Ireland Days 3-4

Yesterday morning, we left Doolin to head to Galway. On the way, we stopped at Poul-na-brone, a Neolithic passage tomb in the Burren. We didn't spend much time there because it was pouring, but the rain had stopped by the time we got to Caherconnell, an Iron Age ring fort, the rain had stopped. We watched the informational video and then wandered around the ruins of the fort. This fort was particularly interesting to me because according to the video, it was probably built sometime before 1000AD, which is the approximate time period in literature I'm interested in; physical evidences of that time period give me a new appreciation for the literature.

After Caherconnell, we went to Coole Park, the home of Lady Augusta Gregory, one of the leaders of the Celtic Revival at the turn of the 20th century. While her house no longer stands (it was torn down in the 1940s), the land belongs to the state and it's beautiful. We walked down to the lake, where I spent a very happy hour sitting alone on a rock watching the swans and contemplating life. One of the things I've come to appreciate most on this trip is the amount of freedom Dr. Kelly is giving us; he's very much OK with us going off alone as long as we get back to the group by the appointed time.

We arrived in Galway, the land of (some of) my ancestors, in the late afternoon. Some of the girls wanted to go out for fish and chips for dinner, so we found a place down past Eyre Square in the center of Galway; it ended up being one of the worst dinners ever. I decided that I wanted to experience things, so I ordered salmon and chips, which was terrible. The salmon just tasted like oil and the chips were bad too.

No one really liked their dinner, so we headed off to find music. We went to three different pubs and at the last one, one of our group, Charles, signed up for open mic and did a few songs. The nice thing about this group of people is that we all get along well and spent most of the evening together, with the exception of trickling back to the hotel in smaller groups at the end of the night. I came back around 11, thinking I'd go straight to bed, but my body, still not happy with the fish and chips from earlier, rebelled. I ended up being sick most of the night. I went to breakfast anyway, where Dr. Kelly, after hearing about my night, gave me the option to stay at the hotel today and go to the Aran Islands tomorrow alone. I was tempted, but remembered my travel motto: "What would Sam do?" I reasoned that, unless she was ill enough to be hospitalized, Sam would probably suck it up and go anyway, so that's what I did. I stopped by a chemist for some nausea medication and off we went.

I definitely made the right choice because between the medication and the fresh air, it didn't take me long to start feeling much better. In fact, while we were hiking up Dun Aengus, I was with Charles and Dr. Kelly and realized that I felt 100% better. We had great weather on Inishmore and a great bus tour guide--I was so glad to have the chance to go back! I bought a handmade cream wool cap in the sweater shop, which I'm loving.

The ferry ride back to Galway was quite exciting; the sea was pretty choppy most of the way and then a Garda Cósta (Irish Coast Guard) helicopter came up to our ferry and did some kind of drill where they lowered a guy down onto the ferry and then retrieved him. It was a fun day, but I was happy to see Nigel and our bus when we got off the ferry.

Tomorrow's a free day, so stay tuned for more exciting Galway adventures!