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!

Follow me!

  Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Bloglovin'

NEED A HELPING HAND? | My Weirdest Google Search Hits

Writing a blog demands you to be quite aware of your Search Engine Optimization - SEO. During my time as a blogger I've followed my Google Search activity with much amusement, because believe me, people google the craziest things! Sometimes, fortunately, they land on my blog with these keywords. People ask questions. Worry not. Now, after all this time googling and desperately looking for advice, I have provided you with answers to Top 10 most common, rather weird Google Search hits to The Strayling. Off we go!

1. Multiculturalism Pros and Cons
This is by far the most popular search term leading you in here, so let's look into it. I don't usually go into politics outside my scholarly entourage, but now that the cat's on the table, let's address it like the mix of a Trinity College Dublin postgraduate student in migration and conflict studies and a feel-good blogger that I am.

Pros: Needless to day, everyone gets to be themselves. Usually the pros mention this 'enrichment' aspect, as in, cultural diversity allows us to engage more with other cultures and this way teach us the many ways of perceiving different attributes of life from food to religion to social interaction. The host society gets to see a wide range of sub-cultures being born in it, and migrants can comfortably reside in their new country without the fear or losing their heritage or being forced to blend into a homogenous mass that is the perceived 'Dutchness' or whatever the country we're talking about. Let's take Canada for example. Their immigration policy is based on the idea of 'mosaic': small pieces create a large, colourful entity that we know as 'Canada'. A happy immigrant is a contributing immigrant, as they say.
Cons: When not carried out properly, multiculturalism can create segregation. Let's take this bunch of Chinese immigrants and put them into the China Town. Now do your Chinese thing. No need to blend in. Let's celebrate your difference. Multiculturalism in its worst makes us ask what does it mean to be 'Chinese', how do we perform this Chineseness and why do we have to caricature ourselves like this anyway. It isolates minorities into ethnic communities separate from the majority population and stalls the integration process where the migrant gets to properly interact with the host society and feel 'at home'. Mind you, this is the case only when proper integration policies aren't implemented and migrants are left to handle their integration process by themselves. (Attention: integration =/= assimilation!)

2. Instagram Follow Button
What kind of Follow button do you want? You mean like the preview of my insta I have on the sidebar? You can head to SnapWidget and get one of your own. Or you just want a javascript button to easily let your readers follow your Instagram with one click? You could try AddThis and get a readymade code for your button. If you want a button that just takes the visitor to your Instagram account without autofollow - like I have on the sidebar with all those small social media icons - you have to do some crafting yourself, but let me get you started:

You could head to SeekLogo and download a vector image of the button to your computer. Change the size and edit the colour as you please with Photoshop, or whatever it is that you prefer using. Upload the image to your domain and make it into a link to your Instagram account. If you want a hover effect, edit another photo with e.g. a different colour and upload it to your domain. Now write the code so that when the visitor hovers the image, the second photo will appear. Like so:

<a href="https://www.instagram.com/YOUR USER NAME HERE" target="_blank"><img onmouseout="this.src='NORMAL IMAGE URL HERE'" onmouseover="this.src='HOVER IMAGE URL HERE'" src="NORMAL IMAGE URL HERE"/></a>

There must be hundred other ways to do it, but that's an easy one.

3. Must See Vancouver

So you're travelling to Vancouver and searching for tips? Look no further, I have just the right blog post for you. Here: 4 MUST-SEE SPOTS IN VANCOUVER. You're gonna love it. I loved it. I loved it so much I could live there happily ever after.

4. Looking for Long-Distance Relationship
Now hold on a minute. Are you saying you're looking for a long-distance relationship? Or just looking for ways to cope with it? Because if we're talking about the first one here, you're out of your damn mind. Why would you intentionally try and find a long-distance relationship? It's hell on earth guys! Stick to normal dating and if that monster lurking into your lives becomes inevitable, you can refer to my LONG-DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP 101 blog post for some survival tips.

But I repeat: you don't want to have a long-distance with someone just for the crack of it. Get a pen pal.

5. Fairmont le Château Frontenac / Québec Castle Hotel 

Ah, le Château Frontenac! Québec's most well-known landmark. It's all things gorgeous. If you want to book a stay there, head to their homepage: Fairmont le Château Frontenac

If you're interested in taking a sneak-peek inside and read my review of it, check out my blog post:
FAIRMONT LE CHÂTEAU FRONTENAC: QUÉBEC'S FRONT PAGE

6. Irish Slang 
This is a popular one! People strand in here in the hopes of finding out how to talk like an Irish. First of all, let me offer you my BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO IRISH SLANG post to get you started.

Now, four specific words give me hits. Let me help you with your queries. Mind you, there are multiple Irish English dialects, but it's your lucky day since my Irish friend is from Cork and that's by far the craziest, most bizarre accent of them all. He's here today to provide you with answers:

Craic - A universal English equivalent for craic? It's 'crack', as in 'fun' or 'enjoyment'. You might hear an Irish say 'Well tis gun be good craic', in other words, he expects it to be fun.
Hello - Saying hi people generally say 'sup', 'sss'da craic?' [whats the craic?] 'how's da form', 'how's she hanging', 'any scéal' [scale, scéal = Irish for story] but generally insults are also accepted, like 'sup scuts' [scut = disreputable person] or 'hey motherfuckers'.
Goodbye - People say 'slán' [Irish for goodbye] 'talk cha', 'safe journey', 'gwan', 'gluck', 'fuck off so', 'il talk cha', I say 'later bitch' to a group of friends quite a bit. 'See ya' being an obvious one.
Friend - Usually I'd use the negative like: 'they're not a total dickhead like'. Generally you would call someone 'sound' and then someone would ask them do you know them well. If you do, it means they're your friend, if you don't, then you might either be hedging your bets not wanting to sound like a dick or you might consider becoming friends with them. But you wouldn't really say someone is my 'friend', you would say they're sound or yee hang out. You could also use the word 'langer', it's a mainstay in Cork and can be a harsh insult or a term for endearment depending on the context. You can be a langer which results from 'acting the langer', or it can be dismissive if someone's 'a bit of a langer alright'. Or it can be used playfully without negative connotations.

You can also listen to The Langer Song on Youtube if you want to get more immersed to this real Cork spirit.

7. Emporter Conjugation
Unbelievably so, my blog is now a destination for French grammar assistance. Luckily I have one native-speaking boyfriend here with me and he's ready to help you with this one:

Pronoun	Conjugation: Present
J'	Emporte
Tu	Emportes
Il / Elle	Emporte
Nous	Emportons
Vous	Emportez
Ils / Elles	Emportent

8. Living in Finland Pros and Cons
Pros: It's safe. Free public healthcare. Good and free education (unless you're a non-EU university student, sorry). Low crime rate. High life expectancy rate. Highest gender equality rates in the world. Beautiful girls (I have to cheer for the home team a bit, right?). Houses are well built and insulated so you won't freeze during winter. Wonderful nature. Technologically advanced.

Cons: The language is hard to learn and I bet you can't find a job if you don't speak it - unless you work in IT or such. It's effin' dark during winter. It's effin' cold during winter. It's effin' cold sometimes even during summer. People like to pout in solitude and mind their own business. Racism. Everything is expensive (mind you, the salary is correspondent!). Everyone wants to live in Helsinki and there aren't enough apartments. Finland is actually pretty hard to reach flight-wise, so if you enjoy your frequent trips to Europe, Ryanair won't be there to save you. Did I mention it's really, really dark?

9. Cringyness
Yes. You're in the right place. Welcome.

10. How to Irritate a Citizen of Each European
This is my favourite. My blog is now a source of hatred and ethnic stereotyping. Sadly I can't provide you with all the answers as this blog post would become too long, but let me get you started with the two nations closest to my heart here and now:
Finns: Call them a Swede. Tell them Nokia is Japanese. Ask if they speak Russian as their first language. Casually touch them during a conversation.
Irish: Call them British. Tell them Ireland is exactly like Britain. Assume they have a British monarchy. Actually, just talk about the British.

 What are the pros and cons of multiculturalism in your opinion? How about living in Finland? Do you have more questions? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Follow me!

  Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Bloglovin'

A DAY TRIP TO MALAHIDE

One of the things I love about Dublin is how close to so many other cool places it is. I've previously told you about all the wonders of BRAY and HOWTH, but this time our destination is a wee bit different. No cliffs, but castles. I'm of course talking about Malahide.

Malahide is a town North of Dublin, and couldn't be easier to reach: the Dart takes you there in half an hour from the city centre. The biggest attraction by far is the Malahide Castle, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the whole of Ireland, according to someone somewhere. I had insisted on going for almost three weeks, until finally the miracle of sunshine was blessed upon Ireland and we had the perfect weather and zero excuses to ditch this thing again. So off we went, no idea what to expect.

Malahide turned out to be the most adorable thing. I took so many pictures. So. Many. Let's have a look!

Now this wouldn't be an Irish coastal town if it didn't have a small harbour, like so. We took a tiny tour around.

I tried to come up with a cheeky thing to say about this photo but then my buzzkill editor side took over and all I can say is I LOVE OUTDOOR LIGHTING.

Now, the cute city centre. Photos will follow below. I mean, how are you supposed to pick a restaurant when they all look so welcoming? I want to eat in all of these. I want to get my hair cut in that salon just because of the lights outside.

I honestly had no idea how many palm trees there'd be in Ireland before I moved in and was baffled by all things tropical. What's up with that? Where do you guys get your palm trees?

After rolling around aimlessly for an hour or so and getting lost like two times we finally headed to the right direction and found the castle grounds - which was surprisingly hard for us taking into account it's pretty much the same size as the whole town centre in itself. And it's right across the road from the train station, but you know.

There was an inner garden here, but you'd have to pay to get in. Alex wanted to come back in the summer.

The castle! Apparently the oldest parts of it date back to the 12th century, owned originally by the Talbot family for over 790 years. It eventually got sold to the Irish State in 1973, and is now open for visits.

We didn't go in: visiting the castle and the West Gardens inside the walls comes with a price we were not interested in paying at this time of the year - 12€ for adults, 8€ for students and 6€ for kids. We planned on returning during summer when we'd actually see flowers in bloom.

The castle and the surrounding lands are a pretty impressive sight in itself though:

Alex was fascinated by these flowers. No matter how far the winter is, I'm still confused by the amount of green in here at this time of the year. Is this the real life? Is this my winter now? Smelling flowers in February?

Later on in the evening we returned to the town and found a pub to have a pint in. Gibneys was pretty full and sportsy, but we fit in and had a break before heading back to Dublin.

A lovely trip all in all! Like Howth and Bray, Malahide was added to my personal list of "Places Where I Want to Retire". Talk about a long-term plan....

Have you been to Malahide? Are there any other such spots within a day trip distance from Dublin I should go and check out? Share your tips and thoughts in the comments below!

Follow me!
  Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Bloglovin'

GPSmyCity: The Best Travel Article App for GPS-guided Citywalks

Do you ever stumble upon a great travel blog with a bunch of awesome posts virtually guiding you through your dream destinations? Yeah, me too. I always end up hoping I could take these articles with me to my adventures and re-read them while walking around the city.

Wait, yes. I could do that. I could just bookmark the article on my phone's browser and read it offline. But anyone who has even a bit of experience in travelling knows what happens next: you just left your hotel, realise you forgot to bookmark that one post about top 10 best restaurants in Paris, and you're stranded in a middle of an unfamiliar city, without a map, it's probably raining - and like always, you're without a wifi. We all know the pain of running between Starbucks and McDonalds to take that short moment of free wireless connection to update our changing travel plans.

Well guess what folks: now you don't have to. Let us forget those desperate times you tried to sneak old receipts lying on the floor of a cafe to get access to their wifi password. How about you use GPS-guided travel article apps instead?

GPSmyCity app introduces a whole new concept of GPS-guided travel articles on iOS devices. The app contains articles of over 600 cities all over the world, and they all have GPS coordinates embedded to these articles. The app has thousands of posts to choose from. The app is free, and doesn't need wifi or mobile data to work. No roaming, no data plan. No, honestly: good bye receipts lying on the floor. You can basically read these travel articles wherever and whenever you choose: on your 9-hour flight to Tokyo, while lying on the beach, while waiting for your dessert in a restaurant you spotted from that top 10 restaurants post I mentioned earlier - you choose.

After downloading the app from iTunes Store for free, you gain access to all of these thousands of travel posts, and you can read them offline. If you'd like to have the GPS-guided tour embedded to the article and let the machine do the work for you, you can upgrade any article you choose with a small fee of $1.99. Easy, cheap - and definitely a more convenient (and cheaper!) option than buying your fifth black coffee of the day to have yet another wifi-password, right?

I want to let you try this thing. That's why I'm hosting a limited-time GIVEAWAY of one of my most popular travel posts, which you can upgrade to a GPS-guided personal tour guide for free through GPSmyCity travel app. The giveaway is available 10th of Oct - 16th of Oct.

There are two ways to access my GPS-guided posts in the app:

1. Click on a link below for the article you are interested in (if you haven’t already downloaded the free GPSmyCity app, you will see a prompt to do so). After downloading the app, you will be directed to the article, where you can choose UPGRADE to get the GPS-guided version.
2. You can browse by city in the GPSmyCity app to see all available articles.

FREE GIVEAWAY:
(expires 16th Oct)
My Québec: 3x3 Places to See, Eat and Enjoy

Interested in my other articles available in GPSmyCity app? Click here:

• 5 Reasons to Visit Montréal
• 4 Must-see Spots in Vancouver

My new travel-oriented posts will be available through the app in the future.

P.S. If you decide to upgrade my articles to a GPS-guided tour guide, I receive a few cents. As they say here in Ireland, it'd be grand, love! Tis be helpin' me fund my recreational blogging hobby alright. Thanks a million!

Follow me!
  Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Bloglovin'