Western Ireland: Coonemara, Galway and The Burren

Since I had a break from classes last week. I set out for Western Ireland to experience the beauty of the West I had only seen pictures of.  Luckily, my friend Kieran was heading out West for business and gave me a guided car ride from Dublin to Connemara and then on to Galway City.  We took the long way around to Leenane, which is in Coonemara, so I could see more of the countryside.  From the pictures below (I forgot my camera so these are courtesy of John Miranda http://www.johnmirandaphoto.com/index.html – an amazing photographer I found on the web), you can see why I was so happy we took the scenic detour. 

 

 

 We made it to Leenane, where we saw the famous bridge that got washed away and left people from ‘civilization’.  In fact, it is a pretty tiny bridge that you could almost jump over, but apparently because the of the ruckus people raised, a temporary bridge was put up quickly after it got destroyed by the landslide. 

After enjoying the small town of Leenane, I moved on to Galway City for a few days before heading to the Burren for a Bikram (Hot Yoga) weekend retreat.  Though I didn’t do much in Galway, I had a lovely time walking around the town and enjoying the coast.  When I arrived in Galway City, I discovered that the big European Soccer Finals were on between Manchester United and Chelsea.  I had never watched a soccer match before, but headed into town to watch the match with the locals at Murphy’s pub.  It turned out to be a fantastic match, going into overtime and penalty kicks.  Though MU is my alma-mater, I have a new respect for the meaning of MU.

Friday finally came and I caught the bus to Gort and made my way to Cappaghmore for a weekend retreat at the Burren Yoga and Meditation Centre.  That experience deserves its own blog entry, so watch for details in a few days.  To find out more about the program, visit their website at www.burrenyoga.comand photos on their flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/burrenyoga/.