Galway

So it's almost a week later, but I will show some pictures of what all I saw. We took an early morning bus from Dublin and arrived in a rainy bus station. The plan was to go to the Aran Isles that day, but the weather was way too rough, if you've seen my previous posts with the wind and such...

So anyways, we chose to go to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren. Our first stop was some sort of grave. I didnt get close enough because when I got off the bus, the cold wind and rain were so bad I wasnt off the bus but 5 minutes. The rain was coming from the side and my umbrella was getting flipped inside out and back again. So I got back inside quickly and had a talk with the tour guide, Paul. I've been learning so much in my film and theatre classes and going to these tours, you hear things that help fill in the gaps. We made a few stops to look at pretty scenery and castles. Then hit the Cliffs. After that, we went to a small town for lunch. It was a very windy day, that's for sure. We drove along the coast and got to get out for a few more pictures. There was no way that you could have good hair that day, just wasnt gonna happen!

That night we went into the city centre in Galway. We checked out a few different local pubs, got to see some traditional music - called Trad Music.

The next day we caught our 2nd tour. It was great. The B&B we were staying at was connected with our tours, so we got dropped off after our cliffs tour - this is after they dropped off the whole tour at the bus station, then preceded to take the two of us back (hehe) and then we had the tour bus waiting for us the next morning outside our B&B. Good service! That means we got first dibs at seats on the bus.

So we ended up going to Connemara. This is such a beautiful area, so peaceful, so sad and emotional. We were at the famine fields, where the English sent the Irish to live and starve. I had more one on one talks with this tour guide as well, also named Paul. We stopped at the film site of The Quiet Man and I got some pictures. Then we went to Kylemore Abbey, this amazingly beautiful castle, garden and abbey.

In the pictures you'll see Galway bay, a little road to leads into the bay with an 80kph speed limit, a rainbow (perfect for Ireland!), a Connemara poney, rare and special to see, funny signs, the cast of the quiet man and it's house, and the Kylemore castle - inside and out.