Green Peaklands and Irish Mist

Today was pretty amazing, to say the least. We left for Connemara around 9:30am and it was just the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. Again, if you are on the west coast of Ireland, take a trip through Connemara. The ride itself will be an adventure filled with amazing scenery. We went through the peaklands of the area, what I guess to be the equivalent to the highlands in Scotland. The place was so green and the tops of the mountains were covered with that thick Irish mist. The river valleys we drove through seemed endless and to be honest, I didn't want them to end. The greatest part of the day was seeing Kylemore Abbey come into view. I had looked at pictures of this place for years and it was a complete surprise when we came across it. It was even more gorgeous than the pictures, as is everything in this country. We stopped for just a little while to walk around the surrounding grounds but we didn't go inside. That was alright though, Mark and Angus told us there was nothing really interesting in there anyway. I took so many photographs that are exactly the same but you'll see if you go there that it's almost impossible to stop. We stopped for a break and I had lunch with Jennifer, Lauren, Erin, Anna, the usual group. We roamed around the tourist shop for a while. The boys on the trip all bought their hand-knit caps, very fashionable among the older gents in the countryside. We took a great USAC group picture out by the water and moved on. We stopped at a small monument to the Famine in the valley. This was probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen. We were completely surrounded by mountains and fields. The place was so peaceful and I could appreciate the beauty of it all but I could also imagine the starving villagers who walked 10 miles for food and didn't get anything in return. It's terribly depressing and I could feel the history around me which is a really rare experience.
When we got back in the early evening Jennifer, Lauren, Erin, Anna, Ashley and I went walking down and beyond Shop Street to another part of the river we hadn't gone to yet. We sat for a bit near the Spanish Arch and then further around the quay. It was really beautiful, the weather was nice and it was a really calm night out.

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