Peacockes Maam Cross

... 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>

... It was good for the night life, but a bit too many sequins and short dresses on girls who weren't meant to wear short dresses. We did however stay in an awesome hostel that provided laundry and a nice kitchen. We decided to cook a meal together and we made a great pasta that made up for the lack of other activity in Galway. <br><br>The next day a few of us returned to Dublin to sketch that area before heading to Scotland ...

... We get lost at least once in each city and indeed we did in Galway. And we didnt even knw the name of the street the B and B was on. At one point we were reversing 200 feet down at one-way parking alley with the words coming out of Nicoles mouth "Im about READY TO FRIGGEN THROW IN THE FRIGGEN TOWEL" with me getting ready to get out and direct traffic from the four different directions it was coming. <br><br>Got home, unravelled our ...

... museum itself was built into a section in (or very near?) the parliament building, so that was pretty cool. It has some very intricate, unique architecture inside. Also inside was a very complete history of Ireland, starting around 10,000 BCE. Although finding the placards that were in English (as opposed to Gaelic) was a little difficult, they did a really good job summarizing what everything was. It was really easy to follow ...

... 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 ...

... and chatted. The one guy who was kind of like a preacher? he was ;like so is this like the church in Canada?! And I was like oh i don't know I don;t go to church! And eh literally just stared at me for a minute! It was funny and I just said I was investigating and wanted to see if I would become religious and he laughed and we talked about how he became religious. So very interesting all in all and might actually go back sometime!

... was beautiful, and we spent our last night as "family fun night" and played charades and drank wine. sunday we visited the national park and saw a castle!sa-weet! we were all worn out and ready to be in austria where we didn't have to live out of a backpack anymore. we headed back to dublin and arrived late in dublin where we picked up our luggage at the first hostile where I came face to face with my arch nemesis-big red! we lugged our things onto the last bus from dublin ...

... and one to Kinvara. I will describe the Bluffs here and Kinvara later (Kinvara comes with a pretty cool story about a special friend we have made). The city of Galway is built on the edge of a bay facing out to the Atlantic ocean. It hosts a beautiful coastline, and on any non-stormy day (half the days) the promenade along the shore streams with people. On one of our adventures, Bri, Jonathan, and I ...

... s, made some dinner and just chatted. It was great to hear all her stories from her fun times here! Our last day in Galway we had a chill day. We went shopping along Shop Street, an adorable cobblestone street lined with shops, and I bought a Claddaugh ring from the original place they were sold; Then we walked along the coast on a path where Heather likes to run - I can see why with a salty breeze and picturesque view! Then we walked through the university in town ...

... In the distance you could see the Aran Islands. We had tried to catch a ferry out to them, but during the off-season they only run once a day and we had just missed it when we got off the train. We hung out around the park for a long time. It was so nice to be by the ocean again. Finally, we made our back to the town. It is really kind of a small little place and there wasn't too much to see. We grabbed some lunch at the "Couch Potato," which Heather ...