Connemara

At the end of my first week, everybody in Irish Studies (which is basically all the students at the school) went on an all-day field trip as part of the class. We went to the region called Connemara, an area northwest across the bay from Ballyvaughan. There are a lot of hills and mountains, and Ireland's only fjord. It was very beautiful and otherworldly at times.

One place we stopped at was Kylemore Abbey, an amazingly cool-looking castle by a lakeside. We didn't get to go inside, however, or stay very long, which was disappointing.

We stopped in a town called Clifden, and got a bite to eat at a cafe as well as walked around a little bit. As we were leaving the town, our guide told us some interesting trivia: The first nonstop transatlantic flight in the world landed right outside of Clifden. It was also the site of the first (quoting from Wikipedia) "point-to-point fixed wireless service connecting Europe with North America" (the station they connected with was in Nova Scotia, Canada). The radio operator on the Titanic worked at the wireless station in Clifden at one time, apparently, too.

On the way back, we stopped at two beaches; I don't think the first one had a name, but it had interesting sand that was made up of many, many tiny bits of coral remains. That was my first time being near an ocean and beach, and it was awesome. Then we kept driving for a while longer and got to a beach called Dog's Bay, where everybody walked around for a while. It was very beautiful, and some of the "otherworldly" moments were especially strong here.

Now, for pictures. Pictures taken last are at the top, and ones taken first start at the bottom. Also, I apologize for the extreme blueness of some photos.


Dog's Bay


The picture on the right shows the former site of a prehistoric settlement.















All of the pictures above are at Dog's Bay (or approaching Dog's Bay).


The first beach we stopped at.





Kylemore Abbey


A "rag tree" - I think it's a fairy tree that people have decided to tie bits of cloth to, for remembering friends/family.




Awesome fjord we stopped at (next to the rag tree).








The photos above are all from the bus ride in.

More Than Just Rocks

Ok... I'm going to attempt to remember and summarize events from the past couple of weeks.

I have now been in Ballyvaughan, Ireland for a little over 2 weeks. My brother Dustin and I are living in a house in the town, with 5 other people. Everybody seems to get along well enough.

My first week here... The first bus ride from Shannon to Ballyvaughan felt pretty unreal. Many things looked familiar and the same as back home, but then so many things felt different. One of the things I noticed the most was the vegetation - it looks more scraggly and "jaggy" than a lot of plants back home. Some of it might have been because it's winter and plants/trees are dried out, and they don't have any snow to hide their dried appearance (that's right - virtually no snow, unlike Minnesota this time of year! I have only seen some patches of frost now and then). The landscapes look so untamed and natural compared to the neat, flat fields of corn and soybean that you find outside of towns in southern Minnesota. The stone-filled land of the Burren was especially striking as the bus got farther into the Burren region.

The drop off at our house felt very abrupt - there we were, and there we were going to live! We got settled in pretty soon, though.

My first week was filled with orientation-related events at the school, such as... presentations by teachers and graduate students showing their work and talking about themselves, trips to Ennistymon (southwest city in the Burren area) for immigration registration with the Guarda (police), class registration at the school, a walking tour of the town, workshops with the teachers... And then, there were various fun social events, some planned and some unplanned (or unexpected), in which I got to know some fellow students at the school a little. It's great to meet new people from other schools and see what kind of stuff they like to do, or what kind of art they enjoy.

One of our first days involved an all day outing via bus to various locations in the Burren - it was a very full day! We went to the famous tomb Poulnabrone, stopped at a former Post Office converted to an art space and listened to the artist who did it (the soot drawing of an old man in one photo above is by her, its of the former postmaster), stopped in a town and had a hearty meal, and then went to the rocky shores near the Cliffs of Moher. That was my first time being close to the open ocean - it was breathtaking, and awesome. Amazing all around.

The pubs/restaurants seem to be only thing to go out and do during the night hours in Ballyvaughan - which I don't really mind. One of them especially (o'Loclainn's) is cozy and has a nice authentic atmosphere. Steven Spielberg and Daniel Radcliffe have visited/stayed in Ballyvaughan before (and went to o'Loclainn's), which is pretty awesome.

Now here are some photos - they are all from my third day in the Burren in Ireland, and they are in reverse chronological order (in terms of when they were taken - I would prefer they went in normal order, but the blog tools upload them that way and it takes too much time to reverse them all).

I know this is all rather late (this blog post I mean, and not talking about anything more recent than the first week), but I will try to catch up soon with some more blog posts.