Kylemore Abbey and Connemara

Today, we ended up going with a tour through Connemara, which is a beautiful district in the West of Ireland. It's quite mountainous and has a number of valleys as well. If you imagine the lush green highlands of Ireland, you can pretty much picture Connemara.

Our tour started out at the Ross Errilly Friary, which is one of the oldest friaries in Ireland. It was burned and rebuilt seven times. Today, it has a number of graves inside, and it's still quite intact.

From there, we drove on to Cong, which is a small village that is famous because it was where the movie, The Quiet Man, was filmed. It was a movie featuring John Wayne. I've never seen the movie, but I took some pictures that were featured in the movie. Overall, it was quaint and quite beautiful.

The tour zigzagged between County Galway and County Mayo, which are both covered with lakes and valleys. It was all quite beautiful.

Along the way, we saw a Connemara horse that came right up to us when our driver honked.

We also saw a sheep herder training his sheep dog. It was quite fascinating and reminded me of the movie, Babe. The poor sheep looked absolutely terrified of the dog.

Among the hills and valleys, there is Ireland's lone fjord. Where we stopped stood a tree that had decorations and ribbons all over it. Apparently, it's the fairy tree, where people can tie their wishes in hopes that they will come true. Interesting.

From there, we headed to our main attraction—Kylemore Abbey, which is a Romantic castle nestled on a lake at the base of a mountain. It was built by a wealthy man named Mitchell Henry for his wife, Margaret. Sadly, she died when she was only 45 years old, so he added a small Gothic church to memorialize her and also had her body entombed in a mausoleum right next to the church.

We had two hours to walk around and check out the grounds, so I took some time to have a nice lunch at their visitor center first. I was starving, so I went for their Traditional Irish Lamb Stew. Tasty, but too gamey/full of lamb-taste though (if you know what I mean...lamb is not easy to cook).

After lunch, I went on a trip up to the Victorian-Walled Gardens. Quite nice and well-restored by an order of Benedictine Nuns. There was a shuttle bus running every ten minutes from the visitor center to the gardens. Glad I didn't have to hike all the way up there. It kind of reminded me of Roller Coaster Tycoon (the computer game).

The castle itself has only three rooms available to visit, even though there are over 30 rooms in the castle. Nevertheless, the rooms featured were quite nice.

After the castle visit, I walked a short distance over to the church. It's built like a miniature Gothic Cathedral. There was nice music playing inside, and it's rather peaceful. It's also right by the lake.

I only stayed there for a few minutes as it was quite small. I walked behind the church and saw a small building that I initially thought was an outhouse. Turns out, that was the mausoleum.

Walking back, the view of the lake was gorgeous. It was really very peaceful there, and it really reminded me of the Lake of Avalon from Arthurian legends. I half expected Excalibur to show up out of the water.

Once we returned to Galway, we headed to a restaurant recommended by our driver for dinner. It was quite good, but freezing inside. I had another dish I had not yet tried—Bangers and Mash. It's basically mashed potatoes with Irish sausages and a red onion sauce. I have to say that it was pretty good.

We walked back to the B&B after that, where I started to blog. But then we decided to walk to a nearby pub recommended by our B&B host. It's apparently quite famous and features live music in a great Irish atmosphere, so we headed there for a drink. It was quite neat, and I had two pints of Guinness, which is quite enough I might add. The place was really quite cool though.

Tomorrow, we will check out the Galway City Museum and the Salthill area around our B&B before taking the bus back to Dublin. We only have another full day in Dublin, when we plan to visit the Guinness Storehouse and a famous jail in the city. I also have a friend studying for her masters in Dublin, so we plan to meet up and hang out.

Until next time,

Sam

Harry Potter and the Cliffs of Moher

You know that scene in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince where Dumbledore and Harry are standing on a rock in the middle of a stormy ocean staring up at dark, imposing cliffs?

Well, I went there today. It's gorgeous.

The five miles of Ireland's western seaboard are perennially among Ireland's top attractions. When the Half-Blood Prince movie was filmed, they chose the Cliffs of Moher for a scene where Dumbledore and Harry went after one of Voldemort's horcruxes. Admittedly, I am a big Harry Potter fan, so forgive me if none of that made any sense to you.

This morning, we woke up early and had a nice Irish breakfast at the B&B. It consisted of some sausages that were considerably softer and chewier than German sausages as well as some nice thick slices of bacon. There was a single egg and a sliced tomato. I ate it all along with some toast, delicious Irish butter, and sugar except the tomatoes. I do not like fresh tomatoes.

Our trip to the Cliffs of Moher was organized by Healy Tours, which sent a bus to pick us up from our B&B. That was very nice to not have to walk all the way to the bus terminal that's at least a mile away.

We had a British bus driver who told us about the history of the area. I chatted him up during one of our pit stops and learned that he's been in the Galway area for the past 35 years after marrying his wife, who was from Ireland. He was quite amusing 'cause he kept chuckling to himself after telling us things he found funny.

One of our first stops was at Danguaire Castle, which is a 16th century castle that is used now for medieval banquets in the summer. Pretty neat.

The region through which we drove is located in Galway County, and it's known as the "Burren." There is plenty of limestone in the region, and it's quite green. The bus stopped at a place where almost all of the bus went on a walk with a local guide for 5€ per person. I wasn't interested, so I stayed behind to go down to an old abbey with about four others and our bus driver. The abbey is now a cemetery.

After we picked everyone back up, we continued driving and soon hit the northern part of the Cliffs of Moher. Our driver called them "the baby cliffs." They are "only" about 100 feet high.

It was quite chilly on the cliffs, so I figured it would only be colder later on. We were getting quite hungry though, so we stopped for lunch at Fitz's Bar in the town of Doolin, where I had leek and potato soup with a ham and veggie sandwich.

From lunch, we continued on toward the main Cliffs of Moher. At the Cliffs, there is a brand-new state-of-the-art visitor center. It's built into the hills and looked pretty nice.

We had one hour at the Cliffs, so we made the most of our time there. I took pictures up and down the Cliffs, including by O'Brien's Tower. I wore my Dream Project t-shirt underneath so I could get a picture at the Cliffs. It was cold though, so I just unzipped my jacket. Nevertheless, outside of the sun being directly over the southern cliffs (making for difficult pictures), the Cliffs of Moher are stunning and beautiful.

By the time I made it back to the bus, I was pretty wiped out. I slept for the last hour or so on the bus. When we got back to Galway, we had dinner at a place called the Front Door. I had their Chicken Pot Pie, which was not very pot pie like, but it was tasty.

We went to a place called Tig Cóilí, where I had a Murphy's beer. It was alright. It's sort of like a Guinness, but a bit more bitter and less "creamy." There was live Irish music there though, which was cool. At one point, a guy sang a song, and the whole bar was supposed to be quiet. In the relative quiet, a girl in the back hiccuped, and the bartender gave her a loud, "Shhh!", which brought on a round of chuckles.

All in all, today was a very productive day of exploring Ireland, and I'm glad I got to see the Cliffs of Moher. Next time, hopefully, I can go down to the water like Dumbledore and Harry. :)

Cheerio,

Sam

Wi-Fi on the Bus to Galway

This morning, we took a bus from Dublin to Galway. It was only 10€, and you didn't even need a reservation. Thankfully, there were enough seats on board.

The bus actually had Wi-Fi, so I responded to some emails, read the news, and caught up on Facebook a bit. I did also look out the window a whole bunch, since the ride was two and half hours long. Quite sunny outside, and it reminded me a bit of Fort Collins, CO.

We arrived shortly before noon, but when we got to our B&B, it turns out they didn't have our reservation on file, even though we had booked it online. There was a mix-up in their communication, so there was no room at that place. But, luckily, they have a few sister B&B's, so we got a place at a nicer, but further away, B&B. It was a long walk though, and the lady felt bad, so she drove us.

As much as I'm enjoying the traveling and exploring, I'm losing steam quickly. Between doctor's visits in Marburg, weekend trips with friends, and my family's visit over the holidays, I've been on the road or out and about for more than three weeks straight now. I am in need of some quiet time at home, spent reading, writing, and just relaxing.

But since I'm here in Ireland, I feel like I should take advantage of what it offers as much as I can. The city of Galway is actually not very large, even though it's the largest in the West of Ireland (or the County of Galway). There are 70,000 inhabitants, of which many are university students at one of the few universities in the city. It's located on the western shores of Ireland, so it's a small sea town with pleasant scenery.

I was pretty hungry after all that walking and searching for our B&B, so we went to a place called Riordan's. For relatively affordable prices, they had some traditional Irish dishes—Shepherd's Pie and Vegetable Soup is what I had. Although the veggies and some of the potatoes were rather bland, it was overall quite good.

After lunch, we simply walked around the city center. We passed Kennedy Park, where there's a bust of President John F. Kennedy. He's quite popular here because of his Irish roots.

We also saw the house of Nora Barnacle (what a name), who was the wife of James Joyce. Apparently, he wrote a number of poems and other works in Galway.

As we were walking to the Cathedral, we were greeted by a fellow American, whom I had noticed earlier in the city center (I guess he noticed us then too). His name was William, and he was a masters student from Wyoming that now lives in Denver. He was traveling alone in Ireland for a few weeks, so we were all happy to chat together. We made plans to meet up for dinner and went exploring for a few hours. The Cathedral was quite nice. Surprisingly, not that old either.

From the Cathedral, we walked back toward the waterfront, where the city museum is located. Near the water is a monument set up by the city of Genoa, commemorating the 500th year anniversary of Christopher Columbus "discovering America." Apparently, Galway was the last part of land he touched before setting foot in the Americas.

It was quite nice along the waterfront though, and you could see the outlines of islands cross the water.

Near the museum, there is the Spanish Arch, which is one of four arches built in the 1500s. It basically leads right to the museum.

The museum closed at 5 pm though, so instead of going in for only 30 minutes, we headed around the rest of the city center. The marina is actually just on the other side.

We were not due to meet up with William until 7 pm, so we had to figure out how to spend our time. Frankly, I was quite tired from walking and would've had no problem going back to the B&B, but it was too far away to walk back there since we'd have to walk back to meet up with William for dinner. So after some more walking around and sitting in a cafe for 20 minutes (everything except restaurants and bars close around 6 pm...ridiculous!), we just chilled in St. Nicholas's Church for a good 30 minutes. I fell asleep a few times sitting in a pew.

Around 6:50 pm though, we headed back out to meet William, and he came a few minutes early, which was perfect since I was starving. We went looking for good places, but ran into a very excitable Irish chap who heard us thinking aloud. He stopped and chatted us up for a good 10 minutes, telling us about his two years in Edinburgh and other travel tales. I couldn't tell if he was a bit drunk, a bit high, or simply Irish. I do not mean that offensively either; I say that because another gentleman also came out from a bar and chatted us as well, acting very similarly to the other guy. Both were excited to share about Ireland, so it was quite interesting.

We finally decided to go back to Riardan's, since the guy said that was the best spot. He also recommended a fish & chips spot across from there, but it was far too expensive for dinner. The lunch menu was much more manageable. So back to that place we went, and this time I tried the Irish Stew, which I quickly found out is not exactly a stew (or at least what I was expecting)—much like the Shepherd's Pie I had for lunch. But it was definitely filling, though the veggies were much too bland and mushy for my taste.

Overall though, we had a nice dinner and chat with William. Very nice to meet other American travelers who have similar philosophies about the benefits of seeing other parts of the world and immersing oneself into the local culture. Good conversations and more to come as we all plan to stay in touch.

We left Riordan's stuffed, but we went down the street to a bar named Taaffe's, which a native resident of Galway had recommended earlier for drinks and live Irish music. I had a Guinness with a shot of Tia Maria (a.k.a. a Black Widow), which my roommate, Ronny, had suggested. The bartender had a very amused look on his face, so I asked if he got that request often. Apparently, not, but he would make it anyway. Turns out, it was ridiculously expensive (8,45€), so I will not be trying that again. The Guinness itself would have been the cheapest pint I've seen in Ireland so far, so next time I will just stick with that.

But as I got my drink, this Irish man in a dark sweater and dress pants sitting at the bar started talking to me and said that I should just drink straight up Guinness. I told him I'd already had plenty the past few nights, so then he just started asking me questions. Seemed to me like he'd already had a few drinks, but he wanted to know where I was from, so I obliged and told him that I was an American studying in Berlin. Then he asked me, "So who are you?"

I asked him what he meant, and he replied, "It's a simple question: who are you?" So I just started sharing a few more things about myself—what I hope to do and what my interests are. His response was, "I'm not interested in your interests or what you're like. I want to know who are you."

We went back and forth like that for a few more times with him responding each time that it was a simple question and that my answers were not answering his question. I was beginning to get a bit annoyed, and after the sixth or seventh time he said that, I don't know how to describe it but I felt this sudden warm rush of anger (perhaps frustration?) flush through my body. Weird feeling that happens very rarely, but his question made me think of Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World, in which this question is a very important philosophical question.

So I told him, "I am who I am. I'm me. I'm one of roughly 307 million Americans, but I'm somebody who wants to be somebody. That's it." I was out of things to respond with and still have no clue what he was hoping to hear from me, but he gave me this cryptic smile and said, "You answered the question." Uh huh.

He told me his name was Seamus (or "James in English") and that he was born and raised in Galway. I asked him, "How would you answer your own question: who are you?" and he said simply, "I'm me." I told him that I was going to go back to my own table, but it was nice chatting with him. Interesting encounter, I'd say. But, nice, I suppose, to interact with the locals. :)

Anyway, that was the end of our day, and now we're back at the B&B, where the shower only had scalding hot water. Unbelievable. Tomorrow, we go to the Cliffs of Moher, which are supposed to be stunning. The weather should be agreeable tomorrow, so I look forward to it. More pictures tomorrow.

Cheers,

Sam