Thursday, April 7, 2011

Day #79 : Connemara, Ireland

Today we had a bus tour around Connemara, Ireland! Oh my gosh, Ireland is the most beautiful natural place I have ever been to in my life! (This does not count the mountain in Assisi where Francis' hermitage was. I would count that one as a blend of natural and supernatural).
We were picked up right at our hostel. Our bus driver was a man by the name of Michael O'Mally. He was very funny and very amusing. He was our tour guide and told jokes, stories, and facts as we drove. Where did we go? We went to the Ross Errilly Friary, an abandoned friary in Ireland. It was surrounded by fields of sheep - there were sheep almost everywhere! We saw a mountain called Camel Mountain, which had two humps like a camel. And guess what, Mary Sullivan... we saw the village where they filmed part of The Quiet Man: a tiny town called Cong! The Quiet Man is probably the most unusual John Wayne movie you will ever see, but it's a good movie and I saw it in Kentucky on St. Patrick's Day surrounded by Irish people! We saw some amazing lakes, such as Lough Corrib, Lough Na Fooey, and Lough Mask. We also saw Kilmoore Abbey, which was originally a great house built by an English gentleman as a vacation home, but he moved away and it was eventually bought by Benedictine sisters who turned it into a school, and now it is a tourist area, though it is still run by Benedictines. We saw the house, which reminded me somewhat of Kingwood only more castle-looking on the outside. There was also a chapel to see and a mausoleum where the Englishman and his wife were buried. We had a race with a Connemara pony on our bus -the Connemara pony is a mix between the Connemara horse and the Spanish pony. The bus raced with the horse then we stopped to pet and feed him. We also saw a Kairn, which is an ancient stone monument erected in honor of the dead, older than Stone Henge and the pyramids. We learned about the Great Famine, and about the Irish homes. In the old days when the IRish people had to rent their land from the landlords, the landlords were going to charge them for windows in their homes. So to get around it, the IRish people stuffed up their windows with stones and cut their doors in half, so there was a lower door and an upper door. So they could keep the top door open to let the light in and the lower door was kept shut. The landlords didn't like that and said, "They are stealing the living daylights out of us!" So that's where that phrase came from! We saw the city of Recess, too, in Joyce County! I am falling in love with Ireland more and more every day... the people here are so kind and friendly. The sheep are so cute!!! They have little lambs! There are panda sheep, too, with black markings. The bus driver was joking that the ladies on the bus tour could try to sneak one of the lambs into their hand bags. If I could, that would be my souvenir from Ireland. So we have been through County Galway, County Mayo, and County Joyce. It was a great tour, and I got lots of pictures!
We finished the day by meeting with an Irish priest friend of mine named Fr. Sean, who took us out to dinner. He was very generous to us! I finished my first pint of Guinness there, too! Best beer I have ever tasted. It was a wonderful dinner! Tomorrow we are going on a tour of the Cliffs of Moher!

1 comment:

  1. This brings such joy and jealousy to my heart! I was mentioned on your blog, AND you say the Quiet Man village!?!? NICE! AHhh! And ponies and sheep and old friaries.... ugh, I hope you took a TON of pictures young lady! I know, isn't Ireland the BEST!? Now you have at least some idea of why I gush so much about it. <3

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