the final visitors

Tomorrow, my Mom and Aunt Rebecca leave for Ireland! They will arrive at my doorstep early Friday morning. I can't wait to hug and squeeze them both! If you know how cute my Mom is, you would understand why it's been hard to be away from her for so long. I'm so looking forward to a relaxing, girls vacation through Ireland. We'll be staying in bed & breakfasts every night and traveling to many different parts of Ireland, even several I haven't seen yet! I can't wait to show them Galway and all my favorite nooks and crannies that I've discovered. We'll be sure to take lots of pictures and update everyone from home about our trip. 

I'm scrambling to get my last essay finished before they arrive, so I can just relax when they're here. Wish me luck! :)

aran islands

My most recent adventure was a day trip to the Aran Islands. There are actually three small islands, off the western coast of Ireland. Our coordinator planned this trip as our final hoopla all together. We took a ferry in the morning to the largest of the three islands. When we got there we all rented bikes, then took off exploring. Let me tell you, the island is to die for. It's all green fields, stone walls, small thatch cottages, and cows...lots of cows. We rode on windy, hilly paths around the island. 

Beautiful, blue ocean water.

All of us on the beach.

So many cute cows!

We stopped for lunch at a small place and one of the only restaurants on the island. Then we hiked up a path, which lead us to a giant stone fort on the edge of the island. The fort is built on top of several hundred foot high cliffs. They were almost as high as the Cliffs of Moher, except instead of being walled off, you could go right to the edge. We spent an hour just lying on the cliffs edge looking down to the water. We reminised about how we all took a trip to the Cliffs in the beginning of the semester, and now we were ending our trip together with a trip to cliffs once again. I could have sat there all day, seriously. It was also a perfect, warm, sunny day. 

Walking up to the cliff's edge.

View of the cliffs.

Our group by the cliffs.

Literally lying on the edge.

Everyone, once again. 

After spending some time there, we biked off again to an area called the "seven churches." It is this beautiful cemetery with the ruins of seven small churches overlooking the ocean. The whole island felt so serene and beautiful. We had so much fun just biking around. Although, I must admit, the biking was much harder than we all expected and we were all exhausted by the end of the day! When we got back to Galway, we all went out for a nice dinner with Margaret and her husband, Brian. Margaret has become like a grandmother to us all. She worries about us, gives us speeches before traveling, and stops in for random visits to bring us food. She is truly one of the most special people I've met. She is a true Irish, genuine, hospitable woman. We had a great dinner for our last time together as a group, as one girl already went home today and another leaves tomorrow. I still can't believe how quickly the time has gone by and that soon I'll be heading home too. 

Graves in the seven churches area.

My buddies :)

perfect day

Yesterday was one of those absolutely perfect days in Galway that make you never want to leave. It was seventy degrees and sunny, so a bunch of us went by the river and just lied on the grass soaking up the sun. At night we went to a dinner party that some new friends invited us to and had a blast. Then, we went out for drinks to another great pub with an outdoor beer garden. It felt like a summer night! As we were out and all talking a friend turned to me and said, “Man, I’m really gonna miss this.” And it’s so true. With people from our group leaving for home at different times and some traveling before they leave, the reality that our time is coming to end is really starting to set in. Galway has started to feel like another home to me, and there is so much that I know I will miss.  There were also moments that I really missed home, but Galway has become another home to me. A friend once told me that coming home from a semester abroad is so hard because you gave such a piece of your heart away to that city, and I couldn’t agree more. Galway will absolutely have a piece of my heart forever.

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.
~Emerson