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

My week of work

Hey there,

what's the crac? This post will be a bit shorter than the last one but I just hope noone minds that.

On Monday John had the day off so I was working with Louis (the one from my first day) and Darragh (shop owner). It was kind of a different experience. It started in the morning when I arrived at the shop to find that I was the first one there and it was raining as usual in such situations. But luckily it didn't take long for Louis to arrive and shortly after Daragh came as well. Basically I was in charge of designing a spring sale mail which led to me searching pictures for the whole day whenever I had the time. Other than that I cleaned some phones and shortly before I left I took payment of a costumer for the first time ever in my life. That was kind of a scary experience. I actually managed to give the customer the merchant slip of the card payment but other than that it went mostly smoothly.

On Tuesday, the 24th of April, I told John everything from the day before and he showed me how to take a customer in. After he watched me doing it once he told me that I from that moment going forward would be the one taking customers in or taking payments. So that is my new main job. Listen to the customers explaining their problems, taking their details and taking payment when they collect their phones. Also, an order came in on Tuesday so I put it all away correctly.
On another note two of my roommates came back from Corfu. Emma and Maxine. We talked pretty much the whole evening and also went up to the guys apartment to eat there.

On Wednesday John and Louis were in and working when I came into work. So I pretty much did the same thing as on Tuesday except putting away an incoming order. But I talked to all the customers and got a bit of a hang of when to ask John about the customers problems. Also I still searched for a good picture to put into the mail. After finding one I asked them what should go in the text. They weren't quite sure so I left it there and started searching tours for the weekend while still going up to the customers whenever one came in.

 On Thursday it was just John and me again. It was quite relaxed. I mainly did the same as on Tuesday and Wednesday. But I also decided that I would go and try every Subway that is available here in Ireland but not in Germany. Other than that I texted a lot regarding a trip I will go on in May. I had to laugh about a few messages so I was giggling quite a bit. John asked about it and when I told him he laughed about it as well. In the evening I met up with John, Shane, Louis and Louis' may-as-well-be-girlfriend Paige. We first went to one of Darragh's other businesses. A pub called Carroll's on Dominick Street. It has a double decker bus standing in its beer garden where you can get pizza. I still am getting used to the pizza habits here. First the toppings on most pizzas are very different. Like chicken or beef mince. And when eating the pizza they dipped their pizza in garlic sauce. I had never really seen that in Germany. Probably once or twice at Pizza Hut but definitely not so casually. The pizza though was really good. And it was not too crazy. We also got a few pints with it. I was one pint ahead of everyone because in true Irish fashion everyone else was a bit late and I didn't want to just stand there. John had to leave early because of his two daughters so the other three and I went on to another pub after enjoying the live music some more and Paige also sang a song with the musicians. We had a lot of fun and after going to two other pubs Shane went home as well. Louis, Paige and I went to a bowling alley afterwards. Louis knows some guy, who works there, so we got in and played a game. I left after that because I had to get up in the morning to go to work. I had a lot of fun on Thursday evening and I also got a picture of the three guys I work with. I asked them if they were alright with me putting up this exact picture and they gave their consent, so here it is:

John is in the back, Louis in the front. Shane is on the right side.

Yesterday I got up at what felt like way too early. But whoever can go out, can get up and work. So I got myself ready and while making breakfast Anna came up to me to say hi after she arrived in the middle of the night back from their trip to Korfu, Rome and Milan. She went back to bed and I went back to work. it was a slow day with not a lot of customers coming in. But we had one whose phone wouldn't back up. He left his phone and laptop with us and right in the middle of updating his phone via the laptop there was a blue screen. It appeared to be a driver problem so I searched for it on the internet but before I could find out more about it the customer came back and collected his laptop and his phone. I told him about it and also told him to keep an eye on it.
On another note we also had a customer who had his Samsung S8+ in for a new screen a few weeks back. John did it but the screen was faulty. It work but it flashed and it was black around one of the edges. So he was told he will get another one that has to be ordered in. Unfortunately, it took a while for the screen to arrive so he wasn't happy with us. He brought his phone in to be done yesterday and John changed the screen. The customer still wasn't super happy but he was alright. He left with his repaired phone. About two hours later a man comes in and shows us a really damaged screen of an Samsung S8+. When we wanted to get his details he told us that it wasn't his phone but his collegues' who is the exact same guy who got his phone fixed just earlier this day. He told us that both of them are bus drivers and that his collegue started work and dropped his phone onto the steps of the bus. So that will be another 300 €. John and me both felt bad for him. After that John told me I could go so I went off into my weekend.
When I came back home Maxine was gone to spend the weekend with her boyfriend. Mackenzie was asleep since she only arrived in Galway at 9 in the mornign after having to stay at the airport in Dublin the night before. Anna and Emma came home just about the same time as me and asked me if I wanted to join them for dinner as they would make shrimps alfredo. We were joined by Mackenzie, Ryan and Tyler. Since it was Tylers last evening with some of them we decided to go out afterwards. True to that plan after the meal we got all ready and went back to the boys apartment. There we met a whole lot of familiy and friends of Liam who are here to visit him. This happening led to only Tyler, Mackenzie and me going out for his last day in Galway. It was his last day because he will go on a three week long trip through all of Europe (whoever knows the film Eurotrip: something like that) after that he comes back for a few days but most of the girls will be gone by then. At least according to everything I've heard about it. But let's wait and see. Also, we didn't stay out too late since he had to get up and leave at five, mackenzie wanted to study for her final and I had plans for today as well.

That is pretty much all about my last week of work. Turned out it got a bit longer than expected. Also, this post was supposed to go up yesterday evening but clearly that didn't work out. So I will tell you all about my weekend in the next blog that will also contain a bit more pictures again.

Until then: Stay tuned. Cheers!

Juliane

P.S.: Also I cheered when it was announced on the radio that the Duchess of Cambridge had her baby boy and I cheered again on Friday when the name was announced to be Louis Arthur Charles but mostly I cheered on Friday because ABBA announced two new songs. And I'm really happy about that.

Going to Kilkenny and Dublin

Hey there,

I'm back. I just couldn't update earlier because I was busy exploring Ireland. But let's start where I left off.
On Sunday, the 15th of April, I didn't do a lot. The girls all came back and Oliver came by as well  to tell us that he found a plumber who should come on Monday which usually means Tuesday. So we thought that maybe if we were lucky on Wednesday the problem would be fixed. Sadly I got a bit of a headache so I just laid down for a bit and afterwards went to Boots to browse around before meeting up with Anna and Emma at a cafe. we then went to the guys apartment to cook and eat. Oliver also told us that it was okay to use the kitchen but we were kind of skeptical about it.

On Monday I went to work and put all the iPhone parts in an Excel worksheet. Other than that I cleaned a few more phones before leaving early. Also Heiko, my trainer from Germany, arrived in Galway on Monday. First we had plans to maybe meet up in the evening. But after arriving at his hotel we found out that it is a bit far away to meet somewhere near and so I finished packing for my upcoming plans and went to bed. On a positive note I can tell you that the dripping had stopped when I came home. Oliver hasn't said a piep to us but we know that there was a plumber in the apartment above us and in the afternoon the dripping stopped and it hasn't started again (fingers crossed it won't ever start again while I'm here).So this problem was solved. Now there are only the nasty stains on the ceiling left.

On Tuesday Heiko came to the shop in the morning and had a chat with John. After that we left to go to Kilkenny. In Kilkenny we went to the Smithwick's experience. There you can learn about the history and the brewing of the beer coming from Kilkenny. The brewery was founded by John Smithwick in 1710.

John Smithwick 1690-1768

information about Smithwicks Ales

The best known beer is the Smithwick's Red Ale which in Germany is sold as Kilkenny. Even tough they change it up a bit to get an alcohol level of 4.8 Vol%. But there are also two other Ales. The Pale Ale and the Blonde Ale. The Pale Ale was launched in 2011 and the Blonde Ale in 2014 making it the latest addition. Today Smithwicks is part of Guiness and isn't brewed in Kilkenny anymore but rather in Dublin at St. James' Gate (next to Guiness Store House). The last Smithwicks was brewed in Kilkenny in December 2013. As part of the guided tour through the former brewery one gets a free drink. Having tried them all by now I can confidently say that my personal favorite is the Red Ale followed by the Blonde Ale and Heiko said his favorite was the Blonde Ale. Also, Heiko is waiting for the Blonde Ale to be released in Germany, which probably says it all. So on the left there is a bit more information about all the Ales.

After that we went to Kilkenny Castle, which was built from 1195 to 1213 and was home to the Butler of Ormonde family for 500 years starting in 1391. It has a nice library room containing 2430 books and has a long room called Picture Gallery. This Gallery contains a lot of paintings but it also has a painted roof. It looked quite amazing.

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Kilkenny Castle

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nursery at Kilkenny Castle

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painted roof at Kilkenny Castle

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garden fountain at Kilkenny Castle

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two pints of Smithwick's Red Ale

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In true Irish fashion we went to Langton's pub for dinner before walking back to the hotel and having pint or two there and talking about pretty much anything and everything.

On Wednesday we started the short journey to Dublin for him to go home and for me to explore Dublin and meet up with the guys from the German Bundestag and one from the Federal Administrative Court. But before that I got some food. I went to Nando's for lunch. Nando's is a restaurant chain from South Africa and is famous for its chicken cooked in piri-piri sauce (chilli sauce from Portugal). Currently there are now restaurants in Germany but I hope that there will be some in Germany/Berlin soon because I really love it. Afterwards I went to the National Leprechaun Museum but unfortunately the next available tour was too late. But next time I'm in Dublin I wanna go there. So I just went to Temple Bar and browsed some shops and menus there before going to Chistchurch Cathedral. This is dated back to 1030, which makes it the oldest church in Dublin. Also it was built by the Vikings.

Here are some pictures I took in Dublin: 

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Ha'penny bridge

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Christchurch Cathedral

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Oscar Wilde statue
at Merrion Square

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quote of Humphrey Bogart
at Foley's

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the Spire of Dublin or
Monument of Light (An Túr Solais)

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house in Dublin

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Sláinte!

After a quick stop back at the hostel to change into something more fitted for a dinner and a nice get together I met with Steve (blog) at the Oscar Wilde statue at Merrion Square. We talked for a bit while waiting for Tom (blog). Together we walked to our meeting point with Dorian (blog) and Patrick (blog). The fourth guy from the German Bundestag, Tobi (blog), didn't come along because he didn't feel as well so it was just us 5. For food we found this restaurant called Bunsen which serves Burgers. The menu is very short, only consisting of a hamburger and a cheeseburger, the respective doubles and three kinds of chips as sides but it tastes really good. Afterwards we went to Foley's, a pub Heiko recommended to me, and had a couple of pints. It was a quiet and chilled evening out. Steve and Tom left a bit earlier than the rest of us since they had to get up earlier than us as well.

On Thursday I took the bus to go to Howth. The weather was great so I decided to go even if I didn't have a lot of time. So I took the bus to Howth and went on the hard tour. The hard tour is 10 km and takes approximately three hours. Since I stopped quite often to take some pictures it took me 4 hours. The trail was nice and I got lucky. The guys warned me about mud and said I should weear stuff that I don't want to wear again anytime soon but because of the weather the trail was mostly try and I had next to none muddy sections. The view was incredibly beautiful. But just watch for yourself:

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cliffs and beach at Howth

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clouds covering the cliffs

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map, I took the purple trail

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me at the cliffs

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water bumping the cliffs

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Baily lighthouse

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signpost for the telegraph cable

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bird posing for a picture

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fog at the cliffs

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cross for someone who died at the cliffs

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stone at the trail

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I had to be back in Dublin at 17:00 to get my luggage from the hostel I stayed in and to board my coach to Galway at 17:45. To do that I took the DART back to Tara Station which was kind of a whole new experience. And I almost didn't get back out of the DART. But luckily for me I was at the coach station on time and boarded mine to go back to Galway. 

When I arrived at the apartment only Acadia was there since the other girls had already left to Korfu in the morning and she followed them on Friday morning. I also felt like I had a sunburn which was confirmed by a look in the mirror. So I put some moisturising crem on and went to bed.

Friday I got up at 8 o'clcok just like every workday and went to work after getting ready. Since there wasn't really anything to do for me I had time to figure out how to put these wonderful slideshows you've already enjoyed on here. This took me about all day and I got a bit frustrated from time to time but I worked it out in the end. Also I fixed the till. Somewhen on Thursday the receipt-printer stopped working and the guys called for their IT-service who fixed the problem. But ever since the till wasn't opening up when a receipt was printer. I first checked that the cable was put in correctley. After that I googled how I can change printer-settings on a MacOS which I had never done before. I found a chat forum where someone was having a similar problem and just followed the steps written there. I was so happy on finding out that it worked. On another note, Darragh came by shortly and said that the pizza and pints are pushed up to next week because of some things that came up. So after work I went into boots to buy some after-sun-lotion for my sunburn/windburn-mix and got some food as well. Also while I had a catch up on tv shows there was suddenly a ship parked right outside our window. Got a little shock there.

boat outside our window

Yesterday, Saturday, the 21st of April, I didn't do a lot. I slept in, skyped my parents and tried to wash my clothes. 'Tried' because while putting my clothes in the washing maschine a different problem arose which was bigger than atticipated: the dryer. I found that most of my shirts aren't alright to tumbledry which makes it impossible to dry them in the apartment without buying a stand for them which I didn't want. So I put in what I could and then went out to search for some new shirts (dryable of course). I wasn't really succesful in that mission yesterday so I went back home to plan my next weekends as most of the stores were closing up.

Today I went on a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour throughout Galway to not only see anything but also to get some stories to some of the buildings or Galway itself. There I learned that Christopher Columbus stopped by in Galway on a trip to either Iceland or the Faroer Islands in 1477 and that the Cromwellian forces sieged the city for nine moth before an agreement was made. It was a nice trip and I learned more about the history of this city. Also I got to say that Tony, the tour guide, was quite funny and - if I dare to say so - adoreable. Made the whole tour. Afterwards I went to Dunnes and there I finally found dryable shirts. So now I seriously need to consider buying another suitcase and upgrading the checked luggage for my flight back to Berlin. On a side note the Celtic Explorer, the ship that arrived Friiday night, departed again. Otherwise I wrote this blog and played a bit with anything regarding these slideshows. 

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first pub of Galway

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former jail now used as a cafe

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house of president Michael D. Higgens who spends his weekends here

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That's it for my second week in Galway. So here is back to work.  

Stay tuned. Cheers!

Juliane