Travellers Friend Castlebar

... was blowing. On a small cliff below us we could see white stones spelling "EIRE". They were part of "S. S. EIRE" (Saor Stat Eire, Irish Free State), which identiifed Ireland to Nazi bombers as neutral territory. We went down a trail to see Hell’s Hole, but the tide wasn’t in far enough for it to impress us. After snapping a few pictures, we sought the calm of the car and drove down to the town of Culdaff where we found McGrory’s Pub. They opened ...

... and saw a man and woman walking to their car from the end of a steep and narrow trail. John asked them if it was worth the walk, and they said it was if “you’re really into megalithic tombs.” We decided that we really weren’t into them that much. The couple asked where we were from, and when we told them, they said we had to go to Lavelle’s bar to see the sign that said, “Cleveland, 3300 miles”. We learned that Cleveland is ...

... Villanova students didnt get to climb all the way to the top because it takes about 2 and a half hours to get up and we just didnt have the time. However we did climb up for about 30 minutes and were rewarded with a fantastic view of the surrounding county. It really was a great hike because it got the blood pumping (havent been doing too much exercise since I got here..) and you climbed alongside a very picturesque little stream all the ...

2nd on our list was Turlough Park,

This was a place where we got to see how landlords lived in the 19th century while taxing their people into poverty. This one was a bit different than most English landlords because this house belonged to the Fitzgerald family who were Irish. They were removed by the english from their home in wexford Ireland where they held 70,000 acres of great land and moved to ...

1st stop Ballintubber Abbey...

This Abbey has been around for a while to say the least....It is here that St. Patrick baptized the people of the area in 441 A.D.. There is a bit of lore to how it came to be
in the modern state it is now. It was said that the clergy of the church took in the prince of Turloch because he was fleeing the vengeance of Turloch's queen who wanted her own son to sit the throne. The clergy of the ...

... pudding this morning..Sister Leigh said it tasted like dog, I thought it tasted like a biscuit that had been laying next to a sausage...Sister Carolyn thought it was a cross between a snausage and a bisuit....maybe Dad wasn't so far off that dog thing...

I am having a great time...looking up even more that I have my clothes...

sister carolyn here...all good...everyone still getting along...funny people on bus the first day two ladies late and we ...

Ok so we drove about two hours in the pouring rain to get to Ashford Castle. The roads were narrow and lined with stone walls. Quite a harrowing ride. We gasped at all the cars coming towards us at top speed. I kept thinking they were in our lane. We stopped in a little village for a break and to have a pint of Guinness. We tucked into a little place that was so quaint and old world. The little old lady behind the bar was ...

... by storm. This time the weather cooperated. It was breathtaking to say the least, and very windy. From atop the hills, we could look out over the Atlantic and see the vast ocean as well as the Aran islands, which are one of the last things you see before New York. We couldn’t see New York, though.

Thus began an afternoon worth of driving up and down, back and forth, through the Irish countryside on the narrowest roads we ...

... with beer or coffee. Yesterday (which was actually the 27th, but I had to include it before I sent this off) we went on a 5k trek up the mountain and as much as Cormac was dancing around me like the bleeping little Leprechaun he is ("I am NOT a happy person, mountains are VERY steep and don't CARE that you used to run up here every bleeping day because quite frankly, if I had the energy I would bleeping throw you down it") it was the most amazing sight. You got this 360 ...

(Originally published at http://www.troysgonewalkabout.com)
< br>Another grey and rainy morning beckoned, but it hardly dampened our mood as we drove by the dramatic cliffs and beach-side town of Kilkee, and kept on going north until a little later in the morning we stopped at the incredibly popular Cliffs of Moher. Along the lookouts there we were buffeted around in the wind almost as much as we were buffeted ...