I went downtown on Sunday with one of my friends just expecting a nice quiet day walking along shop street. To the left is a photo of shop street in Galway. It was crowded! There were so many people, and a lot of younger Spanish students were having a scavenger hunt so they were running everywhere! Then as we were walking we came across a farmers market. They had really great food, jewelry and other Irish items. We spent quite a bit of time just roaming through looking at everything! They had fresh fish, fresh herbs, amazing cheeses, hummus, breads, fruits and veggies! We found out that it was every Saturday and will most definitely be going back!
And then there was the 4th of July! Everyone in our group dressed up in Red, White and Blue and we had a BBQ at the apartments we are staying at. To the right is a picture of a majority of the group. I helped BBQ and everything was soo good! We had chicken and burgers and fruit salad. Pretty american, eh? After we finished w/ the BBQ and cleaned up we headed downtown to get free drinks (yes a pub was offering free drinks) because we were Americans! It was a really fun day, and it was honestly one of the best 4th of July's I've had and I wasn't even in the states, which is slightly ironic.
Yesterday I spent in Connemara. Connemara is a beautiful area in Ireland known for it's breathtaking landscape. It was so beautiful that words can't describe it, and the pictures don't even do it justice. The picture to the left is a picture of our first stop which was some really majestic mountains. Most of the bus ride featured mountainous landscapes similar to those until we got to the Atlantic Ocean.
While we were on our way to the ocean we stopped at Kylemore Abbey, which was a house for a rich man when it was first built. He sold it to nuns before his death and it was then used as a girls boarding school but has since been renovated and is now a tourist destination and has tours. A picture of this is shown to the right. It is a Gothic style architecture and was really beautiful. Unfortunately we were unable to go in it but we were able to stop and take pictures from across the lake.
Once we got to the Ocean we stopped in a really small fishing community where there was a fjord (kind of like a natural deep water port that isn't used as a port).When we were at the ocean, we walked along a famine relief road. The road was built during the famine by starving peasants and anyone needing extra money for food. The road goes from nowhere to nowhere and was a pointless road. We listened to our tour guide talk about the famine and the struggles since. It was a very interesting story and it made me thing how good we have it now days. Over 1 million people died just over 150 million years ago, and here I am spending money to study in another country. I'm so lucky to live the life I do. There is a photo to the left showing the view was we were walking famine road.
On the way home we encountered more amazing landscape and stopped and looked at another monastery in the town of Cong. Cong reminded me so much of Etna, it was a quiet little town, and while I was there I saw 2 tractors drive through town, it made me smile and feel a little more at home. As the week continues I have just had class and done a little grocery shopping. I'm really looking forward to the weekend, it's going to be jam packed, and I can't wait to share my adventures with everyone. On that note I'm going to leave with a couple pictures that I have taken that I'd really like to share. The one with the boat was taken at the lake in front of Kylemore Abbey, and the fisherman one was taken in the small fishing town. Thanks for reading :)
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