Connemara Adventure
(The pictures have been updated. Check them out under both the blog album and my Ireland album.)
It's been a great week for travelling around Ireland. Today I did a nice, cheap bus tour with some friends of mine from work, Bastien (France) and Thomas (Poland.) We got on the bus around 10a.m. and were off for Connemara, which is basically surrounds Galway on the North and West. The Connemara is a barren, beautiful, and stark landscape. It's mountainous, rugged, and glacially carved. It actually felt like I was up in British Columbia, near Atlin while we took this drive, the landscapes are very similar, only B.C. and the Yukon don't have insane numbers of sheep. There were really cool bogs near here, and I finally learned exactly what a bog is: it's condensed and decayed plant matter (similar to coal when you dry it out, but cleaner.) They dry it out and burn it for fuel.
Anyway, we stopped in a town on the way called Leenane, which is right on the mouth of Ireland's only fjord, Killary fjord. From there the bus took us to Kylemore Abbey. This giant place was built by a British dude who dedicated it to his wife as a honeymoon present. Wow. When she passed away he even built her a church. Talk about dedication. The bus then took us down to the Southern Galway coast and through Spiddal. No bogs here though, just lots of "Connemara Ponies," which seemed to be our tour guide's favorite thing to describe. There were also an insane amount of stone fences to mark territory and to free up the soil of stone so it could be used for planting. The result: an insane number of fences and houses made out of the abundant stones.
I ended up back in Galway around supper-time, and treated myself to dinner at Riodan's, a restaurant on Quay street that serves "traditional" Irish food. I had Seafood Chowder and Shepherd's pie, and could barely walk out of the restaurant. It was delicious, affordable, putting Riordan's on my "top restaurant's in Galway" short-list.
That's all for now.
Cheers,
-Nate
"Midnight, our sons and daughters. Were cut down and taken from us.Hear their heartbeatWe hear their heartbeat."-U2
Website of the Day: http://bbspot.com/News/2005/03/top_11_messy_office.html Why a messy office is better than a clean one. Maybe they'll have a "Why a messy room..." as well..it would apply to me :).
It's been a great week for travelling around Ireland. Today I did a nice, cheap bus tour with some friends of mine from work, Bastien (France) and Thomas (Poland.) We got on the bus around 10a.m. and were off for Connemara, which is basically surrounds Galway on the North and West. The Connemara is a barren, beautiful, and stark landscape. It's mountainous, rugged, and glacially carved. It actually felt like I was up in British Columbia, near Atlin while we took this drive, the landscapes are very similar, only B.C. and the Yukon don't have insane numbers of sheep. There were really cool bogs near here, and I finally learned exactly what a bog is: it's condensed and decayed plant matter (similar to coal when you dry it out, but cleaner.) They dry it out and burn it for fuel.
Anyway, we stopped in a town on the way called Leenane, which is right on the mouth of Ireland's only fjord, Killary fjord. From there the bus took us to Kylemore Abbey. This giant place was built by a British dude who dedicated it to his wife as a honeymoon present. Wow. When she passed away he even built her a church. Talk about dedication. The bus then took us down to the Southern Galway coast and through Spiddal. No bogs here though, just lots of "Connemara Ponies," which seemed to be our tour guide's favorite thing to describe. There were also an insane amount of stone fences to mark territory and to free up the soil of stone so it could be used for planting. The result: an insane number of fences and houses made out of the abundant stones.
I ended up back in Galway around supper-time, and treated myself to dinner at Riodan's, a restaurant on Quay street that serves "traditional" Irish food. I had Seafood Chowder and Shepherd's pie, and could barely walk out of the restaurant. It was delicious, affordable, putting Riordan's on my "top restaurant's in Galway" short-list.
That's all for now.
Cheers,
-Nate
"Midnight, our sons and daughters. Were cut down and taken from us.Hear their heartbeatWe hear their heartbeat."-U2
Website of the Day: http://bbspot.com/News/2005/03/top_11_messy_office.html Why a messy office is better than a clean one. Maybe they'll have a "Why a messy room..." as well..it would apply to me :).
posted by Nate at
2:12 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Nate- I really like your blog. It gives me something to look foward to read while i am at work! I am glad you are having fun!
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