Net Lemur: 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.