Connemara Via Bus!

Today was a bit of an earlier morning, but not so bad waking up. Marit, luckily, didn't have to work in her lab very long, so the four of us (Josh, Dani, Marit, and myself) biked down to Eyre Square to catch a bus to tour Connemara. After a quick stop at the Spar for snacks, we boarded and started our journey.


We went by way of the sea at first, passing through Salthill and Spiddal, another seaside town. The road then went off north, and we passed through the hilly countryside that is Connemara. This bus tour made lots of photo stops, likely because there were only six of us on the bus. It was nice, though. We got to see Ireland's "Niagra Falls" (haha) as well.


We stopped for a break at Maam Cross, and saw a replica of the "Quiet Man" Cottage, near where a John Wayne film was shot. It looked neat, but the figures inside were really creepy. We also climbed to the top of a lookout tower in the hotel there, where we got a nice view of the landscape. It would have been better if someone had taken the time to actually wash the windows at some point in the past year. Oh well.


From there we drove through the mountains, passing the Maamturks and the Twelve Bens mountains. The Inagh Valley lies between them, as does the road, so it made for some lovely scenery. After a bit longer we got to our lunch stop - Kylemore Abbey. We spent two hours exploring the abbey, which is now a school. It was built by a wealthy man for his wife (lucky girl, eh?) back in the day, but sold to Benedictine nuns after World War II. It's beautiful, though.


The weather was really nice, so we took a walk around the lake, taking in some nice scenery and fresh air. We saw the Gothic church near the lake and also a mausoleum for the man and woman who lived here originally. After our walk, we had lunch in the cafeteria. I had a sort of roast and potatoes, which was in a Guinness/gravy sauce. Sounds interesting, but it wasn't bad at all. We got ice cream after that and headed back to the bus for the rest of our trip.

We made another photo stop right near Killary Fjord - Ireland's only fjord - outside of the town of Leenane. It was gorgeous! Completely unexpected, too. I've actually made one of the pictures I took into my computer's desktop background it was so good!


On the way back to Galway, we all fell asleep! Guess it was more exhausting than you'd expect riding around all day in the bus. We made it back into Galway around 4PM, so Marit and I ran to Dunnes to stock up on groceries before cycling back to Corrib Village. For the rest of the night, we lounged around, relaxing and watching TV. Ruth, Bryan, Marit, and a few others went to see Die Hard 4, and while there pre-ordered Harry Potter tickets for us for Thursday! I can't wait!

You can find the rest of the pictures from this adventure here. Well, back to work tomorrow. Cheers!