People Warned Me I Would Fall in Love With This Place...

And it's true. I'm falling into a deep love. The landscape, the warm, friendly people, the food, the atmosphere-it's all so pleasant. The people here really seem to notice that we are tourists here almost instantly, before we even let out our accent. Maybe it's because of the way we slowly but curiously enter into the shops or because of our dress, but most likely because we take pictures of EVERYTHING. We cannot help ourselves though because EVERYTHING is absolutely picture-worthy.

So far, one of my favorite parts to this trip has been the visits to the castles. Some of them are beautifully restored, such as Bunratty Castle which can be seen below, while others are more worn down, but still beautifully stand. Bunratty Castle was very interesting because I was really able to get a feel for how the castle must have looked and functioned back in the 1400's. It was rebuilt a few times because it was under attack at one point, but in 1425 the MacNamara family completed the present structure. In 1954, the castle was then restored with some amazing 15th and 16th century furnishings to capture the Irish heritage of those times of County Clare.

Inside Bunratty Caste, our little castle tour-guide, explaining that only the rich people used wood for the fires. If you weren't rich, you burned peat. The fireplace was built right into the center of the floor of the great hall.



<---Very narrow steps were designed to make it more difficult for a large group of enemies to climb up all at once.

View from atop of the castle. The castle was surrounded by a lot of water, for defensive purposes. Another defensive aspect of the castle is that there are little stones on the floor that were removed so that hot oil could be poured down onto the enemies' heads if they were to attack and enter the castle.

I got to see yet another castle in County Clare at the Cliffs of Moher, located on the West of Ireland. The views were breathtaking.

The Cliffs

A castle at the Cliffs of Moher

So there's a little bit of what I've been seeing these past few days; hope you're all enjoying the pictures!