After returning to Galway from my trip to Clifden, my first
job (as always) was to track down my hostel. It was only a couple blocks from
the city center. I checked in to find that I was the only person checked into
my five person room. I waited around a bit to see if anyone was going to show
up but no one did. I had the entire room to myself. After this comforting
revelation, I went out to reacquaint myself with Galway (remember I visited 5
years previous). I made my way down to the bay and back up to the cathedral. I
decided that night that I would take a tour the next day, organized by the
hostel.
The next day the bus picked me up and I went back north to
Connemara to see the area around Clifden. It was a rainy day, but it seemed
that whenever we got out of the bus it would stop just long enough for us to
explore. The bus driver was witty and talkative. The first stop was at the
Ross-Errily Friary, the ruins of an old stone friary. After that we headed for
the village of Cong, where the film The Quite Man (starring John Wayne) was
filmed. The village is on the boarder of a forest, which I spent the brief stop
exploring. It was a beautiful and calming walk. I had time to reflect on the fact that i was doing this traveling entirely on my own and how far i had come since I began my European travels. Then we made our way to our final stop, the Kylemore Abbey. Kylemore Abbey is a Benedictine
monastery founded in 1920 on the grounds of Kylemore Castle. Kylemore Castle
was built as a private home for the family of Mitchell Henry, a wealthy politician
from England who was also an MP for Galway County from 1871 to 1885.
The Abbey grounds are at the base of a mountain, beside a
lake, and create a beautiful and picturesque view of the landscape. There is an
extensive garden complex which used to be a collection of beautiful Victorian greenhouses,
until they burned down years ago. The Abbey itself is only partly open to the
public, but the interior is ornately decorated. The rain from the day was
rolling down the mountainside accentuating the rock outcroppings and crevices. The weather made me feel like i was walking through a clouded painting. with the fog obscuring the world beyond the frame. It’s
easy to see why Mitchell Henry decided to make a home there. One our way back
to Galway we stopped by a farm to see a Connemara pony. The pony’s name was
Joey, and he seemed to be used to bus visitors. When he heard the sound of the
bus he came running to meet us. When we were done giving Joey some apples, we
headed back to Galway.
When I got back to Galway I went to a local restaurant for
some fish and chips that were highly recommended. After that I went to explore
more of the city before retiring for the evening. Again I had the entire room
to myself. The next day I would head south to Kilarney by train.
