This weekend was our last weekend in Ireland, so we had to make it count! On Saturday my cottage mates and I celebrated Lacie’s bachelorette party. We surprised her with chocolate fondue and whine. After watching the movie “Bridesmaids,” we started our Pub Crawl through Ballyvaughn. We first went to Logue’s Lodge, then to Greene’s and finally to the whiskey bar. Lacie was wearing a beautiful headband decorated with pink glittery penises. When we walked into the bar, one of the female customers asked Lacie, “What’s the occasion for this head gear?” We replied that we are celebrating her bachelorette party tonight. She laughed, took a closer look at the glittery pink penises dangling on Lacie’s head and commented, “According to this size, your man can’t be an Irish man!” We laughed and then worked our way to the back of the pub to find a free cozy spot. Another customer also noticed Lacie’s fantastic head decoration and was so kind and bought her a drink. After enjoying ourselves for a couple of hours we decided to slowly head back to our cottage and get a good night’s rest for the following day.
On a very windy Saturday morning at 9am our favorite bus driver Brian picked us up in front of the cottages. We were headed to Connemara in County Galway. On our way we stopped at a small American Diner called Tony’s to get some coffee and freshly baked scones and bagels. We enjoyed our quick meal and continued our journey. After driving for a while Brian stopped the bus at a beautiful waterfall to give as an opportunity to take some pictures. Then we continued and after roughly 2 hours we reached the city Kylemore where we visited the beautiful castle-like home from Mitchell Henry and his wife Margaret. Henry, a doctor, who inherited a good amount of money from his parents, once visited Connemara with his wife Margaret. She fell in love with the place and Henry decided to purchase a piece of land in Connemara as a gift for his wife. Henry built a beautiful home for them and shortly after the couple moved there permanently. However, their luck didn’t last for too long. During a trip in Egypt, Margeret got very sick and died shortly after. Her heartbroken husband never got remarried and built a small chapel in her honor. Both Margaret and Mitchell are buried next to each other on their property.
After lunch we started our bus ride back to Ballyvaughn. Brian purposefully took a different route right along the shore so we could get a look at the scenery. We passed through a couple small fishing villages and I noticed that all street signs were only in Irish. Brian explained that most of the people living there speak Irish as their first language. During the summer a lot of these primarily Irish-speaking families take in students from all over the country for two weeks in order to help them practice the Irish language. If the student spoke English more than 3 times, s/he got sent back home without getting a refund. Even though this might seem harsh, I think it’s a great idea and opportunity for the students to learn Ireland’s native language.
That’s my update of a very interesting and eventful last weekend in Ireland!
Cheers,
Jessica
Lacie’s bachlorette party!
Connemara
Waterfall in Connemara
Kylemore
5 sorts of Marble that can be found in Ireland (inside of chapel dedicated to Margret)
Chapel dedicated to Margret
Grave of Mitchell and Margret Henry