An Gaeltacht

Today we drove through the Connemara, a beautiful area east and north of Galway. One thing that is unique about this area is that much of it speaks Gaelic/Irish only so many of the signs, names of stores and pubs, and other markings are solely in Irish. "An Gaeltacht" refers to "Gaelic" and is also what parts of this region are referred to as. Aside from the interesting road signs, the landscape of the Connemara is both beautiful and a little desolate, but not in a bad way. It ranges in diversity from sandy beaches to mountain peaks to endless rocky fields to bogs to lakes. We drove up to a town called Clifden and back along the coast to Galway, making some stops along the way for photos. I wish we could have stopped every few miles or so because to me, this place is what you think of when you think of Ireland--fields of sheep and cattle, rock walls, little cottages seemingly in the middle of nowhere. But as we've found, when you ask someone how long it takes to get somewhere by car here, you should probably double it! Nonetheless, it was a beautiful drive and we enjoyed the scenery!

When we returned from our day out, the people who took care of our room wrapped Jonathan's little Roscommon bear in blankie--so cute!

Back in Galway, we went to a great bookstore that I could have spent all day in! Christopher picked up a book on how to speak Irish and I found a copy of a book that I read when I was here during my teaching called Round Ireland with a Fridge. It's about a guy who hitchhikes around Ireland with a mini-fridge. It was very entertaining and I must have gotten rid of my copy from years ago. Well, I picked it up again for a second reading!