The Adventure Starts...Now: East Co. Clare (Cliffs of Moher, Aillwee Caves, & the Burren)

Yesterday we went with our program, API (Academic Programs International- about 40 of us, from the states) to East Co. Clare (Cliffs of Moher, Aillwee Caves, & the Burren). The Cliffs of Moher were huge and beautiful. They might soon become one of the new 7 natural wonders of the world. There was also a small castle there. We also stopped at another couple castles and an old Abbey on the way to the cliffs of Moher. I loved the ancient ruins. After the Cliffs of Moher, we went to the Aillwee Caves where we took an underground tour and saw a bunch of stalagmites and stalagtites etc. After that we went to the Burren, a national forest region. In the Burren, we saw a 6,000 year old burial grounds. There were a bunch of cows, rocks, and fig at the Burren. We also saw a Fairy Fort, an old sacred place of nature surrounded by a a wall of grass and a moat. The fairies that were believed to make this fort were the type of fairies you would see in the Lord of the Rings, not Tinkerbell fairies. The people who lived in that area long after were very superstitious once they found this old "fort" and so they would walk around the fort 3 times in a clockwise direction in order to have a wish. If they walked around it in the counterclockwise direction they believed they would be cursed. Naturally, I walked in the counterclockwise direction =] And I am fine. All in all, it was a wonderful day for sightseeing and the sun was even shining.