Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Inner trail, people! Inner! Trail!

Let’s go to an island for spring break, we said. One in the Atlantic Ocean. One with palm trees and ocean breezes! One where we’ll be far, far away from the cares of our everyday lives. One with gorgeous scenery. One with death-defying cliffs and people driving on the wrong side of very narrow roads. One where we’ll still get to wear our winter coats and scarves!

And that’s how we ended up in Ireland for spring break.

(Yes, they really have palm trees. Who knew?)

We’ve always wanted to see the motherland of Sean’s family, so when a couple invited us to tag along on their trip, we jumped at the chance. We spent 10 days, covered 1300 miles and was amazed by the lovely people and the unbelievable views at every turn.

The majority of those views have steep drops. One wrong step and you’d be done for. And unlike most of America, where guardrails reign supreme, there were few, if any, warnings about the dangers.

It’s almost like they expected their visitors to have brains…

My absolute favorite “warning” came in the form of this little cone:

This lone warning cone was placed at the Cliffs of Moher. "Cliff edge is unstable. Remain on official (inner) trail." Inner - you bet. I was not getting near the edge of this cliff:


There were some people meandering close to the very edge:
The small print on the warning cone said the recent storms made the cliff edge unstable. But that didn't stop those crazy people from tromping right out onto the sopping wet grass.

I wanted to scream, "Inner Trail, people! Inner Trail!"

Despite my near paranoia at each and every cliff (which was practically every moment of every day), it was a lovely spring break in the homeland of my husband's people, where people know how to pronounce his name correctly. Definitely want to go back.

But I vote for staying inland.

More lovely views:
Those are campers parked on the beach. Camping. It's like I can't escape it!
One wrong turn and you'd head straight down. I was very thankful for Sean, who is an excellent driver. Even on the other side of the road.
 At the end of this chain of islands is where they filmed the last scene in the latest Star Wars movie. I got points from Michael for knowing this. 
Y'all, I walked over that bridge. My companions wanted me to stop halfway over to take a picture. You will notice there is no such picture. 

There was one warning picture I thought was placed there specifically for Rebecca:
Don't go chasing the birds! 







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