My Piece of Home: Part Two

Katie and I are taking a rest in an internet cafe in Galway Town. The past two days have been so amazing! I'll start from the beginning. :)

That night after I was done writing that post, I met up with Katie in our room. We walked to the bathroom down the hall and we had an awkward encounter! As we walked down a small flight of stairs, a man was walking up, coming from the shower room, in just a shirt and his underwear!! Once he saw us he awkwardly tried to pull his shirt down to cover up a little!! It was strange though, because we didn't have any shower stuff, and he wasn't wet... But I must ask you to be proud of us because we were straight faced all the way to the bathroom where we had to let go and laugh!! It was so funny!! Anyways, there's a little story for you. :) After that we prepared for the next day and went to sleep.

Wednesday morning we woke up and had a quick complimentary breakfast at our hostel in Dublin. We checked out right on time at 10am, and made our way to the car hire shop called, Murray's. (Never go there, by the way....the people are rude and not helpful!) The walk took about 45 minutes, which probably would have been shorter if we weren't lugging around our bags. We hopped in the car and Katie took off. She has been doing an excellent job driving! I'm so proud of her! We work well as a team...she drives and I navigate. We got lost in Dublin and missed our highway, which was slightly stressful for the both of us. But once we made it on the road, we were so excited and ready to get out of the city and explore the country!

About four hours later we arrived in Knock. The grounds were simply beautiful. I won't write out the story of Knock, but for those who don't know, it is the place where Mary, St. Joseph, and St. John the Evangelist appeared to about 15 locals outside of their church (now called The Church of the Apparition) exactly 130 years ago today! It is definitely worth looking up and reading about if you are interested. They built a shrine outside of the church in a beautiful and creative way. There is also a basilica there, which was in the shape of a pentagon. And a building just filled with over 20 rooms for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Past that building was a garden and a museum, and on the other side of that is a graveyard where the graves stand of several of the witnesses of the apparition! We explored the grounds for about an hour, and then made our way to Westport. Once there, we checked into our hostel, freshened up, and went out to the pubs several blocks away. I read a good review for Molloy's Pub, which is owned by Matt Molloy, a musician in the famous band, The Chieftains. Two local boys found us right away! Joe O'Toole and Peter Duffey, friends and born and raised locals of Westport. As we were talking to them, Matt Molloy himself came up to us and playfully told us to "watch out for these boys." How cool is that?? Anyways, they were loads of fun and we really enjoyed talking to them. They bought us drinks, and as Katie pointed out, her first free beer in Ireland! After the pub closed, we walked back to our hostel with Joe, who insisted on making sure we got home safely; it was very late, after all. When we walked up to our car in the parking lot to get something out, we noticed that we had a flat tire and the left side mirror was gone! After freaking out for a minute, we calmed down and Joe promised us he would be back in the morning to help us fix it. The outside of the mirror was completely in tact so we have no idea what happened to it, but we assume that the flat was due to driving over something on the way. After going to bed and trying not to be too upset, we got about 6 hours of sleep. We woke up early to eat our breakfast and meet Joe outside...that is, if he showed up at all. Katie and I started the process of putting on a flat, feeling flustered and looking around for a boy to help us. Like a knight in shining armor, Joe O'Toole came around the corner with a cup of coffee and a smile on his face. His good temper and amazing sense of humor made us feel at ease as he helped us change the flat. He even had to call a few relatives to get someone to help us, because the ratchet was the wrong size!! (A special thank you to Albert O'Toole for the help!) After it was all taken care of, he went with us to a tire place to get a new one. (By the way, we had the full insurance, and after I called to make sure, we won't have to pay for the repairs!! Thanks Mom for the advice!) We all felt better after having the whole thing done and over with. We took Joe out for lunch to thank him for all of his help. We really could not have handled the situation as easily, quickly, and freak-out- free if it were not for him. It was sad to say goodbye to our new friend, but we eventually made our way out of Westport at around half one.

The lady at the hostel gave us a good route to take us to Crough Patrick, Kylemore Abbey and then on to Galway. Crough Patrick was only a few minutes outside of Westport. It is the mountain where it is said that St. Patrick climbed and lived on for 40 days of Lent, in time of prayer and fasting. This is also something that I won't write too much about, but there is a lot of good information on it if you want to read about it. The hike up to the top is loose rocks, and it takes the average traveler three and a half hours! Katie and I just went up a few minutes to the statue of St. Patrick and enjoyed a beautiful view of the valley and coastal range. The entire day from then on was driving, but I can't explain how amazing the drive was! That long drive is called Doo Lough and it is a little road through heaven itself. We took pictures, but it won't be even a 1/16 of the beauty that we experienced. Everywhere we looked were large grassy and rocky hills and a valley and lake that run through it. At the end of that stretch, we came up to Kylemore Abbey. Katie has a poster of this castle in her apartment. I've looked at it a million times, but actually being there was breathtaking. We stayed there for a while, but eventually made our way to Galway from there.

We got to our hostel at about seven last night. Tired from the long day, we decided to take some time to relax. (I recommend the hostel. It's called Corrib Village and it actually university campus housing during the school year. We have lots of space, and a complimentary breakfast. The people are helpful and friendly. It's only 20 euro a night.) We planned on going out to Galway, but we decided to stay in and wait for today. I'm glad we did! After the crazy day and night before, we really needed a rest. This morning we had our breakfast and did laundry. We came into town around half one and stopped first at St. Nicholas' Cathedral. What an amazing church! It is one of the last great stone cathedrals in Europe, built in 1965. Inside is a huge organ and a large ceiling made of Canadian cedar, which is supposed to help the effect of the music played by the organ. The church also has many gigantic and ornate mosaics, including one of Jesus on the cross. There is also a complete larger than life set of the Stations of the Cross carved from stone by a woman native to Dublin. The stained glass windows are modern, and include one that depicts The Irish Holy Family, with Mary knitting and Jesus offering Joseph a cup of tea! After our time there, we walked all over this cute little town and had lunch at Mc Donagh's Fish-and-Chips, a famous place that goes back four generations. There are lots of street performers on the main street, and they are all very talented! We came across a funny slight-of-hand artist from Texas, who was very entertaining and very good at what he does! We also fell in love with two boys playing the xylophone (we think that's what it was). One was from Russia and one was from Ireland. They were so cute and they were having so much fun playing! And they were amazing! They both played with two sticks (technical term??) in each hand!!!

Now we are here in a little internet cafe and we will soon head out to see a few of the famous pubs. To tell you the truth, we hope to run into the cute boy that works at the hostel who recommended a pub to us! Wish us luck!

Love,
Claire