Did you know that if you shorten St. Patrick's Day to St. Paddy's Day it does indeed have to be PaDDy and not PaTTy. The D comes from the Gaelic for Patrick "Padraig." So... Put that in your ale and drink it!





This picture was taken on the Aran Islands at the site called "Seven Churches." The island was riddled with ancient ruins and it was very easy to imagine was life was like in medieval times because not a lot has changed because of the isolation from the mainland. The locals all speak "Irish" (not Gaelic... Irish) and their English accents were very unique and thick! It was awesome!
This will be my last post from Ireland, sadly... Tomorrow being St. Paddy's Day we will be right in the thick of it all and later that night/early in the morning we'll be on our way back to Canada.
So... HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY and thanks for joining me!!!
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(click on any picture to see it full-size)

Galway is a lovely little town on the west coast of Ireland. Being in Dublin and being in Europe period you get glimpses of history everywhere you look, but it's when you go into the smaller towns and villages where you really feel like you're somewhere ancient. All of the little towns look like this:






Skinny little roads, cars parked on the sidewalks, and shops everywhere. So many shops!!!












This is the main shopping street in Galway just off Eyre Square:






This has been my favourite shopping experience/cultural experience thus far. There were amazing musicians busking in the street:






This is a woman playing the Uilleann pipes. The instrument is kind of like bagpipes except it has a beautiful sound that verges on haunting, and you pump up the bag with your arm.






This trio played traditional Irish folk music and the singer (on the left playing the guitar) had the most resonant bass voice I've ever heard. His voice carried all the way down a very busy street - no amplification needed.






I should have put my wide angle lens on for this shop but yah... It was a cheesemongers shop, cheese, cheese, and more cheese. I am very lactose intolerant but I cannot give this stuff up. I pop a couple Lactaid and dig in. Ian and I bought about 8 different cheeses (only about 100 grams of each) and they are all amazing. My favourite though, was a nice, aged, Irish Gouda.. I'm a sucker for a good Gouda!






The country roads are littered with old ruins like this. We must have told our bus driver, Greg, to slow down 15 times to capture beautiful sights like this.






Lovely old graveyards,






picturesque churches,






and ancient stone walls and fences. I just found out today that the stone fences weren't built because the Irish love their privacy! They were built because most of Ireland was covered in stone ( we saw areas of un-quarried stone on the ground today - it looks like tile floor ) and the most efficient way of getting rid of it was to build fences. They have stood the test of time without mortar by allowing air to pass through the holes. It's a pretty ingenious invention!
Today we visited the famous Aran islands. I can't wait to share those shots!
Slainte!
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So day 4 we got to play some rugby! Our girls got smashed -literally -and after this game we took three girls to the hospital... One of the three is ok, but one girl has a concussion, and one suffered two broken ribs.. It was a tough game because the girls were still pretty jet lagged, not eating properly, and as the game went on we lost all of our subs and suffered a little shot to the ego.... But it was a good game and a good challenge!





The coolest thing about that rugby game was it was nestled in this sweet little village and the cottages that were surrounding the pitch were so sweet.. Picturesque!





You guessed it, the next day we visited the Guinness brewery and it exceeded my expectations! The exhibits were beautifully done and there were some cool interactive aspects to the tour as well ( if you know what I mean.... )





Cool bottles! I wanted to steal those blue ones..





We then went to Aviva stadium.. It's a brand-new facility just for Gaelic sports.. Apparently all the kids and my hubby new what this place was but was like, "oh.... Nice...." lol. It was a good tour though!





For dinner we went to a part of Dublin called "temple bar." There were some pretty snazzy restaurants and bars in the area like the one above..





This was my last shot of Dublin. That's our bus driver, Greg. Doesn't he look like a rock star?
Now we're in Galway and so far I am in love!!!! I can't wait to show you pics. Talk to you soon!
Slainte!
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To be honest with you, I have never had to deal with that kind of sleep deprivation before... We had a particularly grueling schedule that began at midnight on Wednesday (which meant we were up all day Wednesday obviously) and ended with my head hitting the pillow at 10:00pm here in Ireland on Friday night. If you're the math-type, that was 54 hours. My poor son did not deal with it well... I couldn't get him to sleep more than a couple of hours on the bus on the very first leg of the trip, and consequently he was VERY fatigued, VERY cranky and VERY hard to deal with. I let him have an hour nap on Friday morning when we arrived in Dublin and when I attempted to wake him up for a shower (giving in to the jet lag would have been very bad for him) he pretty much hallucinated. He was talking really strangely, confused, not making sense, and I was pretty worried about him, but once Ian helped him into the shower he got a little better. We still had a full day of activities planned so we had to "power through..."




The first thing we did was have a "traditional Irish breakfast" that everyone devoured. It was just so nice to have real food...





Then, we decided to take the morning a little slow and boarded the public transit to a local mall. I was dragging Phoenix AND Ian around trying to keep everyone energized. (in case you're wondering, I used my powers of being able to nap at any time of day to my advantage - and I took a lot of gravol -and I slept on our second flight, woke up just before we arrived and jet lag was beat!!)





Look at him... He's so tired... He has been doing all of the shopping and I just have to remind him to pace himself.. We have a whole week and lots of other destinations to explore..





Tomorrow we're doing a couple of tours - including the Guinness brewery!! I promise I'll have some more scenic/pretty/historic photos for you.
Till then,
Slainte!


Favourite quote of the day:
"You're from Canada? Do you know Justin Bieber?"
- 10 year old girl


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