Connemara Gateway Oughterard

Due to a number of reasons, my travel plans have changed.<br><br>Now, I will be leaving on November 10th, to arrive in Delhi.<br>I'll spend 4 weeks in India then fly from Chennai to Singapore on December 8th.<br><br>I will travel overland through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore and China, then fly out of Hong Kong to Perth on March 11th.<br> <br>I will send 7 weeks high-tailing it through Australia before leaving from Brisbane to go to New Zealand on ...

... visited Trinity College and experienced an actual college campus. It was great to see another college campus and imagine what it would be like to go to school in a foreign country. We then stayed in a hotel where we had far less beds than people and I played a game of musical beds all night. Gratefully, our room stayed up late talking so that the lack of sleep was easier to comprehend because I didn't have any space on a bed. <br>

... 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 ...

... some coffee. We needed food ASAP ... it's a tough decision, too. Pubs everywhere. Food ... what food do we want?! We went closer to the bus and rail station and found Fox's Bar ... serving food all day. Sounds great, we'll take it. It was pretty nice in there. It was a usual Irish pub ... more hip, fancy lighting ... but not too ... hm, night club-esque ... it was still down to earth. And their food was mighty fine. We ...

From Newgrange, we traveled west, past Trim Castle where much of the movie "Braveheart" was shot! Our next stop was Clonmacnoise, where we saw our first Celtic Crosses and then took a very interesting trip on a "Bog Railway," where we learned all about the "harvesting" of pet for heating fuel! Back in the van for an exciting fast paced drive over to ...

... in exams and etc to learn a basically useless skill. Good on him. We also watched another Irish lad, and this Canadian guy called Tony Hall. The first time Ive watched some live comedy that wasn't observational. I figure you know the gig is going to be good when he starts talking about the technicalities of putting a bear and a salmon-painted shark together and playing with his stomach during this in order to segway into his time ...

In the morning, we headed to the Cong Abbey before heading out back to Galway... This is an old monastery, now mainly a tourist spot, but nevertheless quite scenic and quite quiet.. We rode for about 20 km to Headford, where we decided to stop for lunch. After discussing what to do, we decided to take a bus the remaining 20km to Galway ...

... nice enough to play them for us. By around 11:30, the music was done and several of the group moved on to another place. Becky and the Australians and I decided to go back to the hostel and get an early night as we had been up so late the night before. Later we wished we had gone on, because apparently there was some great Irish music being played at the other place, but we were able to make up for it when we returned to Dublin.

... 17th Century castle located one-half mile north of Kinarva, sits on a small hillside on Galway Bay. Similar to the larger Buntratty Castle, the Butler greets you at the castle door with Mead and explains the history of the Castle while a harpest and fiddler entertain. Then up the spiral staircase to the ...