Friday: September 2nd was our first full day in Galway with our whole group. We took a bus into town for a tour with Jeff O'Connell, who works for the Galway Advertiser, the local newspaper. We walked all over town stopping at various places to look at the different buildings and see how the Medieval influences are still quite prominent in even the newly renovated buildings. For lunch, we went to the King's Head, a really well-known pub in Galway. I had the famous seafood chowder, and it definitely lived up to its reputation! We spent the afternoon shopping for groceries and other things for our cottage. That evening, the owner/bartender at the Park Lodge, JP, opened the hotel bar for us. It was really fun getting to know everyone, and I think the whole group got off to a great start!
Satuday: For our first group excursion, we went to the Aran Islands on Saturday for a bike tour around the largest island, Inis Mor. After a bus and ferry ride, we arrived on the island and picked up our bikes. After exercising a grand total of about five times this summer, it was definitely a work out! We took a few stops to take pictures and found a beautiful beach along the way. Unfortunately, some people in our group had some bike troubles, but eventually we all made it to Dun Aengus, the look-out spot at the top with a 300 foot drop to the ocean below. The view was incredible! Of course, it started raining a bit on our walk back to the bikes, but when it stopped the sun finally came out! We set off on our way back to the harbor expecting a nice, downhill ride, but unfortunately we missed the paved road and ended up on a rocky mountain path leading directly uphill. Ooops! The hill was so steep and long we actually ended up walking most of the way, and even though we thought going up was hard, it was nothing compared to doing down!! Good thing the road was so tiny, we didn't have to worry about cars! Even though we definitely took the path less traveled, it was worth it. The views were amazing and we got to take some really great pictures. We got back to the Park Lodge in the evening, just in time for dinner. There was a huge wedding at the hotel this weekend (270 people...the 4th largest one ever!) so the parking lots were overflowing and there were cars parked right up to the doors of our cottages! That night Rory, our local taxi driver from Spiddal, drove a group of about 16 of us into Galway to explore the Galway nightlife...it's definitely a bit different than St. Joe, but everyone had a good time listening to live music at the pubs!
Sunday: I finally had a pretty low-key day on Sunday after what seemed like a long stretch of being constantly on the go. A group of us walked into Spiddal for Mass in Irish. It was interesting to listen too, and we were all surprised when, at Communion, it was a bit of a free for all with the whole congregation standing up at the same time and making their way to the front of the church. When we got out of church, it was sunny and warm for our walk back to the Park Lodge. The weather has not been so great lately because the aftermath of Hurricane Irene is now hitting Ireland's west coast! We stayed around the cottage for the afternoon and watched the national hurling championship match on TV. Kilkenny beat Tipperary, but the most exciting part for us was when the ref's nose got broken! According to Rory, he shouldn't have been sticking his nose in the argument anyway! We had a relaxing night in Cottage 6. I have loved getting to know my cottagemates and am so lucky to have them as roomies!
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