On the Road to Galway

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Tuesday, June 23rd On the Road to Galway

Choices, Choices

We left Sligo for Galway Tuesday morning in what would turn out to be a long day in the car. Our plan was to hit a few major sites along the way like Connemara before arriving in Galway by dinner time. Guide books and tourist maps only point out the major sites, but as you drive along Ireland’s roads numerous distractions encourage you to pull over. A medieval tower there, an abandoned monastery there, hungry sheep peeking over the farmer’s fence looking for food.

Imagine an American kid and an Irish kid talking about where they lived. The American kid says to the Irish kid, “I have a swing set in my back yard. What do you have ?” The Irish kid responds, “Nothing much, just a ancient, ruined castle full of fairies and leprechauns”. And that’s how it is with Ireland, there is something to see around every corner, even in your back yard.

When we visited some of the cemeteries earlier in the week, we kept seeing inscriptions on the tomb stones that referred to Our Lady of Knock. In Gaelic knock means mountain, but this didn’t make sense. With our curiosity peaked we detoured south and drove through the town of Knock to discover that Our Lady of Knock was a visage of the Virgin Mary who appeared in the town many years ago. Today, the town of Knock is a pilgrimage site filled with tourists of a religious inspiration seeking blessings and cures.

Heritage Center for Country Life

Our main destination for the morning was the Heritage Center for Country Life near Castlebar. You can find Heritage Centers and Museums all over Ireland. They were originally established by the Irish government as a way to preserve Gaelic culture and educate young Irish children about their heritage since so much had been wiped out by the British. The center in Castlebar focused on country life or life of the typical Irish farmer which did not change very much for hundreds of years until the 1950’s when electricity was first introduced. This was an eye opener for me to realize that the traditional farming existence was in the not too distant past. The Irish typically made their own clothes, grew their own food and rarely traveled more than 20 miles from home. What a simple yet difficult life !!

Hungry enough to eat a sheep, we stopped in the nearby town of Westport for lunch. Even though Westport is in the Rick Steves guidebook I would recommend skipping it for anything except lunch. It is very touristy, filled with souvenir shops and mediocre attractions. I was anxious to hit the road so we could see Connemara but we were running out of time. All the fairies and leprechauns were doing a good job of distracting us.

St. Patrick and the Loch Ness Monster

Along the route to Galway is Croagh Patrick, otherwise known as the mountain where St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland. This turned out to be another skippable moment due to all the touristy stuff. Buy your official St. Patrick walking stick for 2 euro, or rent it for your climb up the mountain for only 1 euro !! Having climbed my fair share of mountains on the trip I decided to forgo the “I climbed St. Patrick’s Mountain” t-shirt and press on. There was also a famine ship memorial across the street but I can’t even begin to tell you how ugly it was. Wow, where was this pessimism coming from all of a sudden ??

The area south of Westport and St. Patrick’s mountain is a very desolate place. Very few homes, no trees, giant mountains spread across the horizon trying to block your path. As you crest the road at one point you come across Doo Lough, a beautiful lake set in the mountains. This scene reminded me very much of Scotland, and I kept expecting to see the Loch Ness monster swimming around the lake. This was definitely worth the stop. By now the day was evaporating quickly, we would not have time to see Connemara National Park. We had to make it to Galway before the kids turned into ravenous Furblogs hungry for dinner.

Impressions of Galway

My first impression of Galway was, “Wow, this city is big enough to have rush hour traffic !!”. The stress levels ratcheted back up as I navigated the many roundabouts on the way to our new B&B. Our B&B was a short 10 minute walk to Eyre Square, which is the heart of Galway. After we were settled in we took a walk to find a place for dinner and check things out.

Eyre Square was filled with college students hanging out, playing Frisbee and just having a good time. We passed a hostel called “Snoozles”. What a great name !! There were street musicians playing authentic tunes on their flute or violin. We even came across a group fully wired with electric guitars and drums playing “The Boys are Back in Town” by .38 Special. Wow, free entertainment !! We definitely got our money’s worth out of Ireland today.

Observations: Credit Cards and Money in Ireland

The use of the magnetic stripe credit card is a little more common in Ireland, or at least I got less puzzled looks from all the shop clerks. Ireland is mainly a cash only society. All the B&B’s, and most of the shops and restaurants only took cash. I found myself constantly hitting the ATM to be able to pay for everything. Since Ireland is on the Euro it was easy to take the left over money from France and use it here. Inevitably I end up with a large pocket full of coins that is hard to get rid of !!

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Photos

Farewall to Teresa
Saying goodbye to Teresa, our B&B host in Tubbercurry.

Abbey Ruins
Abbey ruins near the heritage center.

Doo Lough
See Nessie in the background ?

Comments

[Alyssa]

-sigh-
Cheesy castle-in-the-backyard joke... -siiiiiiiiiiigh-

[Alyssa]

Furblogs
it's furbolgs* :-)