Connemara Coast Galway

... 30th.<br><br>Next I'll spend 3 weeks in New Zealand, mostly on the South Island, and fly from Auckland to LA on May 22nd. <br><br>After a final 3 weeks in America I will fly from New York to London on June 17th.<br><br>I have bought and scrounged everything I need to take, and I have typed up more notes than I can handle. I'm very excited to finally be so close to going, after years of planning and hoping!! <br><br>My next post will be from India!!!<br>

... to the highest edge. <br><br>Of course, our group would be determined to cross this edge and we marched our way along the Atlantic in a way that I have never walked the shore before. The boys were more determined to hike further, so us girls stayed behind to capture the moment. Little did we know they had bigger plans to depants and show the world. I guess it was for the best we stayed back. <br><br>Galway was a different ...

So we spent the day travelling to Cliffs of Moher and the Burren. They drive on the narrowest roads here, 100km/hr. Honestly, we can barely do that in Canada on the 401 without getting in a million accidents led alone little five foot wide streets. It is unreal how many cows and sheep there are in this country. They are evvvvvvvvverywhere. So we originally had a 6-bedroom hostel booked for Galway, but instead, obviously, we decided that ...

... other side of town, so we had another lovely walk through the rain to get there. The Guinness tour was similar to the Jameson tour, in that it was a little pricey (11 euro for the tour, testing lab and "free" pint). However, it was still a really fun thing to do. They were celebrating their 250 years in the building (1759-2009) so everything was fancied up a bit. The factory itself was seven stories high. There were exhibits on how to ...

... found the cave after following his dog who chased a rabbit into a narrow opening. After he found it he kept it a secret for forty years until he was about to die in the mid 1970's and finally let the world know of his secret. When cave explorers went into to cave they found the remains of many bears, which have since gone extinct in Ireland. The cave was a pretty cool adventure, but I was dissapointed because it wasnt as grandiose as something ...

... If you are going to be able to go back to shops follow this plan: go from shop to shop and just scan the shop quickly and listen to yourself. If you catch yourself saying "oooh, ah, oh" or your breath catches that is a sign that you might have found something you like. Don't spend a lot of time in a particular shop unless you see something you like. Spend only about half of your alloted time scanning like ...

... which is a rare occasion in this country.<br><br>When the rest of the American girls arrived, we were able to check in to the hostel and went to find adventures. Stacy and I bought sweaters! :P Galway reminded me a lot of New Orleans. Very touristy during the day with lots of street performers and markets. There was a man who carved sleeping puppies out of sand. You had your typical live statues which always freak me out. Some guy even shoved a flaming ...

Wow, where do I even st*rt! F*ther Ted Weekend w*s prob*bly one of the cr*ziest most fun weekends I h*ve ever h*d! I *m SO HAPPY th*t I went! I got off of work *t 4 on Thursd*y *nd decided to c*tch the 5 oc clock bus to the ferry! I lost 60 euro so I w*s re*lly m*d *nd w*s like yup gre*t st*rt to the weekend... But I got there *nd met these two *wesome Americ*n girls who *re working *t the hostel out there *nd we just got on so well! So myself ...

... dream or several, and have done all this with great courage (definition of courage: being afraid and doing it anyway). If that's not adulthood or at least a rite of passage, I don't know what is. This is my gift to myself: my retreat. Here I will walk and bike, as the weather permits, to explore the ruins and the life in this island of 1200 souls that is 14.5 km long and no more than 4 km wide. (Infodump--let us all scream with glee!) And I will write and ...