Climbing a Castle Tower, Climbing a Hill

In the last post I summarized a lot of the first week (except for the third day, which I described a little bit, and posted photos from. I should also mention that when I say "third day", I mean the third day since arriving in Ireland (I first arrived on Friday, January 7th). I'm basically calling Friday the 7th through Saturday the 15th the "first week". During the first week I got to see the school campus for the first time. At 9:00 AM every weekday the maintenance/driver guy Robert provides a van ride to the school. Some people walk to the school instead (I have done that a few times now). Anyway, it was nice to get familiar with the (very small) campus. Cafeteria food is very good, there's a campus cat, and a nice little library. One downside is the coldness of most studio areas.

On Thursday the 13th, my brother and I climbed the school's castle tower for the first time. It felt like stepping back in time to go inside it (feels like stepping back in time at a lot of places in the Burren). I was reminded so much of a medieval fantasy video game. Not long after the tower climb, my brother and some other friends climbed the hill next to the school for the first time. Calling it a "hill" gives the impression that it's not that big... but it's quite a hike up to the top, at least 40 minutes of mostly rocky terrain. Even after only 10 or 15 minutes the view is great, and it just gets better as you go up. We saw a small group of feral goats on that first climb, as well as a pile of bones and a lot of interesting vegetation.


(PHOTOS FROM THE CAMPUS - last one is just a shot outside my window in Ballyvaughan one morning, there was a cloud sitting over the hill in the distance)













(PHOTOS FROM THE HILL CLIMB)