How I Met the Cliffs of Moher

Kids, when I was a young man unsatisfied with various aspects of UWL and all it inflicted upon my social life, I booked my study-abroad trip to Ireland so as to escape towards something out there that gave me some relief from the more anxiety-inducing events that I encountered in the past three years in La Crosse, even if it would only turn out to be marginal, temporary happiness. That, of all ideas, led me to the wonderful, curvaceous, and tall specimen that you now know as the Cliffs of Moher, the geographic gem of the Emerald Isle that I met at a very strange time in my life.

In all seriousness, I had seen the Cliffs of Moher from afar before -- again through pop culture -- namely in The Princess Bride when Inigo Montoya looks to get back at his father's six-fingered murderer by defeating him in a duel; he fails miserably and takes the L on the "Cliffs of Insanity". Of course, the cliffs -- as most cliffs in fact do -- looked pretty cool as a tourist attraction, often giving visitors a sense of how small and unimportant they are in the grand scheme of things and geographical features. That in itself gave me a desire to someday visit this mythical body, but I would have to compete with many other suitors in doing so.

My introduction to the lovely Cliffs of Moher came about from my careful, flirting steps towards the O'Brien's Tower, the highest point of the Cliffs of Moher -- a mesmerizing viewpoint, assuredly. I did not explore the tower itself, instead fixated on developing a sense of acknowledgement and depth of the beautiful features the Cliffs of Moher has ever so gently flaunted throughout their time as the beauty of Ireland. In a sense, I wanted to understand the real Cliffs of Moher and bypass some of the more conventionally visited spots of the Cliffs of Moher to gain a bigger picture of what I could be dealing with in my courting phase.

(I had a selfie taken to commemorate the moment in which I fell in love at first sight with the Cliffs of Moher, but it unfortunately could not make it on this blog post for "failed to upload" technical reasons.) 

(Also, at the time of the post's writing, none of my photos -- of which there were many solid photos taken -- could be uploaded for the same "failed to upload" technical reasons.  *insert very angry emoji here*.)

My entire courting phase of the Cliffs of Moher was a sweaty affair that involved many miles walked in surveying the beauty of what I was to endure, whether it was the Branaunmore sea stack, the unofficial paths without any barriers for my own safety, or the annoyance caused by too many goddamn bugs constantly pestering me from my official business on hand. Sorry bugs, a man in love with a natural phenom has his work cut out for him and I would prefer not to have any external distractions, thank you very much! 

In connecting the beauty on hand with the Cliffs of Moher and all its fascinating parts to class materials, much like the Giant's Causeway, there is no single direct claim to any class material or lesson taught but instead can only make indirect connections. While this is certainly not what anyone would like to hear, the classes have more of a philosophical than natural bent. Nonetheless, the Cliffs of Moher, relatively close to the city of Galway, offers tourists and local Irish citizens from all over to revel in the heavenly allure, which is the real lesson to be learned from an adventurous workout that we all can take part in by taking a gander and stroll on the Cliffs of Moher for all its curves, points, and height. Partly, this is why many Irish citizens proudly call the Republic of Ireland home -- the natural beauty can sometimes offset the harrowing history of poverty, the Irish famine, the Troubles, alcoholism, loneliness, or evil adults creeping over innocent children at every corner. Nature is the epitome of beauty, and objective beauty lands most closely to the mere notion of nature. Honestly, what is a better escape from loneliness than a young man's introduction to beauty, nature, and any sort of affection or infatuation?

- if pictures are absolutely necessary, I will make sure I put my solid pictures back into this post at some point. it pisses me off that my photos could not upload here for some reason. i was pretty proud of my time at the cliffs today and i was glad to make this post but of course technology had to take some happiness out of making this post. please let me know asap if you'd like to see these pictures and i'll see what i can do :)