The Spanish Arch Hotel Galway

... the planet that hosts us ... but I don't walk this path myself ... so its all fine and dandy to talk about it ...

My hope for the development of Africa after the last visit was that it find its own path to making people's lives better and giving them access to education and the basics without making all the same mistakes we made ...

How will this be affected by this new trip ... well ... lets see ...

Alright so I apologize for being so behind on my travel blogs. My goal this weekend is to get caught up to date. So even though I have had more recent trips I am going to tell you about my weekend in Galway which a group of 6 of us went to at the end of September. We left on Thursday night and arrived in Galway at midnight. A lady we met on the bus actually walked us all the way to hostel since ...

Well, this is it, our last full day in Galway. How did that happen?!?! The month just flew by! I can't believe we are leaving tomorrow. We had our final lecture on the "Ulster Question." It was very interesting to hear the perspectives and reasons as to why the Republic and Northern Ireland had so many disputes and troubled times.

We presented Mary, John and Barry with cards and certificates to show our ...

... were quite professional-looking. Mom didn't really want to hike the entire way up, but I made her, telling her it would be a once in a lifetime trip, which it was! The view from the tops was really cool. The shear drop down from the cliffs would have been deadly for anyone who got too close. The ring fort had 2 different levels. The first level was quite large, while the second level was considerable ...

... off the birds, briefed us on their capabilities and then had the birds perform. The birds were diving and swooping and catching food in the air. Several birds also buzzed the crowd. One bird chased away a flock of seagulls out of the parking lot, then returned to the handler. The one and only downside to the entire show was the group of rowdy schoolchildren, but I guess that's to be expected.
After the bird show, we drove up the mountain to ...

... our way down the tower. Each tower had several stories, most were bedrooms. The second story contained a small kitchen. The top of each tower was open. The view was mediocre, as it was really a view of the highway and some marshlands. In my opinion, not the ideal location for a castle.
After touring the castle, we decided to grab a small lunch at the Tearoom, which was a small cafe on the property. It was a bit chilly out, so ...

... parents included) went to the Naracoorte caves, and these are quite a bit better. There is one thing however that this one has over Naracoorte - it has a waterfall which is pretty cool.

Got to Galway, and met the owner of the B&B Jim who is quite a cool character; a few years back he was a DJ and said that it was probably good I wasn’t there on the weekend as the pubs are so chockers that you hardly have room to lift your pint glass! If the ...

... her then boyfriend on our cruise in Greece ell we have been chatting and it sounds like she may come and stay with me!!! COOOL now I will have to visit Texas (I think that's where she is!) when I come home!!! Man travelling is great! So that's about it so far! Nothing else really new! Always something crazy happening!!! This weekend is Father Ted weekend and I found a nun hat! YAYYY So now I better get the weekend off!!! I will take tons of photos!

... I actually had an AMAZING nights sleep and slept for almost 10 hours! I only work up once in a sweat (the 3 nights prior I would wake up 3-4 times completely drenched in my own sweat ripping off my wet clothes and sheets! What a mess in know disgusting!) BUT not last night only ONCE and then only woke up one more time when Dave called and that was it! AND I feel so much better today!!! I hope it keeps up and I can smell so that MUST mean that I will be ...

... but often suede, looking like they belong somewhere with snow), shawls/ponchos, fake fur trim, scarves, spiky heels. Not Canada's utilitarian Mountain Equipment Co-op style: coats are usually very stylish and people often just wear jackets instead of real coats. Also not raincoats--people use umbrellas (though how that works in all this wind I can't imagine) or just ignore the rain. Regarding the weather, the temperature has been around 12 or 14 degrees. It ...