Do you remember when field trips used to mean a day skipped of school to have fun ‘learning’ somewhere? Well at NUIG, field trips are on the weekend…so you don’t get to miss school. Rainy and cold weather take away some of the fun as well. However, if it wasn’t typical Ireland weather it would have been an interesting experience. We left campus on a bus and headed for South Galway’s Coole Park. Coole Park was the former home of Lady Gregory. Lady Gregory was an amazing woman whom we learned all about in the informational movie we watched when we arrived. She founded the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, where she produced and wrote plays. She was a proponent of the arts and literature in Ireland; numerous famous literary writers would frequently come to her home in Coole Park. The famous William Butler Years spent 20 summers in Coole Park. Lady Gregory had all of her intelligent friends carve their initials in a tree which is the only thing left standing today. We walked around the grounds of the park and saw where all of the buildings used to be. Lady Gregory truly was an inspiring woman, accomplishing all that she did while being a widowed woman in that time. It was a great story!
We got on the bus again and headed to Kilmacduagh, Ireland’s highest round tower… but we called it Irelands Leaning Tower of Pisa because it leans 6 inches from the center. Saint Colman Mac Duach founded the area in the early 7th century; the area included the round tower, a monastery, the Church of St. John the Baptist and O’Heynes Church, a Cathedral, a Temple Mary, and a cemetery on the countryside of County Clare. The beautiful landscape and thousand year old buildings were incredible to see. We took plenty of pictures and then returned home. We spent most of the afternoon napping before we went out to dinner. We went to Bodkin Point Asian buffet restaurant that has a Sunday special of all you can eat for 12.50 euros, but it turns out that the food is way overpriced and really gross. Not to mention, the service doesn’t speak English. The pints of beer are 3 euros, which is the cheapest beer I’ve seen out, but their selection is slim. We went to bed early that night because our weekend of field trips really wore us out!
