July 24th - Connemara, pt. 1

---

Another beautiful day in the nature of Ireland. Sadly, because I'm remote to the max at this hostel, no pictures as the wifi is spotty.

I did the same idea today - did half a tour, got dropped off at my hostel, and I'll rejoin the tour tomorrow. When I gave in my ticket the guy joked I better make sure they know what day I want pick-up because it's in the middle of nowhere.

(He wasn't kidding. It's the most remote place I've ever stayed. It's a 20min walk from the main road..!)

Once again the driver was hilarious - the funniest one yet. He had a comment about absolutely everything. I wrote down a bunch - I'll put them at the end.

We stopped at Inagh Valley for some photos as we started the real Connemara loop. Before getting out we were cautioned not to fall and hurt ourselves because if we did, he'd leave us there and the killer sheep would come eat us. Funny enough, "killer sheep" is marked as a note of interest in the second half of the tour so curious to hear about that tomorrow!

We had a two hour stop at Kylemore Abbey and Gardens which was more than enough. It's a beautiful exterior, situated on a lake with great views of the surrounding mountains. When visiting the gardens of course it started to rain... the one outside part haha, but it didn't last long. A gardener started chatting with me - he had the same speech speed and patterns as "Mike from Canmore" so I was trying not to grin too much as we talked about my visit in Ireland and the weather.

Next was the hostel - as mentioned really in the middle of nowhere. There were 2 couples who also got off the bus so we went hunting together. We found it, but reception was closed until 3:30 - currently 2:15. Not cool.

I had booked a cruise out of Killary harbour (40 min walk) for 4pm so I was not waiting an hour for reception to maybe open. With my day bag (big packsack is safe in Galway) I headed off on my trek hoping I was going the correct way lol. I passed some construction guys on the walk... they stopped me to chat because no one ever walks along here apparently other than locals. Grand.

The lady at Killary was really sweet. I was a bit early so no one else was around yet. She asked about my travels which turned into a big chat about my favourite spots vs. disappointments (not many of those!). She was quite surprised I was off to Isle of Man next - no one ever thinks to go there, apparently... especially from outside the UK or Ireland. She also couldn't believe I travel so much and that I usually travel alone. I swear, I live for that look of terror when people think about travelling alone. It fuels my spirit.

The cruise itself was nice but I spent a lot of it dreading my walk back to the hostel because the clouds didn't look to be in my favour lol. There was nice commentary and the views were impressive - Ireland's only fjord it is. Fine, not as grand as Norway's but still pretty beautiful.

I trekked it back to my hostel - 40 min hiking along the highway just isn't the same as along the coast. Considering there's also no real shoulder it's not like I could listen to my music or anything since you're watching traffic. I was so concentrated on the traffic in one curvy place that I scared myself and a sheep who evidently was much more focussed on his grass than my arrival. We only discovered each other when I was about to trip over him - he screamed and ran, I jumped back and def swore lol.

When I was on the gravel path down to the hostel (about 10min out) a bunch of girls were driving by and offered me a lift. Woohoo. (They're renting a house by the hostel.)

Now I'm happily back at the hostel. As it stands I have a 6 bed room to myself which is pretty fab... considered I don't imagine they have too many walk-ins 😉

The aforementioned jokes and driver commentary:

-driving by a cemetery in Galway: "This here is a very special cemetery. One of a kind. Know how we know this? People are dying to get in."

-talking about climate control on bus: "Keep you freeze dry, like some veg. Keep you fresh."

-driving by a field of cows with one sheep in it: "Look there! The sheep thinks it's a cow. Don't you laugh. Babe thought he was a dog. You didn't laugh at Babe did you??"

-he also kept honking the horn when we'd pass by a bunch of sheep so they'd look up. "I have them under contract to do that. They don't ask for much in return."

-sheep wouldn't get off the road "heyyyy senoritaaaaaa... mooooooove."

And the best: "Ok everyone. If you're squeamish, look away... because you're about to see... naked sheep. THE HORROR." ... "They're naked because their wool gets too long, and when they get wet they fall over and can't get up. So, if you see a sheep on its back with its feet up help a fella out."

---