Galway: Who needs roadsigns,anyway?!!!

One idle Friday morning Mother decided she wanted to go find Padraig Pearse's House in connemara, Co.Gaway. This was the place he used to bring his students from Dublin to learn and experience the Irish language, which at that time was not being taught in most irish schools. I was due back in Italy a few days later so we figured we'd take a road trip. We set of 9-ish and after 2 hours arrived in Galway city, but kept going on towards the desolate, no-man's-land that is Connemara.

For anyone that has never been to or heard of...Connemara is true Ireland at it's original and best. It's one of the few parts of Ireland that still uses gaelic in daily conversation. The land is mainly untouched by the construction-worker's evil hands.

There are few houses and no supermarkets, nightclubs or Starbucks. Obviously it has as many pubs as people, otherwise it wouldn't be "true Ireland".

We first stopped off at The coral beach which, I'm almost certain,  is the only of it's kind in the country. Instead of sand, the beach is made from broken down coral. It's very much off the beaten track and even though we had 2 maps in front of us we still had to ask locals for the exact location. We decided to eat our sandwiches there and then collected some coral to take home for the garden.

Then, we were back on the search for Padraig Pearse. It took us another hour of driving in circles to find it (again having to resort to asking  the locals). When we finally got there we found a tiny 2-roomed thatched cottage, with some replica furniture from early the 1900's.

The care-taker, an oldish but polite gentleman, offered to give us a guided tour but we thought we'd find our own way through the two rooms.  We then followed a path down the back garden which led us to the most one of the beautiful views I've seen in Ireland. There was a louch Inagh wth the 12 bens in the backdrop just sprawled out in front of us. Breath-taking!

 

Next was the 'Alcock and Brown Memorial' . Alcock and Brown took off from Lester’s Field in St. John's Newfoundland on June 14, 1919 and crash landed in a bog at Clifden, Ireland on June 15, 1919. I can just image what was going through their minds after successfully crossing the Atlantic for the first time ever.

..then finding themselves elbow-deep in a bog!! The monument was erected in 1959 a few miles from the actual landing site.

From there we decided to head towards civilization for dinner. The nearest town was Clifden. Now to get to Clifden from where we were we had to take a road, which I swear to God, was called 'The Bog Road'. We drove 8 miles through peat and sheep to finally find a road with with a white-line down the middle (I was never so glad to see a white-line!!). We found a roadsign, a rarity in Galway, that pointed to Clifden and lo and behold-it actually led to Clifden!!

Clifden...a venus-fly-trap of a town!! We found our way there easily enough and didn't have to think twice about stopped for something to eat. It's very eye-pleasing and has that tradition irish charm that most Galway towns seem to be bursting with.

After leaving the restaraunt we headed for the car and seeing as neither of us could remember which ay we had come into the town we thought we'd just look for a roadsign................HOW NAIVE WERE WE?!!!        Clifden doesn't 'do' roadsigns.  It just lures you in with it's charm and it's white-lined road, then that's it. You basically have to try all the routes out and hope to find a sign somewhere along the way. If you discover you're heading the wrong way-you have no choice but to head back to Clifden and try again. After an hour and a half of this we finally hit the road to Galway city.

It was a very enjoyable day and I'd recommend anyone traveling in Ireland to throw away your maps and guide books and just go get yourselves lost because the most beautiful parts of the country are stumbled upon and certainly not lead to by roadsigns!.