your socks are probably wet. You can see your breath and smell the rain. The dampness is almost visible in the photos. To be honest, despite how uncomfortable all this may sound, I think this tranquil little Sunday afternoon made me fall in love with Ireland just a wee bit more. I still need dry socks and a heater, though.

We had a cup of tea with the owners afterwards and agreed to meet up again next weekend. I've tried to find ways to get in touch with Irish people to feel a bit more at home - I figured staying isolated in a community of immigrants would probably do some harm to my mental health in the long run. If I want to learn to like Ireland, I need Irish people to prove to me their country is worth it.

So we sat down for an hour and had that cuppa in an Irish living room. It was just a cup of tea with strangers, but somehow it made us feel a bit more connected to this country - and a bit less tired of spending 10 hours a day reading about conflict resolution...

(P.S. Believe it or not, this post was not sponsored by borrowmydoggy.com - I'm just really excited about their concept!)

Do you ever have troubles feeling connected to your new country? Do you think having hobbies could help with that? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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OUR DAY IN BRAY ⎮ THE BEST PUB IN THE WORLD

Living in central Dublin in a small, mouldy flat on a street full of drunk tourists requires occasional reality escapes. Bray, a small rural town a bit to the South from Dublin turned out to be an excellent one. If you ever wanted to see a ton of photos of Irish moors, this is your post!

Bray is super easy to access from Dublin - a mere 45 minutes by train to the South. 30,000 inhabitants and a coastline to die for. This is where I'll move if I ever retire in Ireland! Well, here or Howth - there seems to be some kind of rivalry between these two regions, and to be honest, it's hard to pick just one.

My entourage for this exploration trip consisted of two of my friends from my uni program, a boyfriend of one and my own dear Alex, of course. Our Finnish-Canadian-British-German-Sri Lankan power team met by the railway station a bit after 2pm, and was greeted by this gorgeous first taste of what to expect from Bray (photo from the railway station):

Our plan of the day was to climb Bray Head, the hill you can see on the horizon in the above picture. In case you plan on doing the same, equip yourself with a bottle of water, good shoes and warm clothes - it gets steep and windy out there! There really isn't a need for a hiking map, since the hill is remotely small and the path pretty straightforward. Just follow all the people - there will be plenty.

We got to the top in half an hour, and the view is easily worth the effort. And since we're in Ireland, why not put a huge-ass religious symbol on top of the hill?

After reaching the top we made the decision to continue our exploration to a side path we found a bit down the hill. We had no idea where the road would take us, but why not find out?

We were a bit baffled by the amount of ash and burnt bushes all across the hills, but a more knowledgable person in our entourage enlightened the situation by telling us the hills actually catch fire. "In IRELAND? With all the humidity?" Apparently, yes. Bush fires happen in here too. The more you know... Check the burnt area for example in the photo below:

The drop down to the sea was scary for someone with a fear of heights like me. You can't see it from this photo, but there actually is a railroad to Greystones following the sea line down there!

Speaking of Greystones: we were able to see a glimpse of the town from the top of the hill. Not sure why there was so much smoke...

Then we ended up accidentally trespassing this farm. Google Maps showed us a way around the hills without having to go back the same way we came from, so we took the challenge and went exploring. A few gates and barbed wires later we realised we probably shouldn't be there... But it was too late. And in the end it was worth it, because look at this landscape! Look at how green the grass is! I swear to god that's not Photoshop!

And what would a day trip to Irish moors be if we didn't find any sheep?

Eventually we survived back to town, a little after sunset. Despite Bray being a remotely small town, it was almost impossible to find a place to eat without having a reservation. We tried multiple restaurants from vegan pizzeria to an Indian place, but everything was absolutely packed.

Then Willy remembered THE BEST PUB IN THE WORLD is in Bray. Yes, you heard me. It's official: Lonely Planet voted The Harbour Bar in Bray as the best pub in the world. There's no way we can't check it out while we're there.

From outside The Harbour Bar looks pretty much like any other rural Irish pub. When you enter, the first room on your right looks ridiculously small - don't let that fool you! Go through the door on the other side of the room and you'll find much more places to sit down. Much, much more... So much that my trip to the ladies' bathroom turned into a survival game (hint: it's upstairs).

We found seats from upstairs, and the place just became much more charming. Fireplaces, cozy sofas and no one else in sight - the Finnish side of me approves!

The fireplace turned out to be more useful than expected though: for the first half an hour we sat with our coats on, since there was no heating whatsoever. We were only saved by a bartender who noticed our misery and offered to put up a fire.

The place has quite a special decor. Check it out yourself:

Yes, those are pictures of popes on the opposite wall. They might have also had some satanic symbols hanging here and there. Why not, I guess?

The Harbour Bar also has three cats (who needs cat cafes when you can go to an Irish pub?). I was able to meet one of them, and they sure look like they don't mind the amount of people at all.

To our eye there was nothing that special in The Harbour Bar, but people, as always in Ireland, were nice. Alex got to taste the best whiskey he has ever had, thanks to a spot-on recommendation by a random Irish gentleman sitting by the bar. The venue really needs to get some recognition though: they have a large, heated terrace and a patio outside. And for anyone into Stranger Things tv-series, they also have this on the way to ladies' bathroom:

Have you been to Bray? Is there something else we should have visited in there? Or are there other spots like this in Dublin worth a visit? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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