Lauren In London: The Wild West: Part Two

I am a morning person; there is simply no getting around it. I like being out and about while most people are still asleep. One of the things that I love doing most is going out for a run or walk early in the morning. There is something about empty streets, silent when they are usually packed with noisy people, that I love. Since I was up, dressed, and had eaten breakfast all before 7:30 on Saturday and our tour did not start till 10am, I decided to go for a walk. Unlike Friday, our second day in Galway was sunny and beautiful in the beginning with the rain coming more and more frequently as the ay got later. For an hour I walked around the city, following the street signs to various places. I found a walk along the river that was very pretty, Fourteen Nuns Island (that was seriously the name) which housed a convent, and St. Nicholas Cathedral. According to the random man that we had met the night before at dinner—this is a frequent thing in Ireland; the Irish will never miss an opportunity to talk your ear off if you can—the Cathedral had a stained glass window of JFK praying. Our president visited Galway for less than an hour, but it is one of their most sacred moments; they renamed a park after him and have a statue to him. About 8:30 I got back to the hostel and we proceeded to check out. Kindly, the hostel locked up our luggage to be retrieved later so that we did not have to carry it around with us. \

At 10, we once again got on the bus and were greeted by David our tour guide who remembered us from the day before. This tour was going to take us around the Connemara Mountains and to Kylemore Abbey. We drove along the Galway Bay coast and stopped at the little town of Spiddeal where were allowed to wander for a bit, and then got back on the bus. We travelled through the rough, rugged landscape of Connemara, which is dotted with turf (peat) stacks, which farmers dig up and dry to use as fuel during the winter. We saw endless lines of Famine Walls, which were built during the famine by young men. They built these walls by order of the British government and were ‘paid’ with a meal at the end of the day. The British feared that the Irish would rebel and hoped that giving men something to do would stop a rebellion. Before the famine, Ireland’s population was roughly 8-9 million people, and after three years (1845/6-1849) the population was around 4 million through disease, starvation, and emigration. This area of Ireland at the time was terribly poor and was mostly subsistence farming, leading to mass death when the potato blight arrived.

The highlight of our trip was Kylemore Abbey (formerly Castle). Construction began in 1867 on the orders of Michael Henry, a wealthy doctor from London after he married his wife Margaret. It would take over a hundred men four years to build the castle. It covers roughly 40,000 square feet, and has over 6 acres of walled gardens. Upon the death of his wife several years later, a mausoleum and gothic cathedral were built and the castle sold. It passed from owner till owner till 1920 when a group of Benedictine Nuns from Belgium whose abbey has been destroyed in the First World War bought it, making it into an abbey. They also ran a boarding school for girls which educated the daughters of Europe’s wealth and famous, including one of Madonna’s daughters, until 2010 when it closed. The gardens are open for all but only a few rooms are allowed to be viewed as it is still an active abbey.

On the way back to Galway we stopped in the town of Cong, from the famous John Wayne movie “The Quiet Man”, and passed Ireland’s only fjord, Killary, and the town of Leenane known for the movie “The Field”. We arrived back in Galway at around 5:30 and we picked up a quick dinner and our luggage before our 6:45 bus back to Dublin arrived. Overall, it was a lovely weekend, and we definitely got an authentic Irish experience with all the rain, though it really was not all that bothersome. Galway, and the whole Connacht region are simply not to be missed.

Our room in the hostel. We were split between two rooms, but sharing with others was not a problem; they all got in about 4am, and were decently quiet, which is all that matters.

Eyre Park (JFK Memorial Park) in Galway

St. Nicholas Cathedral

A lovely view of the Atlantic Ocean. We would see water at various points throughout the day and it was always beautiful.

The region known as Connemara. Stunning, and very remote. In the United States lakefront is desirable real estate, but in Ireland much of it is protected and you cannot live on it. And those who do live here are far from civilization and only recently got electricity.

The breathtaking Kylemore Abbey. I am so jealous of those girls that went to school there and of the nuns. In an exhibition about the abbey as a school there was a nun giving an example of a lesson; to be honest she was a it terrifying and formidable looking. No wonder the school closed...Actually it closed due to high tuition and lack of students.

The walled garden was one of the last great Victorian gardens built in the era. It was built on bogland and so advanced for its time that it was compared to Kew Gardens in London. There are flower gardens, glass houses, and a kitchen garden. The Benedictine nuns take care of much of the gardening, and make various things the abbey sells, such as jams.

The house has 33 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 4 sitting rooms, a ballroom, billard room,library, study, school room, smoking room, gun room and various offices and domestic staff offices.Apparently a king of England visited and thought about buying it, but said it was too expensive even for a king.

The Gothic church that Michael Henry built in honor of his wife Margaret after her death. It was beautiful in side, but I try not to take pictures in churches, so I cannot show you unfortunately.