Galway and the Aran Islands!

Incredible! Magical! Perfect :) I love Galway. This has been my favorite trip so far because our hostel was great, it was just three of us travelling together, the city is friendly and cute, there were breathtaking sites, and plenty of adventure. Galway is in the south of Ireland on the west coast. James Joyce's wife, Nora Barnacle, lived in Galway. We went to see her house, it was very modest looking. It was a small, two level house that was crammed in between a whole row of identical looking houses. It had a blue door and cute lacy curtains, which I'm SURE are the same ones she had in the early 1900's :) We couldn't go inside because the tours were closed for the season.

The first day we were there we went to the grand opening of the town's Christmas market! It was a huge attraction and so much fun. There were french crepes, spanish candies, german sausages, danish dooughnuts, a bunch of handcrafted items, Christmas carols, Christmas lights, little kids running around, and everyone was so friendly.

The next day we took an hour ferry ride to the Aran Islands and took a bus tour. I would have much rather rented bikes and gone out on our own, but it was real cold and windy. The bus was fun though because we learned some history and we stopped to get out and explore whenever we wanted. The first thing I noticed were the incredible looking stone walls everywhere! There are huge pastures filled with knee high hand made stone walls from the 1600's. There is no concrete filling to hold the rocks together, they are just balancing on eachother. Isn't that absolutely amazing that they have lasted this long? These stone walls cover the entire island, and I learned why they were built in the first place. My first thought was they were meant for dividing properties, but this reason actually came secondary. When settlers first came to the island, it was covered in sheets of limestone. They needed green grassy pastures to farm, so what they did was break apart the limestone into little peices in order to clear out room for grass to grow. Since they were so heavy, there was no other way of getting rid of them than to stack them ontop of eachother, thus producing thousands of miles of winding stone walls.

We continued on and saw a few thatched roof houses (the roofs are replaced every 60 years or so), some sheep and cows, and ruins of 17th century stone houses. Our first stop was the fort of Dun Aengus. It was built to protect the villages if ever they were invaded. It is a huge semi-circle wall that stops literally at the edge of the 330 feet high cliffs that jet out into the ocean. This was the most spectacular and magical feeling I have ever felt standing at the edge of these cliffs. There are no ropes, fences, or signs that stop you from going right up to the edge (and right over the edge if you're not careful). All you can see beyond the cliffs is the ocean and the sunset :) I took tons of pictures, but I just wish everyone could have experienced it like I did because it's impossible to capture that feeling in a photograph. Afterwards we went to a cafe (the same cafe that was filmed in Leap Year) and had some Irish stew and vegetable soup to warm us up. We went to the 3 tiny shopping stores there and I bought a hand made crouchet headband from the nice little lady that that makes them.

Along our next busride we spotted some seals and snapped a few photos. We then got some coffee, got back on the ferry, and made it home to our friendly and conveniently located hostel. I used the last of my own money on this trip! So thank you Mom, Dad, Granny, and everyone who has helped me pay for this! I am now waiting for my 400 pound check from my financial aid to get cashed :) Dad I haven't checked my mail yet for your package but I will tomorrow. I'm sure it's here by now! So exciting!

I can only post 4 or 5 pictures on this blog, but if you want to see all my Ireland photos, go to this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050463&id=1578300060&l=b6cfd6158b

Just copy and paste it into your Internet browser.