After a lo-o-o-o-n-n-n-g flight from Pittsburgh through Boston (with a serious layover) to Shannon Ireland, the group finally has arrived in the Emerald Isle. And guess what? It really is green! From the plane it looked like a shimmering, flourescent green carpet ... which is not surprising considering all of the rain it gets! Rain was definitely part of the experience on arrival, but luckily it didn't rain all of the time.
First stop on the coastal route from Shannon to Galway was the town of Ennis for a quick coffee and a breath of fresh aire. ;-) As you can see, it is a very quaint little town.Next stop was the breathtaking Cliffs of Moher ('Moe-hur'), which you can see behind the group in the first photo above. The cliffs are a sheer drop-off of several hundred feet. Reportedly people routinely fall or are blown off of the cliffs to the extent that the local media treat such accidents essentially with a ho-hum attitude. That said, you will be happy to know that none of our group were blown off of the cliffs. (Whew, that was a big hurdle to get past!)
Another interesting feature of this area is O'Brien's Castle (below), which sits very near the edge of the cliffs. Apparently the O'Briens were the biggest, baddest family at one time in Ireland's history, and essentially ruled a large portion of the country.
The final part of our journey took us through the 'Burren', a desolate area near the coast, and finally into the town of Galway and our temporary home, the Harbour Hotel. The hotel is very nice and is only 5 minutes walking distance from the heart of the old town.
Most of the students took to Galway right away. It's an incredibly quaint and accessible town of cobblestone streets, shops, restaurants and pubs. Absolutely delightful. We arrived at around 2:30PM, headed for a group lunch at the 'Quays Bar' (superb!), and then dispersed to various stores and pubs ... and in some cases, beds. ;^)Today (Sunday) we board the bus at 1PM for the 1-hour drive to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. We are hoping for decent weather and -- incredibly -- this morning the sun is actually shining. After touring the park, we will participate in a 'medieval banquet', which should be a lot of fun. Reportedly someone is crowned king or queen, and someone else is thrown in the dungeon. We certainly will not have a problem finding candidates for the dungeon ... we might all end up there! ;^)
Tomorrow (Monday) we get down to business with an all-day visit to the National University of Ireland (NUI), where students will listen to lectures from several of the NUI business professors. We will also get a tour of the campus, which is absolutely beautiful, by the way.
More on that later!
