On Friday, I had class in the morning and then I did some grocery shopping and meandered downtown for a couple hours. After we came home from being downtown we went to the theater to watch a movie that was part of Galway's Film Fleadh (festival in Gaelic). The movie was very interesting but we wanted to see it because it was one of the few Irish written and directed movies in the festival. After the film we went and ate at the Spudhouse which is a great restaurant featuring large portions, low prices, and delicious baked potatoes (prime for college students!) Afterwards we all headed out for a night on the town ;)
Saturday morning we woke up early to go to another movie playing at the festival, but this one was a documentary. The film was about a pipe that Shell is trying to put in over some of Ireland's most beautiful landscape, which would include going through some people's back yards and workplaces. It was a very inspirational and fair documentary, and the director and producer were both there to introduce the film and answer any questions. The Irish community in the area has really stood up against Shell, causing many of whom to go to jail, and it's moving to see the cause they are fighting for. The film will be coming out in the states and I'm definitely going to watch it again to see the difference in reactions of different cultures.
After the movie, a group of us ate lunch at a delicious cafe and then headed to the farmers market again to get some fresh fruits and veggies for the week. I got grapefruit, mandarin oranges, and some pears; all of which are delicious. And then after the farmers market we headed to the Gaelic Football game between Galway and Wexford. A picture of the sport is shown to the right. The sport was so interesting! It was literally a combination of a lot of sports. It had some basketball because they had to bounce the ball every couple steps, they passed it like a volley ball, they punted it like a football, and had goalies and kicked it like soccer. It was a really fun match, and it was amazing to see all of the people get so into the game! Unfortunately Galway lost to Wexford what was supposed to be a really big upset.
And then there was Sunday. Today a group of people on the trip went to The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. It was amazing! Our tour guide was a little bit cookey, but was entertaining to say the least. We headed to the Burren first, which is an area of land similar to Connamara but with different vegetation and rock formations. Our first stop was at a fort that fairies and leprechaun are supposed to live according to myths. It is called the Ballyalban Fairy Fort. But really, it was a fort where people lived during the viking invasions and they built high walls in a circle around the small area with a moat on the outside to keep enemies out! A picture of the forts is shown to the left.
The next stop along the tour was Poulnabrone Dolmen, which is a tomb. The tomb was the sight of the burial of 23 unidentified people from ancient times. The sight is marked with 4 rocks in a formation. A picture of the structure is shown to the right. It was constructed by Neolithic farmers and is approximately 5800 years old (which makes it older than the Egyptian Pyramids!). It was really impressive to see that stones that large were moved and arranged by ancient people to make the burial ground of the 23 men women and children who had lost there lives. Unfortunately, it is unknown how the people lost their lives or why they were all buried there. The landscape there was amazing! It was a limestone layer, but somehow vegetation has found it's way through the cracks, which you can kind of see in the picture posted.
Then we went to the big event for the day, The Cliffs of Moher! The cliffs are up to 700 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, and are 8 kilometers long! It was seriously the most amazing place I have ever seen in my life! I was really scared to go near the edge at first and then gained enough courage to! Boy was it amazing! I really want to see the cliffs from a boat at the bottom because I bet they would be even more impressive. I have 2 pictures of the cliffs for you to see because I cannot even describe the beauty that I witnessed. There will be many more on my facebook when I can get them to upload.
Well that wraps up this weekend! I have a field trip to the Aran Islands tomorrow so I will post about that really soon! :) Thanks for reading...
<3 Ashley
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