photos from my five months as a student in Galway

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Connemara (& Other Craic)

Last Sunday, the NUI-G Mountaineering Club's weekly hike brought us to the North Bens, located in Connemara (the region west of Galway.)

Farmers mark their sheep with different colors so as not to lose them among others if they're out grazing. We found, though, that this does not stop your sheep from trying to follow a group of NUI-G hikers into the mountains!

Barbara and I, "having some craic" as the Irish would say - meaning an Irish good time




The wind was incredible - but the views were beautiful!


Frozen ponds at the top (and lots of fog)


Funny things about Ireland: I'm pretty sure that in the States, they make you sign some sort of liability release form before sending you down a steep, narrow, rocky ravine.


Kylemore Abbey (in front of the mountain that brought us there)
A few pictures from previous weeks that haven't made it in yet.... Above, the Galway Cathedral



The first of many weekend visits to come - Mick and his crepe cart at the Galway farmers' market

Didgeridoo was a highlight of the continued parade of shop street performers...

...as was "Buddy, the invisible man" (according to our introduction by his friend)

I do actually go to school, really. The Quandrangle, the oldest (and prettiest) part of NUI-G's campus


Note sign on the left - NUI-G is a bilingual campus, so everything is written in both Irish and English

"Windings", an Irish band we went to see at local venue RoĆ­sin Dubh

With Lydia and Clare, friends from Fairfield U.

A Galway Bay sunset


Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Cliffs of Moher, Limerick, and Visitors from Belgium

My good friend Brigette from high school is studying in Belgium this year, so she and her friend Maggie came to visit Galway last weekend. (From the left - my roommate Maggie, me, Brigette's Maggie, and Brigette.)

We spent Saturday taking a tour around parts of the Burren area and to the Cliffs of Moher. Above is Dunguaire Castle, a 16th-century castle on Galway Bay.


At Dunguaire Castle with Maggie, Brigette, and Annie



Ballyalban earthen ring-fort

The Dolmen (a burial site constructed 5800 years ago, now a landmark of the Burren)

Kilfenora Cathedral, a 6th-century monastery



The Cliffs of Moher
 

Colin (fellow Georgetown-er), Annie, and me... 214 meters high







Thrilling fact: the scenes at the "Cliffs of Insanity" in The Princess Bride were filmed here. Beyond excited.



Exploring with Annie - more of the Burren coast around Galway Bay




Sunday brought a visit to Limerick City, about an hour and a half south of Galway

St. Mary's Cathedral in Limerick



King John's Castle


River Shannon

Meeting up with an old friend of Brigette's.... behind us, Limerick's Broken Treaty Stone, part of a turbulent past with Britain