They arrived quite late on Friday evening (thanks to Bus Eireann for that), we had some tea, talked and eventually went to sleep because we had two days of sightseeing ahead of us.
As we were getting up on Saturday I saw something I hadn't seen in a while: the SUN. So we were all pretty excited about our tour and stood outside the house at 9.30 sharp so that we could get picked up... But guess what? No-one picked us up. So I called them and they said that they were there at 10 past to 30 past... But who knowing the Irish would ever assume that they were early? Anyways, we got picked up after all and made it to the center where we were told that we would be going to Connemara today.
Our bus driver was Paul... Paul was great. He was talking and talking about everything we saw and also lots of things completely unrelated to Ireland ;-), it was great entertainment and I learnt a lot, or at least some of my knowledge about Ireland got freshened up :).
Eventually we left Galway and drove along the sea for a while. This is where we arrived at the end of the promenade and heard a funny story about it. Apparently this guy had built a house and bought the land and built a wall around it, cutting the promenade short by 1 mile. So the people thought that what they would do is just kick it every time they reached it and if everyone did it no-one could be blamed when it fell down... But the wall still stands and everyone kicks it when they get to it:
We continued along into Connemara, saw a lovely beach and also met some real Connemara ponies. They truly look impressive and beautiful. The story goes something like this: Some ship was sinking very close to the coast and there were Arab horses on it as well... When the ship sunk the horses were swimming in comparison t the men that just drowned (they apparently believed learning to swim was bad luck because it would just take longer for them to drown... I guess they never imagined sinking close to land...). So those Arab horses came on land and started to have little foals with the ponies here... And that's how those came about:
After a few more lovely "photo-stops" we reached Kylemore Abbey. The weather was still really nice, but as soon as we set out for our little walk to the gardens Petrus turned on the taps... So we were having a look at the gardens in the rain. But truly, it's not very special for it to rain in Connemara, it rains on 270 days each year. By the time we walked towards the Castle it was pouring and the wind was so strong that the umbrella was becoming a hazard to people's health ;). So on we went through the wind (it was like fighting an invisible enemy) into the castle and later on into the abbey. It was quite nice, but I have seen nicer houses such as Muckross House in Kerry.
When walking back towards the bus the wind was becoming so strong I was scared that a tree might fall over. But luckily nothing happened and we got back safely. On the way home the weather was still quite bad, but I kind of liked sitting in the bus and watching outside at the landscape, listening to the bus drivers stories and hearing the rain on the roof. When we got to Leenane the bus driver picked up a local sheep farmer... That was quite hilarious..
At the beginning I could hardly understand a word that guy was saying... I'll try and describe the whole picture to you:
This really old man with a huge white beard and some old dirty farmers clothes comes into the bus and then he talks as if he were completely drunk and he ever only says the first half of the words... At first you wouldn't even be certain that he's talking English ;).
So after a while I started understanding what he was talking about to the bus driver and I asked which sheep are his (because each farmer marks their sheep in a certain color). And the guy just goes: "The horny ones"... and continues with "two on the head and one on their belly"... Haha, the bus driver was roaring with laughter. Later the sheep farmer asks me if I'm married, so I said no... And he started talking about how I should marry a Connemara man *lol*, and even told Tommaso to make sure I do.
After this little conversation we dropped the guy off at the gate of his farm and continued along the windy roads back to Galway.
That was a lovely day and the next day we went to the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher... But more of that in my next blog.
xoxo
Eventually we left Galway and drove along the sea for a while. This is where we arrived at the end of the promenade and heard a funny story about it. Apparently this guy had built a house and bought the land and built a wall around it, cutting the promenade short by 1 mile. So the people thought that what they would do is just kick it every time they reached it and if everyone did it no-one could be blamed when it fell down... But the wall still stands and everyone kicks it when they get to it:
We continued along into Connemara, saw a lovely beach and also met some real Connemara ponies. They truly look impressive and beautiful. The story goes something like this: Some ship was sinking very close to the coast and there were Arab horses on it as well... When the ship sunk the horses were swimming in comparison t the men that just drowned (they apparently believed learning to swim was bad luck because it would just take longer for them to drown... I guess they never imagined sinking close to land...). So those Arab horses came on land and started to have little foals with the ponies here... And that's how those came about:
After a few more lovely "photo-stops" we reached Kylemore Abbey. The weather was still really nice, but as soon as we set out for our little walk to the gardens Petrus turned on the taps... So we were having a look at the gardens in the rain. But truly, it's not very special for it to rain in Connemara, it rains on 270 days each year. By the time we walked towards the Castle it was pouring and the wind was so strong that the umbrella was becoming a hazard to people's health ;). So on we went through the wind (it was like fighting an invisible enemy) into the castle and later on into the abbey. It was quite nice, but I have seen nicer houses such as Muckross House in Kerry.
When walking back towards the bus the wind was becoming so strong I was scared that a tree might fall over. But luckily nothing happened and we got back safely. On the way home the weather was still quite bad, but I kind of liked sitting in the bus and watching outside at the landscape, listening to the bus drivers stories and hearing the rain on the roof. When we got to Leenane the bus driver picked up a local sheep farmer... That was quite hilarious..
At the beginning I could hardly understand a word that guy was saying... I'll try and describe the whole picture to you:
This really old man with a huge white beard and some old dirty farmers clothes comes into the bus and then he talks as if he were completely drunk and he ever only says the first half of the words... At first you wouldn't even be certain that he's talking English ;).
So after a while I started understanding what he was talking about to the bus driver and I asked which sheep are his (because each farmer marks their sheep in a certain color). And the guy just goes: "The horny ones"... and continues with "two on the head and one on their belly"... Haha, the bus driver was roaring with laughter. Later the sheep farmer asks me if I'm married, so I said no... And he started talking about how I should marry a Connemara man *lol*, and even told Tommaso to make sure I do.
After this little conversation we dropped the guy off at the gate of his farm and continued along the windy roads back to Galway.
That was a lovely day and the next day we went to the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher... But more of that in my next blog.
xoxo
