Stories from Galway!

Hello everyone!

Here are some of the stories of the fun times I had last weekend in Galway.

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When we first arrived in Galway, we walked out of the train station and began to search for our hostel. Just across the street from the train station was a hostel, with a sign that read similar to the name of the hostel we were looking for, but not exactly. I Said we should go there first, just to check and see before we head off to the rest of the city.

Instead, the girls were sure that wasn't it, so we moved on. We went past Kennedy Square, down Shop street, and around and around, until we ended up finding the hostel...right where I said it was originally.

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After settling our stuff in, we went for a walk to see the city in the afternoon and just explore a bit. We ended up down in the bay and walked down to the water. As it was for the entire trip, the weather was beautiful and sitting down by the bay at dusk was amazing.

I got some great pictures while we were there as well. While we were sitting there, a dog walked up and sat down next to me and just stared at me. now, having lived with Guinness, my dog, for so many years, I knew exactly what the look meant, and that this was not the first time this dog had given it.

The dog had no collar or anyone near by walking with it, so we came to the conclusion it was a stray and didn't mind sharing our sunset with him. He just sat there, calm as we were, looking out into the water. he left a few times to go explore a bit, say hi to some other dog,s but he always came back, sat down and chilled with us.

There was something very calming about this experience because as anyone would, I sat there a bit skeptical of being so close for so long with a stray dog, but at the same time, there was nothing awkward about it, but rather it was incredible to feel connected with a being who is just looking for a friend.

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We had dinner just off Shop street at Riordan's. It was a hole in eh wall place, which of corse means it was phenomenal. The food was great, and we spent the time talking about the adventures we were soon to be on. One of the really cool things about Riordan''s was that each table was graced with the photo of a great Irish author, such as James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Shaw, Synge and others.

At first I thought it was just cool decoration, but then I looked at the order receipt and noticed that part of the order form had a section labeled "author". Basically, instead of numbering their tables, like most every restaurant in the world, they are each labeled, or named rather, after the picture that hangs on the wall over it.

We sat at James Joyce. The food was great, as it was all authentic irish cuisine. What's Irish cuisine you ask? Things like a good Irish stew, shepherds pie, and many various forms of steak and potatoes. It was delicious, and after eating we made our way down the road and across the river to The Crane!

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Now, for many visitors to Galway, The Crane is a good place to visit for a pint, experience traditional music and good times. For me however, there was more motivation to visit The Crane.

Ever since my parents went to Galway, and then my older brother Tim, I have heard over and over again, if you go to Ireland, you MUST go to Glaway and you MUST go to the Crane. So this was going to happen no matter what, and I was excited because I have heard so much about it.

We finally got there, and it was just a great as I expected it to be. I could see my Mom, Dad and Tim all spending nights there. A hole in the wall pub, on a random street, with great people and music inside. I got myself a pint of Guinness, and sat down to soak in the atmosphere. We left The Crane early the first night, so as to get ample sleep for the Cliffs the next day. But I went back to The Crane the next night and got to experience a session at The Crane!

There was actually two sessions, one downstairs, and one bigger one upstairs. The upstairs session was a collection of around 12 musicians of various instruments playing away. It was fantastic!!

As I sat there, I came to the conclusion that The Crane was not just a pub in Galway, but rather, is is the home pub of the Russell family Ireland.

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The next day, we headed to the Cliffs of Moher and walking tour of the Burren. What an incredible day it was!

When we got to the Burren, the mountains make the landscape look like nothing but rock, limestone to be specific. We arrived at the family farm of John Connolly. John works every day on the cattle farm, where they graze, raise and milk cows. His family has owned that farm for over 300 years, so its common to become part of the family business when you grow up. John however also has degrees in Archeology and Irish Heritage from Galway University, and his great knowledge of all that really made our tour incredible.

We started off seeing the cows and newborn calfs in the farm, then made our way up the mountain. As we climbed, not only did the view get more and more incredible, but the mist and rain clouds lifted and the beautiful sunny weather came through. John told us how the mountains formed millions of years ago during the last major ice age, when the land that is now Ireland was located near the equator.

As the sea water retreated, the decaying prehistoric plant and fish matter that had settled to the ocean floor was then exposed to the air, and combined with the seaweed and soil it hardened to create the limestone. The soil that was then on top of the limestone was taken away by glaciers moving along, and that is why there is all the soil and green grass in the valley, where the glaciers melted down and left the soil, and mostly rock in the mountain, where the soil was carried away.

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We also learned a lot about the history of farming in the Burren and the life of the farmers. As expected, there we many, many stone walls built by the farmers to separate their land from other families, or to divided land for their sons to own when they grew up.

The interesting thing that I saw was that there was also stone walls going over the mountains. now, I of corse was wondering, why would it be necessary to build stone walls over and across the mountains, and the answer comes from the time of the Famine. During the famine, the farmers had no work and the English would not give them money or food unless they 'earned' it. So, the English rulers made up the job of building stone walls over the mountains for a penny or bowl of soup per day.

They thought this up for a few reasons, one, it cleared more stone our of fields that the English wanted to build their homes in. Second, while they were obligated to give the poor work, they did not want to give them jobs that were in any way productive to a positive economy, thus ensuring that Ireland's economy was never a threat to that of the British Empire. These stone walls still stand today, untouched, as a reminder of the hardships and treatment the poor Irish farmers of the Burren dealt with during the famine.

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About halfway up the mountain, we came to a white thorn tree, a tree that holds lots of significance and importance in Irish folklore. This tree, though, was being used as part of an old farmers tradition which tells that if you have things in your life that are troubling you, and you make the climb to the tree, tie a piece of cloth around the tree for you problem, and in doing so leave the troubles there and move on with a lightened load.

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How did John end our tour? By giving us some of his Mom's fresh, homemade apple pie and fresh cream from his next door neighbors farm. It was delicious and nutritious! But mostly delicious.

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When we got to the Cliffs of Moher, I was immediately struck by the beauty of the landscape. The weather was gorgeous, sunny, clear visibility and warm, around 55-60 the whole day. We began by walking up the north side of the cliffs, towards the observation tower. This part of the cliffs is the highest point of the entire cliffs. After going as far to that side as we could, we went back across to the south aide of the cliffs, and this was when I was really introduced to the cliffs.

Ever since the first sight I got o the cliffs, I have been looking for words to describe the kind of beauty I was experiencing. After sitting on the edge of the cliffs numerous times, and this was the kind to being on the edge that if my shoe slipped off, it was 700 feet to the ocean and thats it, I think I have come up with a pretty accurate description.

The Cliffs of Moher are a terrifyingly beautiful.

It was quite and peaceful, even though I was one big gust of wind away from flying

Sitting so close to the edge, with my Mom's voice in my head telling me to back up NOW!, I experienced feelings of absolute terror as well as tranquil peace of mind. I am not sure that there is anything else I have see in the world that evoked this kind of reaction, and it is something I will remember for the rest of my life.

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The next day, we took the ferry and spent the whole day tour the Aran Isalnds on Inis Mor. Again, the weather was incredible, and the day was incredible.

First, when we got of the ferry, we met man near one of the bike shops who asked us what we planned on doing for the day. We responded that we had no idea, but were trying to figure that out. He replied, "O well come with me and I'll show you the whole Island". It turned out to be one of the best tours I've ever had.

He was one of the Islands 800 residents, and thus we really got the best information straight from a local, what more could you ask for?

One of the coolest things we saw on the North East coast of the Island was the Sea Lion colony! From the road we were on, it looked like just a bunch of big rocks, but as we walked closer down the bluffs to the water, we could see that it was a sea lion colony. I thought it was incredible because I had never been near wild sea lions before, and it was really quite a site to see them sun bathing there on the beach.

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"Everything on the Island is done in threes, as our guide told us", he said, "We have three schools, three medical professionals (1 doctor and 2 nurses), three cemeteries, three churches, and six pubs!"

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The biggest traffic jam we ran into on the one lane roads throughout the islands was when three horse-drawn carriages tired to pass each other.

I also had the opportunity to climb up to Dun Aengus, which is a 3,000 year old stone circle fort built by an ancient celtic settlement that lived on the island. It sits on a cliff that is 300 ft. above the atlantic ocean. Looking out from the top you can almost see New York!

From the fort, you could also look across the way and see the Cliffs of Moher! It was really cool to see the cliffs from the other side.

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Currently, there is one priest for the 3 churches on Inis Mor, but as far as just 4 years ago, there was one priest for all three of the Aran Isalnds. To serve the communities on a busy sunday, the priest had a two seater plan that he would fly from church to church on each island. As our guide told us, "while the mainland might have hawks and eagles and cool birds, we've got the flying priests!"

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If you took all the stone walls around Inis Mor and put them end to end, you would create a stone wall over 7,000 miles long!

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one thing you can find on Inis Mor is the smallest church in all of Europe.
Teampall Bheanain is a stone church dating to very early Christianity, and measures only 11 feet by 8 feet!

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One of the places we saw was the Seven Churches. This is in the middle of the island, and use to be a monastery and is still a working cemetery for the residents of Inis Mor.

A couple cool facts about this site, first is that there was only two churches in the monastery. The settlement dates as far back as the 5th and 6th centuries, and there were actually only two churches, with the other buildings being the domestic homes of the monks.

During the early centuries, the schools on the Aran Islands were already world renown. This is proven by the graves of 6 individuals in this monastery. The Romans" as they have been named, were students who left 4th century Rome and went to school on the Aran Islands, and then ended up living out the rest of their lives on Inis Mor.

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We were so tired after the day at the Aran Islands that we got back to the hostel and played scrabble all night. It was fantastic! Even though I came in last place.....

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I am still in awe of some of the things I had the fortune to experience while on my weekend trip to the west coast, and these stories and pictures will surely help me remember the great times I had.

I hope these few stories I have shared with you help to share the experience I had.

pictures to come soon, so be on the look out!

Best
Patrick