Today we took a tour of the Connemara region. Our bus driver was hilarious. He intermittently gave us info about various parts of the region as he was driving.
We stopped a few times to take pictures and “stretch our legs.” The entire region is quite beautiful. Luckily, the weather was really nice today, so the trip was quite enjoyable.
Also- there are sheep everywhere. Its actually kind of funny. I never really believed those scenes in movies where a car gets stuck because of the cattle crossing a road- well now I can, because there were sheep along the road side and at some points we had to stop because they were in the middle of the road. There were also some kamikaze sheep. It was quite amusing.
At one point we had a 1/2 hour drink stop in a small town. While most of the group headed to the bar, I hit the Sheep and Wool shop and got some Irish Wool for mom to make something out of later. Then I just sort of hung around and took pictures of the Killary Fjord.
Midday we went to the Kylemore Estate which is home to the Kylemore Abbey. The entire estate is set amidst a bunch of mountains and is located right on a lake. It was all very picturesque. I took the shuttle to check out the walled victorian garden which was really interesting. They had the old farmers houses set up for people to check out. After that I headed towards the Abbey. Because it still houses Benedictine nuns, only a small portion of the first floor of the abbey was open to look through. Sadly, I didnt see any nuns. (It hasn't always been home to nuns, it used to be a private estate- for info on the history of Kylemore- wiki it, its actually kind of interesting)
After that I took a walk along Pollacappul Lake to the neo-gothic style church that is part of the compound. The church was really small, but pretty amazing. Close by is the mausoleum of the original owner and his wife.
After I saw the church and the mausoleum I walked back toward the entrance where there was a restaurant, craft shop and pottery studio. The walk is very refreshing/ relaxing along the water. I was a creeper and stopped to take a picture of three girls who were tossing stones into the lake. It was a super cute shot.
Once back to the entrance I hit the craft shop. Through the window I watched some of the pottery being made. On the grounds they make pottery, soap, and jam. The pottery was a bit expensive (Im not paying €13 for a coffeecup) but I did buy some jam to take home with me. I got Gooseberry and Lemon Rhubarb. I though Id try something a little different that the typical flavors that they also sold.
I then grabbed a quick lunch of soup and coffee before rushing back to the bus.
Once we were all on the bus and sorted, we made our way back to Galway through a different part of Connemara than we came through.
After a few more picture breaks, we made it back to Corrib Village for the evening.
Im spending the evening hanging out. Contemplating working on stuff for class (or not). Ill probably head to bed early because Im heading to Donegal in the morning.
Only two more weeks left in Ireland :( Time is flying.
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