Blogs from County Galway, Ireland, Europe

Wednesday May 23 Ballinasloe to Galway and return - I took the #20 bus from Ballinasloe. It was scheduled for 10:10 but got there at 10:40. It was a beautiful day and I had really enjoyed the Spring like weather. The bus and train station in Galway is the same building. It is right off of Eyre Square. The bus takes a roundabout route which takes it through some other towns it picks up in. The ride takes about an hour. Eyre Square is a great place to relax and people watch. And the weather was so nice and cool. Really excellent and the air was so fresh and the grass so green. After enjoying Erye Square a good while I did a little homework on some of the hostels available near Eyre Square and then ... read more

Sunday May 20 - Today took a good exploratory walk around Ballinasloe and then walked to the Tesco and bought a scanner. Since I had a scanner and some other stuff, I had to have Noel pick me up at the Tesco and give me a ride home instead of walking. I invested most of the rest of the day in setting up the scanner and scanning family pictures Christy gave me to scan. I had been planning on catching the #20 bus on Dunlo street to Athlone and have a look around tomorrow (Monday), and get lined up on a tour from there to Clonmacnoise for Tuesday. However my cousin Noel came by and said we could all go to Clonmacnoise with him in his car tomorrow. So that sounds like a good deal. I ... read more

Rebekah Pierce here.....By now we all are aware that the Irish are extremely nice people but we never thought that a single Irish tour bus driver would make us all fall in love with Ireland even more. Paul was our bus driver for the day and he was a storyteller for the books. Teaching all of us more than we could have ever learned on our own and not only teaching us but also intriguing us with the heritage of this beautiful place. When we got on the bus we asked Paul if he liked horses his response was positive saying that it is the Celtic Irish belief that the spirits of their greatest ancestors live on in the Nobel horse. Before we started our trek to Galway from Dublin we were told that over the ... read more

Today we began the morning off early and headed toward Dartfield for a day full of riding as well as being entertained by our wonderful bus driver Paul. We arrived to Dartfield around 9:30-10:00am and we were spilt into two groups for a bit of riding. The first group headed off while the other spent their time walking through the Dartfield museum waiting their turn to brag about riding in the beautiful fields of Ireland. I myself was in the second group and we were all very excited to saddle up and get out and do what we all love so much. For some of us this was the very first time riding period, some it was their first time riding in an English saddle while others had many years and experience in riding. We began ... read more

Tuesday eve - After visiting a bit and eating twice I went and took an exploratory walk around Ballinasloe. I took some pictures of the house my mother grew up in and of the church she attended. Their house was right next to the church and I remember her telling me about the bell ringing in the morning and evening. Behind the house was a stable and a garden. They used to get free tickets to the circus each year since the circus animals used their back yard for access to the River Suck to water their animals. There had been beautiful weather at first when I arrived in Ballinasloe, then it rained, then it got beautiful again but colder. My cousin has a nice cozy home and we visited in the kitchen while drinking tea ... read more