Tourist season has begun here in Ireland as the rain dries up (don’t worry, it’ll be back) and the sun comes out to play! This week we had a long break, but I actually decided not to travel and instead enjoy the time in Spiddal and Galway. All week was beautiful so I went on a walk every day! How could I not soak up as much sunshine as possible, and my fresh freckles and sunburn have proven I’ve taken advantage! The sunshine added to a great weekend for Easter. Good Friday is a major holiday in Ireland where basically all businesses close, so we expected to do absolutely nothing that day. However, I took on a true Irish tradition and hiked the Maumturk Mountain where we took part in a religious ceremony. A few times each year hundreds of people climb this mountain to arrive at St. Patrick’s blessing site. This site has a small church along with St. Patrick’s bed and cross stations. It is said that St. Patrick climbed up this mountain and used the bed to rest and pray for the blessing of Connemara. The Irish people honor this site and can make the trip for the ceremony three times a year, on St. Patrick’s Day, Good Friday, and at the beginning of August. During the ceremony, the priest does a sermon, traditional songs are sang, and each station of the cross is visited and blessed. The experience was truly cultural and I felt very lucky to be able to spend my Good Friday enjoying the nice weather. Later, Kelli and I attended church on Easter morning. The Galway Cathedral was beautiful and although I am not Catholic, it was still a great experience to see how Ireland celebrates this holiday.
I also immersed myself into the heart of Ireland by exploring the ocean. On all of my walks, I dipped my toes into the ocean but on one afternoon a few of us assisted one of our instructors down to the bay to do some critter catching!. This adventure had to be planned so we first learned about the tides and when was best to go. Right now because of the moon we are in spring tide, but we also had to make sure that we did our catching during the rising of the high tide. We first took a long, rectangular net and kept one end on the shore and took the other out to sea. Then we looped the net around and pulled up a catch of seaweed. Then we muttled through the seaweed looking for critters. We found pregnant shrimp carrying their young on their stomachs, flat fish that hide themselves in the sand, sand eels, and tons of crabs and crab molts. I especially enjoyed this trip and could have spent the entire afternoon on the beach searching for more sea life. My friend Kelli and I also wrangled up a fishing pole from a neighbor, got some liver from the butcher, and went to the pier to try our hand at fishing. Sadly, we clearly can’t cut it as fishermen but it still made for a great day!
I also immersed myself into the heart of Ireland by exploring the ocean. On all of my walks, I dipped my toes into the ocean but on one afternoon a few of us assisted one of our instructors down to the bay to do some critter catching!. This adventure had to be planned so we first learned about the tides and when was best to go. Right now because of the moon we are in spring tide, but we also had to make sure that we did our catching during the rising of the high tide. We first took a long, rectangular net and kept one end on the shore and took the other out to sea. Then we looped the net around and pulled up a catch of seaweed. Then we muttled through the seaweed looking for critters. We found pregnant shrimp carrying their young on their stomachs, flat fish that hide themselves in the sand, sand eels, and tons of crabs and crab molts. I especially enjoyed this trip and could have spent the entire afternoon on the beach searching for more sea life. My friend Kelli and I also wrangled up a fishing pole from a neighbor, got some liver from the butcher, and went to the pier to try our hand at fishing. Sadly, we clearly can’t cut it as fishermen but it still made for a great day!