I had the best conversation with a couple at breakfast this morning. They are a couple that was with me on the England part of the tour and we have sat together and chatted a couple of other times. This morning it was just me and them having breakfast at the same table.
He mentioned that after I left the dinner table early last night, one of the others in the group mentioned that I had done lots of traveling. He asked me what was my favorite trip and I told him about walking the Camino de Santiago. I shared with him a few stories and lessons I had learned along the way.
That led to a conversation about mindfulness and connecting to like-minded people. His wife has been able to find her tribe but he is still looking. We talked about beliefs vs truth and other such things. If felt good to be able to go a bit deeper with someone on the group.
Today we headed out at 9:00 to go the Connemara National Park. We made a potty stop at a cute shop along the way. We ended up at Kylemore Abbey. The nuns were originally from Belgium and their order started in the early 1600’s.
I was lucky enough to notice that the nuns were leading a mass at 12:15 so I went to part of that. I love to hear them sing their prayers. I didn’t stay for all of it as I needed to eat lunch before we had to be back on the bus at 1:30. The mass that I did see was beautiful. There were 10 nuns doing the mass. Two of them looked like they had just joined, two others looked like they had taken a bigger step towards becoming a nun, and the others looked like they had been nuns for a long time. The ones that looked like they had just joined looked young.
There is an old church, a beautiful garden and a mansion on the grounds. I toured part of the mansion but it wasn’t my thing. The old church was beautiful. I didn’t make it to the garden as the weather was not garden type weather.
We drove back to Galway at 1:30 and arrived around 3:15. The guide took the group on a short walking tour around Galway. Most of the group stayed in Galway for the evening and will have to take a taxi back to the hotel as it is quite a walk to town. I opted to stay on the bus and wait for the group.
Today has been more typical Irish weather. We had rain on and off all day. I only got caught in the rain for a short bit when I was walking at the Abbey grounds. The high has been 58 so it has been a bit cold for me.
The countryside was beautiful as we drove through the Connemara National Park. Lots of sheep, a few cattle, and lots of waterfalls coming down the mountains. We saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first time on the trip. There were huge white caps on it today as it was very windy. The mountains were making clouds today. We were high enough up at times that we drove through the clouds.
We got back to the hotel around 4:00. I went to the bar and had dinner and then came up to my room for the night. I am going to take a hot bath in a bit and warm up and then tuck myself in for the evening. Tomorrow we leave at 8:00 so I will have to be up and dressed by 7:00 so I can have breakfast before we leave.
My clothes I washed out yesterday are still not dry but hoping they will be more dry by morning. I tried using the hair dryer on them this morning and over heated the hair dryer. I will try it in a bit and see if it will work again. Oops!
Tomorrow we are going to the Cliffs of Moher and Bunratty Castle. We will spend the next two nights in Killarney.
Five more days of tour plus one bonus day for me in Dublin before I head for home next Tuesday.
I haven’t gotten homesick yet and haven’t given much thought to the hail damage process. Trusting the insurance adjuster is meeting with the window guy and will get me some funds for windows soon. I will be home a week from today.
I am struggling remembering what hotel room I am in. I try to remember to carry the jacket they put the room key in with me as it has the room number on it. After this many nights in different hotels, the numbers are starting to run together in my head. It is all I can do to remember what time I am to meet the bus in the morning.
This group has been very punctual so far. I’m surprised that with 42 people on the tour that everyone has shown up on time. I’m grateful for it though.
This trip has been wonderful for me to see sights I have never seen before. I have been a bit disappointed that I haven’t connected to many people on the tour. I have forgotten how to be social and make small talk with strangers. I have found the best part of the day is when I am in my room – alone!
Grateful for another safe day of travels, grateful for the beauty that I am seeing, and grateful for the faithfulness of the nuns and the work they do.