The Emerald Isle's Namesake

5:39 AM Léonie Dupuis 0 Comments

Yesterday, my lab mate Jenny and I decided to take a Paddywagon tour ALLLL the way across the country to the West side in the Connemara region. And I was being dramatic with that last sentence... It only takes two hours to get to the other side of the country! I was excited to visit the Connemara region as it is known as the heart of Irish culture since the majority of its inhabitants are Gaelic speakers. The landscape of the Connemara region is also known as being the inspiration for Ireland's nickname as the emerald isle.

Our first stop was in Cong, a small town famous for being the set of some John Wayne movies as well as home to Ashford Castle (now privately owned and remodeled into a 5 star hotel with a minimum of 800 euros per night for a room). When we started walking around the city, I met my first European scammer! As we walked towards Ashford Castle, a guy in a suit said it cost 10 euros to continue. He looked so official! He had on a suit, a name tag, and his stationary said Ashford Castle Estate on it! But our guide had warned us to ignore him so we got to pass anyways.

The Cong Abbey... Home of the last king of Ireland, King O'Connor

Ashford Castle from afar, it was 5 euros to enter, so we admired from afar.

After viewing the castle, we walked back towards the Cong "downtown" area and found a trail network. As it turns out, Cong has a series of trails with historical landmarks along them, so we stopped and looked at the sights. My favorite was definitely the monastery's fishing house... I would have loved being able to play there in the summers! There is a staircase that leads into the water and such a great view of the river sitting along the ledge of it.

The fish house from the abbey... such a cute space! I could see people setting up their fishing gear in there.

This is the second time I've seen these Irish phone boxes, but this is the first fully-functional phone box I've seen!

A green phone box!

Our bus stopped for some photos as we were making our way towards Galway. The scenery in the Connemara region is breathtaking, but the area is sparsely populated due to the famine which affected the west of Ireland more than any other region.

Lough Corrib- 365 islands cover this lake. It is the second largest in Europe!


You see all of those peaks? This valley is called the 12 Peaks region because there are 12 mountains surrounding it.

We then continued along our route towards Galway, but we stopped to check out this Leprechaun House! Leprechauns are real, people! All you need to do is eat some of the wild mushrooms grown in the local shrubbery and they might appear for you... This leprechaun wasn't home today, however, as there was no smoke coming out of the house.

Tiny leprechaun house.

Mini Rapids.

Once we made it to Galway, Jenny and I walked around the city, which was full of life as most cities in Ireland tend to be on Saturdays. From a recommendation, we started our tour by buying some alcoholic sluhies from Bite Club which were margarita flavoured and delicious! We then walked around until we found the Galway Cathedral which is only 51 years old, but it was recently refurbished so it was interesting to see the way in which the new architects mimicked some of the older designs of Irish cathedrals. We then got to walk around the Saturday Food Market which consists of a bunch of tents with businesses selling clothes, jewelry, and of course, food. Jenny was extremely excited to eat some authentic Venezuelan empanadas!! We then stopped by another church, St. Nicholas's, which seemed to be the more lively, local option for worship in Galway. We concluded the day by walking along the Atlantic coast in Galway Bay where hundreds of swans spend their summers and locals participate in Kayak Water Polo! I feel like living in Galway would be a great experience as the locals are friendly like in the countryside, but the city is large enough to have every store you could think of. This is my favorite Irish city so far!