This week has been full of adventure and fun. Our group traveled to the West Coast of Ireland, where we stayed at a hostel in Galway. We stopped at the Cliffs of Moher on the way to Galway as well. The views were breathtaking. Kayla also told me that a scene from The Princess Bride was filmed on the cliffs.
Saturday was hands down my favorite day/adventure of the trip thus far. We woke up early and took a ferry to the Eren Islands, where we explored the island on bikes. We rode along the beach’s coast, where there were fields, often with cows. After lunch, a few of us decided to bike four miles across the island to get ice cream, where I paid £2.50 for a soft-serve vanilla ice cream. It was some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had, and it tasted similar to the Purple Cow’s ice cream back in Lewisburg, PA. By the end of the day, we had biked eleven miles. We were warned that it usually rains on the west coast, but we were lucky enough to have perfect weather.
Sunday morning, we left Galway and headed south to Kylemore Abbey, an estate built in the 1800s that is now both a nunnery and tourist attraction. The estate was beautiful, with around 1,000 acres of land, a garden, and a wonderful lakefront view. At the gardens, there were also Connemara ponies native to the West Coast.
Heading back to Dublin, we stopped at a sheep farm, where we walked about a mile to get to the farm. The landscape was absolutely stunning, with rolling hills and sheep grazing its pastures. Once we arrived to the farm, we watched the herding dog “Rock” herd sheep and then also watched one of the farmers shave a sheep for its wool. At the end of the tour, we were able to hold lambs.
On Monday, we toured the “Genie Johnston,” a replica of a famine ship used during the Irish potato famine in the late 1800s. The boat was used to transport immigrants to the United States and Canada. This ship was unique to the other ships used at the time because unlike any other boat, it was ahead of its time with a doctor on board. Because of this, the genie was the only famine ship that had 0 deaths on it.
The sheep and her babies are so cute!! Could they be part Siamese?? Love the great pictures.
XO