I met Emily at the airport on Saturday morning and we took the bus straight over to Galway to do a bit of touring about. After securing hostel accommodations for the night, we took on the town, wandering around the food and craft stalls on the aptly-named Market Street, perusing the claddagh rings at Thomas Dillon’s (the original claddagh ring shop), walking through the Spanish Arch, and of course, listening to Galway Girl on my iPod as we walked along the Salthill Prom. We found the cutest little tea room for lunch, then caught a nap back at the hostel before going out to experience the nightlight Galway is known for.
We made our way up and down High Street, chatting first with an older couple from Dublin seated at the table next to us who’d decided to take a post-holiday weekend away, then with a recent arrival from America on her semester abroad who knew a girl from Iowa (our state may be small, but at 3 million inhabitants, I don’t quite know everyone in it), and later on a group of Welshmen out on the town for the weekend who were highly amused by our attempts at Irish dancing during the traditional music session (I should note that neither of us have the slightest clue how to Irish dance, aside from what we’ve learned through clips of Riverdance).
Sunday was the more touristy day, and we spent the majority of it on a bus tour around Connemara, and the sun was nice enough to break through the clouds just as we arrived at Kylemore Abbey (see below)– a very picturesque area and it’s no wonder that the couple fell in love with the area on their honeymoon and decided to build their castle there, though Margaret Henry died suddenly just a few years after construction was completed. It’s said that Mitchell Henry was a kind and fair landlord who provided work, shelter, and even schooling for his worker’s children during the years following the Great Irish Famine, and that his treatment of tenants was rivaled not just in Connemara, but in all of Ireland from the time he built the castle in 1867 until he sold it in 1903. The castle has since been converted into an Abbey and gardens, and there is still an active community of Benedictine nuns living and working on the land.
We also stopped at a faerie tree along the way (above), a part of Celtic mythology that lives on as the portal to the faerie world – as the story goes, if you leave an article of clothing tied to the tree (or post nearby), your wish will come true. More likely the Irishmen giving the tours have a good laugh at people deciding which items to leave. But truly, most Irishmen will tell you that they don’t believe in faeries, but they also wouldn’t dream of cutting down a sacred faerie tree – that’s just asking for it from the faeries!
After a full day on our bus tour around the region, and cameras full of the scenic winter vistas, we caught a bus straight back to Dublin via the airport for Emily to catch her Sunday evening flight – just a quick trip over, but when it’s only a 45 minute flight, you can do a one-night stay and still fit in quite a lot. I’m excited for more people to come visit in nicer weather so the next time I’m out to Galway we can get out to the Aran Islands! For now, I’ll go back to the books for another week before traveling to Cork next weekend with my ultimate Frisbee team – should be an adventure to say the least!
