The Cliffs of Insanity

Doolin – Aran Islands – Galway, Ireland

I always wondered where Florin and Guilder really were. 

After traveling through Ireland for a few days it’s pretty obvious, really. Kingdom by the sea. Rival kingdom across the water. Cliffs of Insanity. Hapless farm. Greenland’s not that far away (that’s where Vizzini picks up the then-unemployed giant). Spanish swordsman from not too far away. 

It all adds up. 

Florin is clearly Ireland, and Guilder is clearly England. 

Just like “I can clearly not choose the chalice closer to you, because you are not a fool, and only a fool would put the poison in the chalice closer to themselves . . .”

We did enjoy the Cliffs of Moher. 

Kind of.

As per usual, with Ireland, it rained. Just as we arrived it started up. Which I guess should be cause for celebration. At least it didn’t precipitate while we were riding.

But my goodness, it never really stops.

On that note, here’s a little video provided by reader Keelin K. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/14Ez5zz7vPj/

I should modify the credo: 

Don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.

Should be more like:

Don’t like the weather, wait five minutes. Like the weather? Wait five minutes – it’s sure to be worse . . .

After a while, the rain is a little trying. Yes, it’s true that a lot of time it only lasts a few minutes, but one can only do so much character building each day . . .

Maybe the bad weather accounts for the colorful language employed by many Irish people. Like Danny – the proprietor of the Fisherman’s Rest – the B&B type place we stayed the other night. Fecking this and fecking that. 

We met Danny while inquiring about ferries to the Aran Islands the other day. Diana’s reviewing the departure times when this guy comes up to me:

”Is that your dog?” he demands.

I look down. There’s a little pug-sized thing walking around – complete with a little red harness. Looks like he’s all prepared to pull the Grinch’s sleigh. 

“No, I’m afraid not.”

”Well, I saw him follow you in here. Think he’s your fecking dog.”

I’m starting to catch on. This big older man with deep blue eyes is giving me a hard time. 

I hear Diana ask the ferry lady if she knows of anyplace to stay in the area. 

“Danny – you got any rooms available at the Fisherman?”

Big blue eyes responds: “Yeah, I’ve got a fecking room!”

Soon we’re following Danny and his little dog, Toby, up to his place – which is about a block away. 

Turns out he’s as soft as a teddy bear. But he is a little cheeky – and he definitely has a potty mouth. 

The next day sees more crazy Irish cliffs – this time on Inishmore – the biggest of the Aran Islands – a little archipelago right off the coast. But these cliffs are even cooler. Because of this prehistoric fort right there. Seriously, one of the most impressive archeological sites we’ve seen on the whole trip. 

There’s a semi-circle of stone walls that are themselves very impressive. The open part of the circle is the cliff edge – a 300’ drop straight into the Atlantic. 

But the insanity part comes before we even arrive. We’re making our way up to the fort and as we go we are passing a few people on their way down. I see a woman with a Penn State hat on and I ask her where she’s from. We start exchanging small talk about our trip. They’re from College Station, Pennsylvania.

”We’re from Minnesota but we’ve been biking for a while. Started in Minnesota and went down through to Argentina . . .”

”You’re the couple that’s biking the world and writing a blog. My friend Eileen is friends with your parents.”

Turns out that Loretta did her graduate work at the University of Illinois together with Eileen Seitz – who is, indeed, good friends with my parents. In fact, Eileen and my Mom play Scrabble together pretty much every Friday. 

I guess Eileen has been telling Loretta about our travels and our blog. Eileen and Loretta did their PhD.s on something related to Spanish, and, I think because of that, the Spanish speaking portions of the trip were particularly interesting to them. In fact, Eileen has been super helpful in offering her tips and suggestions along the way . . .

Loretta’s husband, David, is originally from Quito, Ecuador. And their daughter, Erin, played the viola for the Minnesota Orchestra for a number of years. 

Crazy the small world that we live in.

And then, just down the cliff from the fort we found a place called the wormhole. It’s like Diana’s fantasy: a giant, perfectly formed, natural swimming pool, complete with stone walls, a diving platform (used by Red Bull for some events), and a natural water exchange through an underground tunnel to the open ocean. Except for the Lake Superior like temperatures…

We met Cillian there. He lives in Galway and came out specifically to try cliff jumping here. I volunteered to do the video work. Sadly, though, Cillian bowed out when a local told him it wasn’t safe. Which makes sense because the water bounced around in there like it was a giant bathtub – only with jagged granite walls.

On a more serious front, it’s been interesting to learn a little more about Ireland and its more recent history. A quick review . . .

• Up until 1921 the British had been running the show in Ireland for hundreds of years. They didn’t allow the Irish language to be used in parliament or in court documents. They sent English and Scottish settlers to colonize Northern Ireland – and they confiscated land from Irish landowners to make room for the colonists. 
• The Irish kept trying to rid themselves of the British, and they were finally successful in 1920 – when the British finally agreed to give Ireland some measure of independence. This is when Northern Island was born – because the British were worried that the Irish would be mean to the former colonists (Brits and Scots originally – who were pretty much all Protestant). 
• In the 1960s the Catholics in Northern Ireland started really protesting and this was the start of the troubles that lasted until 1998 – when a formal peace agreement was signed. Our tour guide in Dublin seemed to give President Clinton some credit for this – back when our foreign policy was a little more diplomatic . . .

It will be interesting to travel through Northern Ireland and to Belfast – to see firsthand what things look like. Talking to folks in the Republic – where we are now – it seems like no one is that thrilled with the current state of affairs – but everyone agrees that it is far better than the dark days of years past. 

On this note, I talked to a young man at the bike shop here in Galway who told me that he never feels very welcome in Belfast. The way he explained it the Protestants still discriminate against the Catholics. He showed me a picture of some graffiti in Belfast related to the Ulster Volunteer Army (a paramilitary force that fought with the IRA during the troubles). I guess he was in Belfast last weekend to attend the concert of a band called Kneecap – a band that sings nationalist/anti-British songs. Not a very uplifting conversation, really . . .

On the other hand, people like Michael and Betty, the older couple we met the other day, actually live in Northern Ireland and said that they have Protestant friends and that people are people. In the end, my sense is that older people – who have lived through the horrors of it all – just want to move on. But it’s a little discouraging to hear from young people who maybe haven’t seen the bad times . . .

Hopefully they don’t go off another cliff of insanity . . . There’s enough of that in the world already these days . . .

We’ll see. Tomorrow we start heading that direction . . .