First off, I'll admit I've slacked. I know it's been weeks since I posted anything on this blog, but Ireland got a bit hectic as things started to wind down. This is my best attempt to summarize the rest of my time here in this beautiful green country I've come to love so much...
Glacial Geomorphology
Three days of the camp were dedicated to a subject I had never quite delved into at Appalachian State, but was immensely interested in, glaciers. These three days also happened to consist of probably my favorite professor of the field camp, Dr. Adam Lewis from North Dakota State University. I could have easily spend the next 2 weeks still learning about this stuff I enjoyed it so much and we got to visit some of my favorite landscapes from the entire field camp.
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| Dr. Lewis and Alan bromancing it up |
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| The best lunch spread I've had yet this trip |
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| Big Daddy |
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| Skipping rocks after a day spent mapping moraines |
Galway Take 2
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| Ireland loves Elderflower. |
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| Dinner of champions: hummus, olives, roasted vegetables, baguette, fresh tomatoes, and cheese...lots and lots of cheese. |
Hydrogeology Track
After the glacial projects, about half of the camp traveled to Doolin to study sedimentary structures and basins while the other half of us stayed in Clonbur to play in rivers and measure stuff...but mostly play in rivers. We followed a river...whose name escapes me at this moment...from headwaters to mouth where it emptied in the Atlantic Ocean. Our particular group researched controls on channel width of the river.
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| Measuring bank full of the river |
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| Hard at work... |
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| The sad part about this picture is that they got no useable data from this...just a bunch of wet wellies. |
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| Beach |
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| If only the beaches back at home had stones like these... |
Doolin
Sadly, once the hydro part of our field camp ended, so did our time in Clonbur. After spending over 4 weeks in that small town in county Galway, I had no idea how much I came to love it there. The quiet, soft rolling hills speckled with golden yellow gorse, purple wildflowers, and the meandering sheep, Mount Gable in the morning light I could see from right out my window, the long runs I had along the wooded green and muddy trials, Burke's Pub, the drunken walks home from Burke's, the smell of dinner already ready and waiting after a long day in the field...just everything. I will truly miss it. Enough of the sad stuff, after Clonbur, we packed our vans and headed to Doolin to meet up with the rest of our camp who had been there for about a week already. I slacked a bit on the pictures I took here, but I did manage to get pictures of the most important part of this location...the Cliffs of Moher!
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| Cliff of Moher |
Portstewart
After Doolin the 6 hour credit class part of field camp had officially ended. I'm usually not one to brag, but since I want my family to know that their financial assistance and moral support for this trip went to good use, I am pleased to announce that I got an A! After the final grades were announced and everything came to a close, those of us going on the northern Ireland field trip drove a long 5/5 1/2 hours up to Portstewart where we stayed for the next few days as normal people, no longer geology students. Although this isn't entirely true since we were still obsessed enough with rocks after the field camp to go see more rocks...The following pictures represent the conclusion of my 6 week Ireland adventure...
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| Dinner by the ocean with a sundried tomato and brie toastie |
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| Portstewart |
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| The view outside my window |
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| Giant's Causeway |
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| Me as a column of basalt. |
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| The group! |
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| Dunluce castle |
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| Dunluce castle |
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| Ammonites! |
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| Bushmills Whiskey Distillery |
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| The 12 year reserve whiskey I enjoyed courtesy of Bushmills |
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| White chalk cliffs along a beach |
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| White chalk |
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| The hostel we stayed at is the cute yellow one sandwiched between all the other cute little buildings |
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| Where Hannah and I sat for 12 hours in the Belfast airport waiting to check our luggage... |
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| First starbucks in over a month to wake me for the trip ahead... |
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| The last view I got of Ireland.... |
And so concludes my 6 week stay in Ireland...I've been trying to come up with something clever or eloquent to say about the trip as a whole, but I don't think I could sum it up in a few sentences, maybe not even a few paragraphs. Therefore, I'll leave it short, sweet, and simple, like my stay here...
This has easily been one of the best 6 weeks of my entire life, I've seen things I had never even imagined I'd see, experienced so much in such a little time, and made unexpected lasting friendships here. I have nothing bad to say about this place, the people, or any of my experiences here. It's been life changing and I'm looking forward to what the next 2 1/2 weeks bring as me and Hannah travel to Scotland, England, Germany, and Belgium.
Ireland, I will see you again...
The name of the river is the Carrowniskey. It was nice to see the photos of Northern Ireland, I was back in the US by then. I hope to return one day as a tourist to see the old places again and add some new destinations. Ireland has so much to offer.
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