Chelle’s Travels

That is all.

OK, Warning that this entry is pretty long and covered in photos so pat your modem before you click the cut. Also, all photos are thumbnails and bigger ones can be found by clicking each photo.

Well, Galway proved to be a beautiful city in the end, and I apologise for my previous loatheful comments that it was a town of drunkards. It seems to have a much more laid back attitude than Dublin, thank god, and a lot less pollution.

We didn’t see very many sights in Galway, we were limited to the church in the centre of the town and Lynch’s window, both of which I took pictures of but neither turned out fantastically so I’m not going to post them (*nurses pride*).

The church (I’ve forgotten it’s name) was very beautifully decorated and was very very old. The piece of trivia that I found most interesting about it was that Oliver Cromwell (a Protestant who raped, pillaged and burned his way through Ireland) housed his army’s horses in the church when they were occupying Galway. Arseholes.

I’m not sure if the word “lynch” originates from this tale, but it would makes sense. Mayor Lynch was a very intent enforcer of the laws of his town, to such an extent that when his son was convicted of murdering a visiting Spaniard, he took it upon himself to act as the hangman, and execute his own son. The window in which he performed this disturbing deed has been preserved and moved to the sight of the aforementioned church. Talk about proving a point, ey?

The river that runs through Galway is much cleaner than Dublin’s Liffey, but more importantly, it is just COVERED in beautiful white swans. Aaaah. Pretty.

Pretty white swans!

Thad’s feet!

At around 5, we took a bus to nearby Rossaveal to catch a ferry to Inis �irr, one of the beautiful and secluded Aran Islands. The ferry ride was pretty average, the only highlight being a guy ashing a cigarette in my eye, which lead to an eye infection and my first visit to an Irish hospital, but more on that later!

Inis �irr is the smallest of the 3 islands, only 2 miles long and 2 miles wide. I have never, ever seen anything like it before. It is truly breathtaking. The whole island is covered in dry stone walls, snaking their way around houses, up hills and down valleys. These walls were built partially to create fields but also to clear the ground of the stones so that livestock could live there. There are only about 300 residents of the island, and it is part of An Gaeltacht, the Gaelic speaking part of Ireland.

View from the back of the B & B of dry stone walls and cute cottages.

We spent the night on the island at a bed and breakfast. The breakfast was a “full fry” which I discovered when I received it, did not have a single non-animal product on it. It had a fried egg, 3 sausages, 2 rashers of bacon, a slice of black pudding and a slice of white pudding. Yummy. The lady at the table next to me asked for a vegetarian fry and was given scrambled eggs on toast. Ah ha ha. Oh, and we had the luxury of a double bed!

Aaaaaah!

After breakfast, we hired bikes at the ferry port and rode all around the island. The scenery
was just absolutely breathtaking. It’s hard to describe, but riding along paths with ancient hand made stone walls on one side and a crazy limestone coast on the other is simply amazing. Felt sort of like I had stepped into an Enid Blyton novel. Our first stop around the island was an ancient well, where the water was believed to have healing powers. We both washed our faces in the well (not brave enough to drink it - I hope the healing powers are absorbable) and continued on our journey to the other side of the island.

Thad tentatively samples the holy water

I pretend that I’m really and truly not scared of the ocean.

Atop a grass covered sand dune next to the coast of the island was the cemetery. Not only is it the cemetery for the current residents, but it is also around Teampall Chaomhain, a 10th century church built by the island’s patron saint, St Caomh�n. St Caomh�n is believed to have the power of calming sea storms, and visiting his grave is meant to give you healing powers. His grave was covered in sand, but has been clear and rooved. When we visited at dusk there was a candle lit inside the tomb-like building, and a painted rock had been placed there, saying “Thank you for everything you’ve done”. Each year on the 14th of June, the whole island takes part in L� an Ph�tr�in, Caomh�n feast day, at his church in the graveyard.

View from the half buried 10th century church

Another view of the church - The submerged church and St Caomh�n’s grave behind it.

A view of the town from the graveyard.

Next stop was O’Brien’s Castle, which was built in the 15th century, and the ‘Old Tower’, built in the 18th century. The castle was FAR more exciting than the tower, which just looked like a lump of concrete.

After the castles, we made our way to the western side of the island to check out the shipwreck. I couldn’t find any information on the ship, but it looks ultra cool and that’s the important thing! There was a sign that said Danger! but it had fallen off so we chose to ignore it (Thad agreed with me that the Risk Factor was completely negligible compared the the obvious Coolness Factor) and climbed in. The entire ship was bent from where it must have hit the rocks. It was a pre
tty awesome sight.

View of the wrecked ship

From the side

Peeping out from the inside. A Sheep!

We also met a lot of animals on the trip, including an ultra cool spider and many horses. Most of the horses were piebald, which puzzled me to what breed they were, but a check with a local revealed that they were IRISH DRAUGHTS! I was like EEEEEE! They’re very cute. This guy in the picture completely ignored my “here horsey horsey horsey” calls and refused to come over even for the succulent assortment of grass that I handpicked for him, but when I returned a second time he walked straight over to me, ignoring the grass once again, but appreciating a pat on the nose. Not sure if he was an Irish Draught too, but he was nice. I think Thad got sick of me stopping at every single animal we saw. “Horse! Horse! Here horsey horsey horsey, have some grass horsey horsey horsey!” “A cow! a cow! ccooOOOOOoooowwww mmooOOOooooo!” “SHEEPS! Heellloooooooo sheepies!” “Yes, Michelle, ANOTHER horse, PLEASE can we keep going, you can take a photo on the way back, it’s not going anywhere” “Michelle, there are cows EVERYWHERE, you don’t need to take a photo of those ones,” etc etc. Pphht.

The friendly draught horse

Super cool spider found in the rocks at the coast.

Cow perched precariously between fences. This picture shows how crazy the stone fences are, running up and down all the hills.

But yeah, in the end, we had a truly amazing weekend that was absolutely perfect. There is a lot more I want to see around Galway, so I’m sure I’ll be able to explore the town a lot more in the future.

The End!

Hooray! In Galway again, managed to get accomodation and are now having a look around.

This morning for breakfast we chose a place called “Paddy’s bar and Restaurant”. We walked in to find Celtic music playing and two old men tapping their feet to the tune while rapidly talking in Gaelic. Another man at the bar was ordering his first Guinness for the day (10:30am). We sat down and ordered bacon and red cheddar omelettes. The waitress brought out a plate of soda bread, a coffee for Thad and a fresh pot of tea for me, and then turned on the Rugby for us because Australia was playing. Oh, I nearly had a tear in my eye when they sung Waltzing Matilda.

The tea was fantastic. After drinking the poorly versions of teabags that I could find here, to have such nice tea was fantastic - I could taste the tea leaves. Aaaaah. Then out came our omelettes, which were amazingly fluffy (and huge), and were accompanied of course with a serve of hot chips (!) and some toast. We were so full by the end of it (I couldn’t finish my chips) and we still hadn’t tried the Soda bread, which I was wary of, but is meant to be a true Irish specialty. So I took one bite and oh my god it is one of the nicest things ever. A little bit of butter and mmm. I have no idea what they put it in, there’s oats and maybe barley or something? It’s beautiful. Unfortunately, I was so full that I couldn’t eat another bite. Luckily, there were still to slices left so I wrapped them in a napkin and put them in my pocket for later like a true traveller :). But it was truly the best meal I’ve had in ages. Just so good and simple and wholesome - how I expected Irish food to be!

After exploring Galway today, at 5pm Thad and I are taking a bus & ferry to Inish Oire I think it’s called (pronounced Inishir), one of the beautiful Aran Islands. We are staying at a B & B (you mean we won’t have to share a single bed!?!?) And will explore there until we come back at 4 tomorrow. Anyway, better head off as we’ve got to explore!

Love to ye all!!!