Whoops - Missed Moher

All tourists who go to Ireland, must compulsorily visit the cliffs of Moher. It's actually stipulated on the terms of your tourist visa. You have to get your passport validated at the visitor's centre when you pay for your parking.


We took a ferry across the Shannon River to get to the cliffs. The Americans pronounced it "fairy." I decided that Ireland shouldn't have "fairies." It should have leprechauns. I immediately renamed this vessel a leprechaun and have successfully brought this new application of the word into the family vocabulary. It is now possibly for me to talk about taking a leprechaun to Seattle from Vashon Island and nobody even pauses.

I also added a novel use of the word "cardigan" to our collective vocabulary. It was another Aussie-American accent clash moment. We were sitting at dinner one night when Patricia said "I need to borrow your thingy so I can empty my cardigan." I paused for a moment's consideration, during which I am told my expression was quite comical. A thingy to empty a cardigan ... what could this be? What could a cardigan require? I'd also never seen Patricia wear a garment that I would describe as a cardigan. It was all too much. "Sorry?"

Turns out she'd actually said she wanted to borrow my thingy to empty her card again. Aha, she wanted to borrow the compact flash card reader! This useful little item has been known as a cardigan ever since.

Back to Ireland. Like the Crap-A-Rede Rope Bridge, the Cliffs of Moher were kind of a disappointment. First of all, they were absolutely swarming with tourists trying to get their visas validated. Secondly, it was very misty and windy and miserable and quite a long walk surrounded on every side by a thousand people.

Much nicer, cheaper, less populated and generally more impressive are the less famous cliffs of Kilkee. I recommend going here and skipping Moher altogether. Get the Moher photos off the web and show them when you exit the country, but spend your actual time and effort checking out the Kilkee scenic road.

In places the colour of the water looks almost tropical. This is despite the fact that half frozen horizontal drizzle is coming down all around us. Bizarre.