For the past four days, I have spent my time in Galway, which is on the other side of Ireland! The bus ride  was quite the experience. We stayed in Corrib Village, which were student accommodations. In other words, it was a bit spartan. Nevertheless, I was in Galway! For my Literature group, we went to Clonalis House & Estate, which belong to the O’Conor family, who were descended from the High Kings of Ireland. This house tour was a bit shorter than others, as the family still lived in the house. Nevertheless, it was interesting to explore a house of wealth. It also reminds me of how I probably will never reach that level of wealth. The estate itself was beautiful, and I would’ve loved to explore it even more. However, it was raining and I really didn’t have proper shoes for that.

The next day, we went to the Aran Islands, specifically Inis Mor. The ferry ride over was a nightmare! The seas were choppy, so the boat kept going up and down. It also rocked back and forth. The sad thing is that this lasted for 45 minutes. When we finally got off, it was almost like we were in a different world. Inis Mor only has around 800 people, so it was sparsely populated. Also, a good portion of the population fluently spoke Gaelic, so there were quite a few things that were in Gaelic. We climbed to Dun Aonghusa, an ancient fort above the village. The wind was so strong up there that I thought I was going to fall off! I checked out a few shops and then we had to endure another ferry ride back. Thankfully, this one was a lot calmer. Afterwards, we got food and called it a day.

Our only main trip for the next day was visiting Coole Park, which was gorgeous. It belonged to Lady Gregory, who helped established Irish theatre. Because of her, the Abbey Theatre exists. She also helped finance W.B. Yates, showing just how important she was. One interesting sight in the park was a signature tree where she had her famous guests carve their names into the bark. Of course, I should’ve done that knowing just how important I am (this is all in humor), but there was a guard around the tree. Another beautiful sight was seeing a river that goes underground. The grass so green and the location was so serene. I would love to have stayed here for a few hours.

On the last day in Galway, it was a free day. Some people were going to go horseback riding, but I decided to stay behind and do some shopping. I bought an Irish flute, which i am very excited about. I can’t wait to play it and annoy those around me with it. I also bought a few more souvenirs for friends. For lunch, we went to a pub where they were showing a game of Gaelic football. Honestly, it was way more exciting than American football and probably makes more sense. Overall, I enjoyed my time in Galway and I would definitely come back. When we headed out, we stopped at Strokestown Park. It was very similar to other big houses, so I don’t have much to say. I am currently in Dublin, and I will fly home on Wednesday. Wish me luck!