Galway, Dublin, Turloughs oh my! Posted on September 20th, 2009 by

We went on a trip to Galway, a city about a 45 minute drive from Ballyvaughan.  It’s a good sized city with plenty of things to do.  We went on a walking tour of it, our guide was excellent he was very funny and told us all kinds of rumors, and interesting facts, like the mosaic of John Kennedy in one of the churches that we walked through.  There was plenty of shopping which was lot’s of fun.  We also had lunch at the King’s Head pub where King Charles executioner was supposed to have lived for several years, they had really good chips (french fries) and they had pear Bulmers (cyder) which was quite good, they serve it cold here with ice and it’s kind’ve bubbly and tastes like bubbly apple juice or pear juice in this case.  We also hit the Pubs in the evening, there are all kinds of people at the bars from about 8 or 9 pm  to 2 am.  Grandparents, or potentially grandparents, families, middle age people, stag parties (bachelor parties) and Hen parties (bachelorette parties), young adults looking to find good craic (fun or a good time ) not to be confused with the drug.  Then in Dublin we visited about as many museums and galleries as one possible could in one day.  I think we counted twelve, but it was hard to keep them all straight.  There were plenty of beautiful paintings and strange paintings.  The national museum has Harry Clarke’s Illustrations of Hans Christian Anderson’s Fairy Tales which are beautiful.  They also have an exhibition of drawings titles Raphael to Rossetti: Drawings from the Collection which is amazing to see.  We also saw many smaller galleries and exhibitions in our touring of Dublin.  We stayed in a hostel right smack in the middle of Temple Bar so it was quite crazy in the evening.  Some of the girls went and saw Dorian Grey which looked good, and we thought about going to see it but we didn’t make it timing wise.  We did go to Fitsimmons and  saw a pretty good cover group.  Apparently cover groups are quite commonly seen in pubs.  Friday we went on a tour of the tuloughs, which are these funny lake like things, they are species poor but don’t exist year round.  During the wetter seasons they look like a lake but then they dry up later.  This year it’s been odd to see them still around at this time, Gordon(the Irish Studies professor) found it great fun we could see them now.  We also had a pot luck dinner with the graduate students at one of there homes.  It was a lot of fun and good food.  There was a bonfire, and pasta, and plenty of wine and conversation that went around.  Now it’s sunday and people are being productive, and going shopping and doing things that should have happened earlier in the weekend.  Student procrastination isn’t new here.  This is what my house looks like.Front of Connolly House

The living room, off our four bedroom house, that I live in with Rudy, Angela, and Mac.
The Living Room

The kitchen.

Kitchen

The Dinning Room attached to the Kitchen and Living Room with sliding glass doors that go out to the patio and backyard.

Dining Room

The backyard with Mac sitting on the wall of the patio.

Backyard

Backyard

My Bed, which is never made is upstairs, I have an ensuite bathroom which is nice.

Bedroom

The Bathroom with shower.

My Bathroom

It’s not huge but you can see my wardrobe I suppose you’d call it, and my nightstand, it’s not huge but I don’t have much stuff anyways to put in it.

My Room

The view out my window, I also have a skylight in the bathroom.

The View from my Window

A twisted tree at the fairy fort we visited with Gordon on our Turlough trip.

Twisted Tree at a Fairy FortPart of the Fairy fort wall.
Fairy Fort Wall

 


2 Comments

  1. Gladys Peterson says:

    Hi Katie . . . We are so glad that your Dad sent this to us so that we can see your house and sort of see the layout of it. How nice that four of you can live here and each have your own bedroom and bath. I don’t think there are many places like that in the U.S. Your description of your tour was very interesting. We are as well as we can be – I fell down and hit my head on the corner of the piano bench so I had to go to ER and I have a two inch gouge – had three stitches and four staples. A friend comes over each morning to comb my hair so that I don’t take the staples out and to try and cover the wound. What kind of a schedule do you have for your studies? Continue to take in all the sights that you can and thanks for sharing them with us. Luv ya, Grandma P

  2. Gladys Peterson says:

    Thanks for the sharing of your tour. I loved seeing your house.