Ireland in a Fog Part 3

Day 31: July 17, 2012

Check out Ireland in a Fog Part 1 and Part 2

            Our bus tour of Connemara and Kylemore Abbey was in the company of a little different crowd than our previous tour had been. Instead of talkative, joking 20 something’s, we got a group of smelly old folks. The tour was very similar in the fact that it was one, a very rainy and foggy day, and two, that we had to endure the bumpy winding roads of Ireland’s countryside.

Having a cup of tea inside the cottage

            Our first stop was to meet up with the rest of the group at their breakfast stop. They were at this tourist information center on the side of the road and next to the center was The Quiet Man replica cottage. I had to watch The Quiet Man for my Irish film class and ever since we have always joked about the movie. Apparently the people here in Ireland either love it or hate it. Either way, I probably won’t watch it ever again, but it was an experience that had to happen while studying Irish film.

So of course I wanted to stop in the cottage and take some pictures. It was straight up creepy! So creepy in fact that Haley could only stand to be in there for long enough to take just one picture of me. The place looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since Maureen O’Hara did it in the movie. To say the least it was pretty creepy.

Our quiche and mac and cheese!

We then drove for a little while until we got to Kylemore Abbey. Kylemore used to be a castle in the late 1800’s but it was later occupied nuns who turned it into an all girls boarding school. It stayed this way until 2010 when they did not have enough attendance to continue. The nuns still live there and they have a garden where they grow loads of food. They make their own chocolate, jams, fudge, and all the food you can eat in the visitor center restaurant is made by them as well. They do a great job! We had quiche and mac and cheese and they were both amazing!

Kylemore Abbey from across the lake!

            Kylemore Abbey is not on the trip for my study abroad program but I really think it needs to be. We went in a downpour and it was gorgeous. I can only imagine getting to go on a nice day. The architecture is not like a castle from the middle ages, but more like the gothic times of the late 18^th early 19^th centuries. It reminded me a lot of the mansions you see up in Newport, Rhode Island.

            Overall the abbey was beautiful! It would have been nice if we had gotten to tour a little more of it and if the weather hadn’t been so bad. There are Victorian gardens, a Gothic church, and a Mausoleum on the grounds as well, but due to the rain we decided to not go to those. Instead we caught the gift shop on our way out where we spent way too much money (like usual) but got some great things for people back home! After we were done at the gift shop we headed towards the bus and of course, it stopped raining. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to go back up to do anymore exploring, but we still enjoyed our visit!