Hello Hello Hello

Many apologies for waiting so long to update you all! Katie and I just got back from a long weekend in London, but more about that later...

On Saturday, the 30 of January, Katie and I and several others went on a day trip to Connemara and Kylemore Abbey. The scenery was simply breathtaking! Connemara is the name for the countryside north of Galway. The area is identified by the type of rock found there, granite, because the majority of the island of Ireland is made of limestone. There were sheep everywhere, I would say the most we have seen at one time yet! And on our way to a beautiful 14 century monastery we got to see itty bitty baby sheep! So precious. Also on this adventure we were able to see Ashgrove Castle. It was owned for several years by the Guinness Family but today it is a castle turned hotel. Also extremely gorgeous. Pierce Brosnan grew up 20 minutes from the castle and had his wedding reception at the hotel. It used to cost anywhere from 700 to 1700 euro a night to stay there but now because of the recession you can stay there for about 80 euro a night! Haha. Also, you should know that the Lochness monster resides in this area of Ireland, not in Scotland. So, we finished the tour by spending some time at Kylemore Abbey. It is a breathtaking castle-like building that is curremtly inhabited by 6 Benedictine nuns. The sisters there used to run a boarding school for girls but because of the lack of interest and the age of the nuns that live there it is most likely that the entire building will be opened up for tourism, rather than just the grounds. It ws a long but gratifying day!

The next day (Sunday) we went out for our friend, Trisha's, birthday. We started out around 7;30pm and ate at this really nummy tavern on the Corrib River called Monroe's. From there we pub hopped and finally ended up at this pub in City Centre around 11:30 called the Front Door. There we met a group of local Irish guys who had apparently been drinking since 11am that morning. But they were a lot of fun and made sure that Trisha was having a good birthday celebration!

The next week was filled with classes and then LONDON!

We will post about London later tonight! I promise!!!!!!