Hangin' n InishMorei

I have just returned to Galway from spending the previous day & night on InishMore, the largest of three islands at the mouth of Galway Bay. I starting to get a little lazy or possibly wiser, I choose not to tour the island on bicycle and thus I took a tour van to get a view of the island. The reason this was wise is because the temperature was right at freezing and the wind was blowing @ 30-40 kmh (20-25 mph), thus the windchill was significantly cooler than it had been, but no worries the van was a great wind block.

As with all the other sights I have seen this week, the island is covered with those crazy rock walls; used to provide property boundaries, wind breaks, grazing areas, etc. The main stop of the afternoon was at one of the islands four historical sites that would have been used in ceremonies for the inhabitants, built about 3000 years ago. With it's semi-circle construction open to the west and high on the cliffs, it would provide for a breath-taking views and sunsets.

On the tour with me I met a wonderful couple that were on holiday from the Belfast area, of course I do not remember their names as I did not right them down last night (but they are going to post comments on my blog, so then I will be able to put names to them). They were very interested in how I am planning to use the knowledge I gain while I am at Findhorn, it's a really good question and one that time will help answer.

The night spent at the Kilronan Hostel was nice and quiet compared to Kinlay House in Galway. Marco, the house host, fixed a great pasta dinner and shared it with several of us staying at the hostel, Suzanne & Raymond. Suzanne was there for two weeks teaching an craft/arts class at the secondary school and Raymond was on a short holiday down from Derry where he works for Waterford Crystal. The conversation was focused on the difficult economic times that is up on us world wide, in Ireland they have been "officially" in recession for more than a year and have been in difficult economic times for several years, both Northern Ireland & the Republic. The conclusion at the end of the night, is that we have a long row to hoe, and we need to better understand the things we need and not confuse things we want with the things we need.
Raymond mentioned economic studies that have dealt with making sure communities have the things they need and how this makes for a healthy community, some things I need to research more.


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InnishMor

The Burren & Cliffs of Moher

Got on a bus to do some touring today. There were several stops along the way to look at castles (that were closed for the season), but the most fascinating venues were the walking tour on a farm in the Burren or the Cliffs of Moher.

The walking tour of the farm was great, our guide, John Connelly, works the farm with his father. But, John is also working in Galway, but one day wants to make his living from the farm. We got to see a day-old calf as this is the season for birth, St. Bridget at work. On the walk he talked about the geology and the history of the area, specifically how glaciers had craved the valleys in the Burren, thus exposing and depositing soil that was rich in nutrients; the layers can be seen in the photos taken at the Cliffs of Moher. He did answer one of my many questions, I asked about the rock walls that are so prolific in the area. Many of the rock walls are not boundaries resulting from clearing the rocks out of the fields, but they are known as "famine walls". During the blight attack on the Irish potato, with so many people suffering and dying due to lack of food, the English would feed individuals that would build these meaningless walls over Irish Mountains (large hills). The English had the Irish do this type of construction since it was not aiding the Irish infrastructure, the English did not want to have the Irish people earn food doing meaningful work that would benefit the a potential rival.
John has also renewed an old Irish tradition of the "Hope Tree", the picture with the cloth tied to it. Before you tie the fabric to the tree branch you ask for a Hopeful thing to be bestowed on the people you are praying for.


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The Burren

The Cliffs of Moher are pretty phenomenal in size and beauty. It was fairly windy and we had snow flurries while we were there, we also had sunshine which was enjoyable. I could see the Plassey shipwreck on Innisheer, can you find it?


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Cliffs of Moher

Today I will take a ferry out to InnishMor for an overnight stay.

Changes to the blog format

I was getting really irritated with the fact that pictures I have been posting on Picassa were taking 1 or 2 days to get sync'd with the Blogger Slideshow feature.
So, I have removed the Slideshows and will include the photos that are relative to the blog posting, like I have been doing.

Things to do in Inis Oirr when you die

Don't worry about the title of this entry, I stole it some of Warren Zevon's lyrics. Warren was always joking around....

Hopped on a bus at the hostel and rode for about 45 minutes to the port where we boarded (I was the only one on board that was going for leisure) the boat, that went to Innishmann first and then docked at Inis Oirr (Innisheer for us non-gaelic speaking folks).

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There are a couple of things to note, this is off-season and it was windy, the wind made for a brisk day, but it was not numbing, it was actually enjoyable. The first thing that I noted, meant that I virtually saw no one, I am sure they were inside staying out of the wind.

I had about 4 1/2 hours to stroll around the island, the island does not have a complete road around it (or not that I saw on any of the maps). I first went to the north shore to see if I could find any seals, none were found, then I came back thru town and to the south side. I made friends with a horse over there, since I shared my apple with him, he wanted more as I walked away or maybe it was just the attention, it was pretty isolated over there. On the south side there is a lighthouse (which I did not make it all the way to, since it was off limits) and the Plassey ship wreck from the 1960's. After the south side I ventured back into town and went to O'Brien's Castle and teh Church of St. Kevin & graveyard.

Innisheer Northshore

Innisheer Southshore

Innisheer Points of Interest

Then back on the boat and back into Galway, where I could not eat fast enough.

Tomorrow should be a stroll thru the country side by the Cliffs of Moher.

Music in Galway

I have been to three venues with live music, the best was Tig Cioli with an afternoon of traditional Irish music. The musicians were just streamin' in and taking turns in the circle, flutes, accordions, drums, fiddles, and singing. The singing was performed solo by a couple of different persons. Everyone in the pub enjoyed what they heard and the musicians were having a fabulous time, there was no rush to play songs with about five minutes between songs.

I went to the Kings Head Tavern tonight and the band there was not one that I would have listened to for very long, but I kept thinking that I should give them an opportunity to get in a groove, but they were only playing covers and it is so very hard to get the patrons flowing with the band's selection of music and the band must have the presence to pull it together. Anyway, they tired and I appreciate the effort.

City Center of Galway

The hostel that I am staying at is in the city center, so many things are very accessible from here. Erye Square is an area within the city center with many shops & pubs, when I arrived on Saturday afternoon it was a very bustling place.

I have been searching for some form of transportation; bicycle, moped, and have found a place with bicycles, so I will most likely get one for a day or so. I have opted to participate in a hiking tour that will be through The Burrens & Cliffs of Moher, I will see if I can get that schedule for Monday or Tuesday and possibly go out to one of the isles for a day as well.

The phrase of the day "Do you want that to "take away or to stay"", instead of "to go or to eat-in".

This morning I took a good walk out to a spot called Salthill and South Park, which is the point at which the a small river (that flows thru Galway) flows into the Galway Bay, it was a nice breezy walk, which ended up with me eating a Feta Cheese & Sundried Tomato Crepe (yum). Lots of crepes here, lots of crepes in my belly, veggie, feta-tomato, apple-almond, chocolate; I may be putting on weight.

This afternoon, I will head to the Lisheen Pub to listen to some traditional & folk music.

Here are some photos of Galway & Salthill

Galway City Center & Salthill

Here's a map of Galway

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Gettin' to Galway

You know if the US had a mass transient system that was as accessible and easy to use as the one that got me from Dublin to Galway, it would be a great thing. $25 Euros got me to Galway, a little high, but not bad and if it allows the trains to operate without going bankrupt...

The Irish Country side is lusciously green, no wonder since every day I have been here it has been a constant light mist, some light rain. I don't think that they have to rain-harvest here, at least not that I can see. The temperature has been around +5C (40F).

The fields were harvested (I think it was wheat or corn primarily, I did not see any potato fields that I know of) and many were flooded due to the constant rain, the small drainage canals around the fields were running full. There were numerous sheep farms as well, with rolling green fields for grazing. These farmlands were just too cute, with small one-lane black-topped roads running between the farms. All the farm homes had multiple chimneys, but very few had smoke flowing out of them, I guess it is not cold enough yet to be burning a fire in the fireplaces.

Once in Galway, it was a 3-minute walk to the Kinlay House Hostel, the four flights of stairs was a work out, but the Hostel is nice and comfy.