Good Craic

If any of you eventually make it over to Ireland in your lifetime, you absolutely cannot leave the island without visiting Clifden and Galway. The West of Ireland is truly where postcards are made.
I kid you not, it is one of the most beautiful and majestic places on earth. With rolling hills, green as can be, and wild sheep, cows and horses peppering the landscape, you can't go wrong.

We started out in the city center of Galway. Now, Galway is very similar to Kingston and London in that it is a University town. And it was graduation week.... Haha
Rachel and I stayed with one of her friends that is going to school there, in a very, very tiny apartment. It was a night full of riding in rickshaws and jampacked bars, kids spilling into the streets, and late night chipper...good craic. (Irish word basically meaning good times)
The next morning we got up bright and early to catch our bus to Clifden, a small seaside town near Rachel's granny's house where we were going to stay for the next two nights. As much as I had wanted to nap on the bus, I absolutely could not. Not with the unbelievable scenery that was passing by outside of my window. The town of Clifden was small and very Irish, and apparently it has a very large summer crowd. There was an abundance of shops and pubs, with a few cafes here and there as well.
We hired a taxi to take us the fifteen minute drive out to Rachel's cottage. The small house had incredible views, looking over the sea, surrounded by more beautiful scenery, and more wild cows and horses haha...they were everywhere. The gates at the front of the cottages are shut tight in order to keep the cows from wandering in for a snack and leaving behind some not so friendly gifts.
We relaxed, ate delicious food (Rach cooked us a roast, and I finally had some yummy Irish lamb stew, so good!) and went for walks. In order to get back into the village of Clifden, we had to hitch hike. Mom before you freak out, this was the most friendly and quiet place ever. Balleyconnelly, the name of the small town where her cottage is, has one store, a post office, and of course a pub. But that's it.
So we had to hitch rides in to town and back from a couple of different people, all extremely friendly, and very Irish. I had to strain to hear and understand them...Rachel barely could haha.
So on one of our walks, we were just chatting along when all of a sudden I look up and a CASTLE is just chilling there on one of the hills. A CASTLE!!! It was spectacular. I took loads of pictures, and we began to imagine the story behind the abandoned building. Finding out that the owner of the castle is crazy, and strongly dislikes visitors (he's been known to chase them out with a gun) we only admired from afar. Next castle I find, I'm going in.

To get back from Galway to Dublin, we didn't feel like taking the bus...so we  had Rachel's dad FLY HIS PLANE TO PICK US UP. NO.BIG.DEAL. It was unreal, the best way to see the country. He flew in his small four seater plane to the airport, and collected us. It was the best way to end the trip. We saw rainbows and rainstorms from the sky...incredible.

Now I'm with Laura Boyd again. I go back and forth between the girls as if they're my divorced parents haha. I love it. Today I'm going to see Bono's house and hope that he decides to go for a walk or something so I can catch a glimpse of the small Irish rockstar. I'll let you know how it goes.

xx