We left County Tipperary and Cashel for Glenstal Abbey, a Benedictine monastery and headquarters of the order in Ireland. It was neat seeing the Irish monks dressed in the same long black habits that we are familiar with at SVC. After morning prayers with the monks (complete with Gregorian chants), the Archabbot and Br Colmán gave us a tour of the grounds, including the beautiful Icon chapel which had a collection of Eastern European icons, and the Bible garden, which contained every plant mentioned in the Bible that could grow in Ireland. We had tea and coffee with Br Colmán and watched him and Fr Rene catch up (it was cute haha), and Colmán promised he would try to come visit his American Benedictine brothers at St. Vincent and teach a class for us. We had mass at noon, and then were off to our next destination, the Cliffs of Moher.

The Cliffs were absolutely breathtaking!! They rose straight out of the Atlantic Ocean, and offered a spectacular, yet dangerous!, view. We were cautioned to be careful as it had been the cause of more than a few deaths - although whether on purpose or just due to stupidity I'm not entirely sure. A protective wall barricaded most of the path, but of course there was the part beyond the "Do not pass" sign that wasn't that people explored. Liz, Amanda, and I braved the steep and sudden drop offs to take some pictures...even to the point of crawling and lying on our stomachs to take pictures hanging over the edge of the cliff =]