Connemara and Inis Mór

Hey there,

as I promised in the last post I'll do one for the last weekend.Like the title says I went on a daytrip to Connemara and on another one to the biggest ofthe Aran Islands, Inis Mór or Inishmore in English.
And let me tell you one thing: It was unbelievably beautiful. I'm out of words about how beautiful. I was just standing there a lot in astonishment and couldn't believe which kind of beauty I was witnessing. But let's start on Saturday morning and prepare yourself for reading the words 'beautiful' and 'stunning' a lot, so hereby you've been warned.

After waking up about the same time as during the week I got myself ready and on my way to the coach station I stopped at Dunnes to get a sandwich to pack since I ran out of bread. I arrived at the coach station with plenty time left until I had to board the coach so I just sat back and waited. On boarding I already noticed that a lot of French people were on the same bus.

landscape at first stop

The first stop was at the beginning of Maam Valley. It was really beautiful.  And I was already blow away. And the day would continue on to blow me away.
Next stop was in Leenane Village. A very small town. But back in 1990 the film 'The Field' was shot here. It was a very short stop and after another 20 minutes we had another stop at the only Irish Fjord out there. The Killary Fjord. It lies very nicley between a few mountains and divides counties Galway and Mayo. It is used for mussel and oyster farming as well since the water is very clear there.

"end" of  a river at Killary Fjord

From there the bus started his Journey to the main destination. Kylemore Abbey with its Victorian Walled Garden. This Abbey is one of Irelands most popular Castles. The castle on which grounds it stays was built from 1867 until 1871.  The gardens were opened to the public in the 1970s. Also on the grounds is a church. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to go see it all since I had only 2 hours. So on arrival I first went to the gardens. They have shuttle buses going there every 10 minutes. The garden looked very nice and they also opened the gardeners houses to the public. Also behind the walled garden there is a big forest areal. I didn't go there as well due to time issues but I suppose you could go for amazing walks there. After the founder of the castle, Mitchell Henry, sold the estate to the Duke and Duchess of Manchester in 1909 it went up for sale again in 1920 due to the gambling habits of the couple. It was bought by a few Benedictine nuns, who fled from Ypres in Belgium during World War I. These nuns founded the abbey and turned the castle into a boarding school in 1923. In 1959 parts of the castle burned down but were rebuilt. The boarding school was open until 2010 when it was shut down due to decreasing numbers of pupils and the house not being safe anymore. They  also take pride in having had two Indian princesses going there. So here is a little look:

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Kylemore Abbey

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Victorian wall

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first look into the garden

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house of the head gardener

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table inside the head gardener house

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table inside a normal gardeners house (bothy)

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salad and herb garden

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Kylemore Castle charter

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me at Kylemore Abbey

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After Kylemore Abbey there was one more stop in An Spidéal. This is part of what the Irish call the Gaeltacht. This means that the first language here is Gaelic and the second is English. Though most people there are bilingual.

At the last stop

Also it is lambing season so I have to include this picture. They are just the cutest:

lamb - it's lambing season

On Sunday I went on a day trip to Inis Mór. It is the biggest of the three islands forming the Aran Islands. The middle one is Inis Meáin (Inishmaan) and the smallest one is Inis Oírr (Inisheer). They are located in the bay of Galway and reachable by ferries leaving from either Doolin or Rossaveal. Departing in Galway there are shuttle bus services to bring tourists to Rossaveal where one boards the ferry. So that is what I did. On the bus with me where mostly French or German people. In general I feel like here are more European tourists or Americans but not as much Asian tourists as in Germany, Italy or France. I wonder why that is. But back to my weekend: So the bus took me and all the other people to Roosaveal, which took about an hour give or take. The ferry also took about an hour to bring all of us over to Inis Mór. Arriving there I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I had to decide between hiring a bike, a horse carriage or probably taking a tour on horse back. Since I hadn't booked anything in advance very pretty soon cut back to hiring a bike which is exactly what I did. So I started my way around the island. I stopped along my route fairly often to take in the scenery and the most stunning views. Or at least all that I thought to be the most stunning view without knowing what exactly was there to come. 

Also I met a very friendly donkey (On Monday John and me decided to call him Doug). About an half an hour after I started my tour suddenly my chain sprung out and I had to put it back in. That worked out fine but my hands were quite greasy. Luckily two Japanese women stopped and asked if everything was alright. I said yes but asked if they had any tissues. One had and so we rode together from there. When they stopped to have lunch at the Inis Mór Seal Colony I was about to take off because I didn't bring any lunch with me but they stopped me and told me they would share with me. So after making sure they were really okay with it I ate lunch with them and then we got back on the road. Originally they had planned to go to another attraction than me but because of the time running like crazy they decided to change their plan to come with me. On our way to the most popular sight of Inis Mór we came by a beach with white sand and the Atlantic looked so blue. Looked a bit like in Italy or Greece. It was so beautiful. After that we rode to the most popular attraction of Inis Mór: Dún Aonghasa. It is a hill fort made of limestone from 1100 BC. It looks kind of intimidating. But it is also fascinating to think that even 3100 years ago people lived there and that they built this fort that still stands today. Also it is built directly next to the cliffs  and there are no security lines or safety barriers whatsoever. When I asked a guard about how many people fall down the cliffs he said that no one ever does which I can't completely believe. We had an incredible view and it really look stunning. Also after we spend sometime enjoying we had to start our trip back to Kilronan, where the port is located. But before giving back our bikes we also made a quick stop at the Aran Sweater Market since Aran is mainly famous for it.
But what also was one of my best experiences on Sunday was seeing dolphins. Sadly I got no pictures of them but it was kind of magical.
But see for yourself:

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me overlooking the Atlantic

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stone with the distances to sights

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ruins of a house where I met Doug

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seal colony

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stony coast at Inis Mór

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white beach at Inis Mór

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coast line at Inis Mór

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trail up to Dún Aonghasa

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inner circle of Dún Aonghasa

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the island from the altar at the inner circle

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cliffs at Dún Aonghasa

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Moemi and Hisako

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going down from the inner circle of Dún Aonghasa

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On Monday it was back to work. It was a slow day but John helped me sell two phones and I had a run on finding stuff we were searching for, e.g. an USB that should have went back into an computer. Other than that I just helped customers drop their phone off. And transferred someone contacts from their Alcatel phone to their iPhone SE.

Yesterday I helped the customers. So nothing out of the ordinary. But one thing definitely was out of the ordinary. One customer came in telling me his battery is dead and he want it replaced. It was an iPhone 6 Plus. When I got his details and put the label on the back i noticed the screen coming of at one side. When I told John so he said that the battery is swelled and he'll show me when he gets it out. Well he never could. He opened it and put it on the hot plate to loosen the glue. And suddenly there falmes on the desk John sat at. He first got the phone from the desk and then when it started smoking a lot but without any open fire he got the battery out of the phone and brought it outside and right into a puddle and brought some more water out asap. It was a bit scary. Also I asked him how often that happens and he told me that it was only the third time he witnessed it in all his seven years of phone repairs. Other than that it was just a normal day in the shop.

Today I served customers all day and started on a task Manu, my trainer from Germany, gave me. In the evening I talked a lot to Mackenzie and Maxine about anything and everything and got into some deep stuff about the human species. Also I wrote this post, sorted through all my pictures and cut it down to the 27 that are on here. So sorry for the picture spam but it was freaking hard. Also I now got two other weekends all planned out. But I'm not gonna tell where I go. You'll just have to wait and see.

That's about it for now,I'm off to bed. Stay tuned for more. Cheers!

Juliane