Connemara

     Spoiler alert! This post deals with our weekend trip to Connemara to see the sights and is pretty short.
     As noted, Ireland is both beautiful and part-of-the-world-wide-recession-like-everybody-else-so-we-shouldn't-romanticize-it, but its hard not to when you get out into the country. The main attractions for this particular weekend jaunt included Kylemore Abbey, a Mini Gothic Church, and our bus driver.
     Yes, our bus driver. I feel awful because I can't remember his name. He was among the most knowledgeable and entertaining of our drivers so far. Going through smaller cities outside of Galway, he would give a little history of each. One of them had the iconic bridge from "The Quiet Man," while another seemed very modern and new. Sadly, the newness of this one city is shadowed by the recession and it was "terrible bad" when the housing bubble burst. Sounds familiar for those of you back home, doesn't it?
     But, we were quickly through the town and out onto the bog lands. Most people think of Ireland as being green everywhere, all the time. Before I left, my dad and I were looking at Galway on his smart phone, and noticed that some of the areas were red, instead of green. This confused us. On the one side, we had little green pastures with their little stone fences, and on the other, rusty red fields. So, Dad, those red expanses? They're bogs. The rust color comes from the decomposing plants (peat) that only semi-fertilize the ground, and the little flowers that do bloom get their nutrients from catching bugs.
     Because of the bog land's nature, the roads are often in need of repair due to the uneven ground. Right after one particularly nasty pot-hole, our driver pointed out a statue on the side of the road. It was of  a large man kneeling at the edge of a lough, shrouded by his dramatic cloak. This massive statue must mark an important event, right? Nope. The lad who commissioned the statue erected it (according to legend) to get tourists to stop, walk across the street, and have an ice cream at his shop. Quite ingenious. The words below the statue say "On this spot, nothing has happened."
      Soon after, we made it to Kylemore Abbey (which only became an Abbey relatively recently -1923). I encourage you to check it out, the history is something else: http://www.kylemoreabbeytourism.ie/things-to-do-in-ireland/story-of-kylemore/. Keeping in mind, this IS a tourist website, so they'll draw you in any way they can ;). Probably my two favorite tid-bits about the Abbey revolve around Margaret Henry. First, she was so in love with the land, her husband purchased it as a "romantic gift" and built her a castle. Sadly, she would not get the chance to enjoy her fairytale castle before dying of dysentery while on vacation in Egypt. And second, she had 9 children by the age of 45. Random, but true.
     Last, we looked at The Mini Cathedral, or the Neo-Gothic Church, which was built as a memorial to Margaret. Inside, marble from the four provinces of Ireland are displayed: green from Connemara, rose from Cork, black from Kilkenny, and grey from Armagh. A stained glass window depicts the  5 graces, and angels guard the Church, rather than gargoyles. It's absolutely beautiful. So vibrant for such a morbid end.
     Also vibrant was the day. At least, for the 30 minutes it was sunny and warm. The rest of the time it hailed. Or rained. At one point, we thought it was misty over the lough, but it turned out to just be hail. Again.
     Altogether, though, the day was great - saw more of the country, learned some new stories, and didn't die in a sinkhole out in a bog. Because that does happen. For real. Our bus driver got caught in one back in his youth . . . "luckily my mates actually liked me so pulled me out."

♥C