Connemara

We spent one night in Galway at a hostel called Barnacles. We heard some great live Irish music at a pub and called it a rather early night. Barnacles, as well as most of the other hostels in Galway jack up their rates for the weekend so we decided to take a bus to the countryside. Clifden is a small town nestled in the hills of Connemara on the outskirts of County Galway. It took about two hours to get there but the views the entire ride were stunning. There was a hostel about two doors down from where the bus dropped us, so we unloaded our bags and then walked around Clifden. There were really only three main streets in the town, mostly we were just checking out pricing of menus and different B&Bs (even though there were only three streets, there were about 20 B&Bs right there). We also visited a tourist information office and got some information on the Connemara National Park as well as some biking trails in the area for the following day.

Yesterday.... it rained....alllllll day. We checked out of our hostel and into a cheaper one that had wi-fi (oh yeah, and we bought a mini laptop in Galway!!) Maybe if we had our own bikes we would have still gone for a ride, but when you are renting them at eighteen euro per bike per day, it should be a nice day. Instead we grabbed ingredients for a picnic at a few different shops and had a hostel picnic with a bottle of wine. It was nice. :) Dinner was home-made (we've decided that wherever we are leaving our backpacks for the day is where we call home for the moment) macaroni and cheese made with two kinds of Irish Cheddar, with vegetables and Irish soda bread. We made plans to go out to hear a band play at ten, but we both fell asleep by eight. Apparantly we needed some rest; we ended up sleeping for about 11 hours.

Today it was still raining but we still hadn't really seen what Connemara had to offer so we put on our rain jackets and started walking. Sky Road was one of the reccomended bike loops, and apparently a highlight of the region so we figured we would try it on foot.Though the rain made things rather soggy, it never made the walk laborous or unpleasant. The road wound around a high hill, overlooking an inlet that lead out to a larger body of water. We passed by a patchwork of fields, separated by ragged stone walls ands populated with horses, sheep, and/or cows.We stopped to snap a few photos of two horses in a field rather close to the road, and we wound up making two new friends. They eargerly approached as close as they could and were very interested in us (perhaps they thought we had food). They let us pet their snouts and were very friendly - you know you've made it with the "in crowd" when the locals approve! The scenery was mystical and all of the plant life was so vibrantly green and saturated with rain - it was quite beautiful. We ran into a woman who sold us cheese at the market yesterday walking and she told us that heavy fog was rolling in thickly and we had better turn back soon. We did end up turning around, but cut down into some smaller roads and paths, but eventually made our way back up towards Sky road.

We had seen an abandoned castle in the distance earlier on our walk, and decided to make our way to it. We shared an unpaved lane with a few meandering sheep and cows. They didn't mind us. When we were about 10 meters from the castle (it was labled a castle on the sign, but I feel like I may be giving the false impression that this was large and grand. No, no. It was small and quaint) our path went under about a foot of water, and either side fenced off to private property. I decided to scale the grassy knoll that protruded from the fence; Andy hopped it. I ended up with wet feet, and as Andy was hopping back over the fence I saw a sign on it that read "BEWARE OF BULL". Ha. Within a few minutes of being at the castle, the weather began to clear up, and a short while later it was a beautiful sunny day. A few other couples were out and about walking and we would stop and chat with them for a few minutes. We ended up walking around for about 4 hours this morning and afternoon and took TONS of pictures. As we were approaching Clifden on our return, the fog started settling back in.

We had checked out of the hostel this morning, but Richard, the very kind owner told us we could leave our bags and feel free to use the facilities for the rest of the day. We changed our socks, made lunch, and booked a hostel for tonight in Galway. Right now we are on the bus headed that way.

***For those of you wondering, no we have not given up on couchsurfing. We tried finding couches in Galway without success, but we were tipped off that we might have trouble in general in English speaking countries. Apparently a lot of Europeans like to host in order to practice their English, making it much easier for us. So, for the remainder of Ireland we are doing hostels, and we already have one booked for Munich. We are currently on the search for hosts in Berlin and onward.

Cheers!
Andy and Marisa