Ireland - Day 5 - Kylemore, Connemara & Galway
Our adventurer is woken up by the sounds of strong winds and the pitter-patter of rain hitting the tensioned fly of their tent.
It's 3am and the winds have picked up A LOT, my tent's wide side is facing the wind, acting as a huge sail and the stakes on that side have come out, causing my tent to partially cave in. I got out of the tent, wondering if I should just re-stake the tent and try to sleep through the rest of the night, or if I should try to reposition my tent or even my car to reduce the wind. I chose the lazy way out and double-staked that side of the tent down and tried to go back to sleep.
I don't think I managed to get more than 30 minutes of sleep before morning. I gave up trying to sleep more and decided to pack up and head out.
The weather was rainy, and I was trying to decide between heading to Wild Nephin National Park or Connemara National Park. In retrospect, I probably would have enjoyed Wild Nephin National Park much more, but decided to head to Connemara instead, to save some time and because the weather was quite rainy, I figured a more busy park would be the better choice.
Just before I got to Connemara National Park, Kylemore Abbey caught my eye. I wasn't too interested in visible active/restored churches/castles/estates, but I thought it would be a good place to stop and "pray" for the rain to settle down.
The Benedictine nuns still operate in this abbey, teaching, farming and making chocolate. The abbey was very well kept and even had some cartoon "stained glass" windows, which made me imagine the possibility of anime-inspired stained glass art.
The grounds also included a mini private cathedral, Victorian garden, kitchen garden and a flower garden.
The rain continued to pour while I was exploring the gardens and the strong winds made some neat patterns in the water.
Connemara National Park was pretty disappointing, with a super short trail and not much to see, but the weather gave some dramatic shots.
It was really wet and windy during the hike, so I headed back to the visitor centre for some warm soup. The visitor centre had some cool rocks and funny taxidermy.
I asked the staff if there were any other good trails nearby, but they said all the good trails are up mountains -- which they would not recommend for today. So I decided to just slowly make my way towards Galway, and maybe spend a bit longer in the city today.
I detoured along Sky road, which had amazing views and trecherous roads, and no good places to stop and take photos.
I got to Galway, and stopped by a tapas place, but was not satisfied by the food so also got some cheesy curried chips.
I was standing in a sheltered alley across from the chip shop trying to shelter from rain, and made eye contact with a stranger, sharing a smile. A few minutes later, she comes by on her way back, and we smile at each other again. She goes "are they any good?". I responded that they were delicious (the chips were really crispy!), but way too much for one person!
To wash down the chips, I headed to MP Walsh, a cozy pub with a friendly knowledgeable bartender who guided me through some Irish whiskies. I told him I could only have one drink, but stayed for a Guinness 0.0 as well, which is surprisingly good. We chat a bit about bike touring and camping and he also told me he wasn't impressed by the tapas place I went to.
I really enjoyed a lot of interactions with locals during my time in Ireland. Of course there were some standard transactional interactions, but many felt very genuine and really brightened up my time there.
I stayed at a proper B&B tonight, hoping to make up for the night before.