Galway +

Hi everybody!
So, besides the concert going on in Croke park, about 1mile from my apartment, things are pretty quiet around here this evening. I just spent the last 4 days going non-stop, so I figured giving up watching the Bills beat (I wish) to the Patriots to snuggle in bed and blog.
Thursday was Arthur Guinness Day; if you consider Valentine's day a holiday made up by greeting card companies, well this is a day made up by a brand to sell more of the delicious brew. And it works. What happens is that you get a ticket to a random bar in the city that;s hosting Arthur's Day. Then when you show up and present your ticket, you get into the music venue. It's usually just a small stage in a bar. Anyways, the important part is that you get to see some surprise band show up and play. You don't know who it's going to be until they show up. So, on thursday, my friend Amber and I go to Oliver St. Gogarty's and see 2 famous British bands. Of course, we aren't too familiar with them, but it doesn't matter because they were really good. The first band is 5 girls called The Saturdays. Apparently they're very well known. For the next band, Amber and I staked out two front row spots in order to get a good look. We bought our beers and settled in to wait. About 45 min after the first band stopped playing, a new funky looking band comes on stage. And the lead singer is Nymphadora Tonks from Harry Potter. Her real name is Natalia Tena. We jammed to them for over and hour, here's a bit of their MUSIC if you're interested. During the set, she had a little contest to give away the Guinness she didn't want. Amber and I were AWESOME, but didn't win it... unfairly of course. So the bass player, who was obviously into our outrageous dance moves, gave us his! It was pretty freakin cool. Then after they came off the stage, we met the singer, trumpet player and bass player. It was awesome, they commended us on our dancing, and gave us hugs. Obviously, Thursday night was amazing!

Then, early friday morning, we left Dublin for Galway. On the way we stopped in Athlone, but only for some food. I did take a picture there, but you can't tell it's Athlone. No matter, at least I can say I've been to the town where Grandpa Matt was from. We got back on the bus after some delicious hangover-curing breakfast and went on our way to Kylemore Abbey.

There will be more pictures soon, but this was the best one so far. Kylemore Abbey was built in the mid-19th Century. It housed the Henry family and also some monks. There was the Abbey, the chapel and the gardens.
PAUSE- just watched the play by play of the BILLS beating the Patriots for the 1st time in 9 seasons. I had to just add that in. UNPAUSE
The abbey and the gardens we really cool, especially because they were so well crafted for the 1860's.

The cool thing about the church is that Henry, who designed it, wanted it to look like a small scale version of a cathedral, so he put in 4 different kinds of marble to decorate it. Each type of marble is found in one of the 4 provinces of Ireland. Green from Connaught, Rose from Munster, Black from Leinster, and Grey from Ulster. You can kind of see the marble columns lining the walls.
After Kylemore, we traveled on to our hotel, had delicious dinner in Galway, made a pit stop at the hotel bar, where the mean age was 57, and went off to bed.



Saturday we went to the Aran Islands, there are three, but we went to Innis Mor (innish more). The main language on the Island is Irish, so all of the signs were in Irish and all of the 800 inhabitants were fluent. We climbed to the top of a mountain to an old Viking fort, but of course, the cool thing is that it was built of a cliff with a 300 foot drop into the Atlantic. It was spectacular.

I cannot describe the rush of air that comes up at you when your head is extended out over the edge of a 300 foot drop. It is unbelievable. I have never felt anything like it. After climbing the cliffs, we stopped in a bar in town for fish and chips. I had waited all these days to have fish and chips in a real seaside town instead of Dublin, and it was totally worth it. After we came back, we had another great meal, and I was a little under the weather so I went to bed.
Today was our last day of the trip. We went to the Cliffs of Moher, also known as the Cliffs of Insanity from the Princess Bride! That's right, I was at that very spot today!
We climbed up and took some great pictures, unfortunately my camera was dead, so the one's of me won't be uploaded until tomorrow :( but here are a couple!

We couldn't get as close to the edge here, which probably was a good thing. It was an amazing experience to see these cliffs. The pictures don't and could never explain how breathtaking the scenery is. After a quick lunch, we took the 4hour bus ride back here to Dublin.
There are so many other things to say, but I'll be sure them bit by bit the next time I see/talk to all of you. I love you all!
Julie
-Go Bills
p.s. sorry for not proofreading, I know it's probably annoying, but I really don't have the energy <3