Galway

We spent our first full day in Galway working out our train tickets for Dublin which required a few more steps than we thought should be necessary to buy them on line - the cheapest tickets. We were quite horrified when we bought tickets at the train station when we arrived in Dublin from Canada. They cost 3 x more than I had seen on line, but by then it was too late to purchase for the next train. 

After we did that we joined a 1 1/2 hour historical walking tour of Galway. It was not great but we did see a few places that we could go back to. That evening we went out to find some music at a pub that was recommended. We had some great chats with a couple from France on how to order beer (they had never been in a pub before and he only spoke French) and a young couple from Maryland who were celebrating their 10th anniversary. We enjoyed the atmosphere of this pub called Tig Cioli. Tig means house.

Tig Cioli Pub for beer and traditional music

Today we went off on an all day bus tour of Connemara, an area in the west of Ireland, north west of Galway. The driver was excellent with a great commentary including lots of history and interesting bits. 

Such as dandelions were called pissy bits. Parents told children if they picked dandelions then they would wet the bed at night. And a small white daisy was called cow's lick, if children picked that flower then a cow would follow them around all day and lick them. The idea was to discourage kids picking these weeds and spreading their seeds around. 

We had a number of stops along the way to take pictures and look around, have coffee at a pub with a turf fire, (smells sweet) then 2 hours to visit the Kylemore Abbey. We really enjoyed the day. When we booked it we were told the weather was expected to be rain but although we had a bit of rain, it was only when we were in the bus. Whenever we stopped it was lovely. And as you can see from the pictures we had quite a bit of blue sky. We found Connemara to be quite rugged, wild and incredibly beautiful.

  

Tomorrow we are off to Dublin.