An Spiddal

Hello again!

I am now comfortably situated in my little cottage near Galway Bay! We got to the Park Lodge Hotel (where our cottages are) on Thursday, got mostly unpacked then were served a delicious dinner by the hotel. Irish potato soup, bacon wrapped chicken and banana ream pie for dessert. Unfortunately we have to cook the rest of our meals...

supposedly where John Lynch's dad hung him out the window.
John killed a man but the Lynch's were too powerful, people
didnt want to convict him so his father did it himself. 

Friday we had a tour of Galway. The city is pretty old and the streets are the exact same layout as they were 500 years ago. A lot of the buildings have been plastered over but every now and then the stone decorations over the windows will be showing so you can still see the medieval features.

 Friday night one of the hotel owners, JP,  opened the hotel bar for us so we could watch the UEFA 2012 qualifying match, Ireland vs Slovakia. We tied, which JP says is not going to cut it for Ireland.

The fort, Dun Aonghasa

Saturday we took a ferry to the Aran Islands (known for their wool) and rode our bikes to Dun Aonghasa, a fort built in the 2nd century BC, and

view from within the fort

 back. The fort is on this 300 ft cliff overlooking the ocean. That's one of those things
that is kinda cool here. There were no fences by the
cliff, no signs warning you of the drop off, basically fall at your own risk. And we were warned that parts of the cliff have crumbled off, so even if you dont wander too close you could still be screwed.

view from the bike path

It rained in the morning but for our ride back the sun came out (first time since we got here) so luckily we
 didnt ride back in the rain. On our way back we took the wrong path by accident so we were biking up and down these steep hills that were like landscaping rocks with parts of boulders sticking up, but luckily there were no casualties there either! That trip took us 70 minutes and the correct path takes only 20 minutes, but we saw a lot more and the island was gorgeous! Definitely worth it.

This morning we went to church in Spiddal, the village 1.5 miles away(we were supposed to go to Galway but the city is closed for the Iron Man competition). They say mass there in Gaelic so we didnt understand any of it, but I say it still counts. They also do this free-for-all style communion. We were all really confused, because people just got up and rushed to the shortest line once all the eucharistic ministers were in place.

Tonight we are watching the hurling championship,the most popular sport in Ireland. Other than than, just enjoy the sun while it lasts and start my homework because class starts tomorrow!

michelle