Ireland Part 3: Oranmore, Galway, and Athenry

Alex putting rocks down his shirt at Chris's parents' house. I don't know why.

So, Chris's parents live in a townhouse they are renting in Oranmore, which is just outside of Galway. They are, however, in the process of buying a house in Athenry, which is the next town out from Galway (or at least the next train stop). Jack had taken Monday off in anticipation of another day trip but we decided to keep it low key. We went over to see their new house. Chris took the boys on the train and the rest of us drove. While in Athenry, we spent quality time at the playground which had a zip line. Alex is still talking about it. More on that in another post. We had a nice lunch and saw the new house which is a free standing house with a yard as opposed the the townhouse they are in now. We also went to the local castle which you can go into and explore. The castle in Oranmore is a tower that you can not go into but the one in Athenry has a video explaining its history and a small visitors center. Our timing was perfect: the rain started while we were inside and had mostly subsided by the time we were through. 

A couple of the windows in Athenry castle had some sort of nest in them!

Tuesday we spent mostly at home because we were waiting for a package to be delivered. It was also a good opportunity to do laundry! We made sure we had just enough to get us through to the end of the trip. The washers in Ireland are generally smaller and although the one at Chris's parents house also functions as a dryer it isn't very efficient so they typically hang their clothes up to dry. This was really eye opening to me because I'd always assumed that with no outdoor space it made no sense to hang our clothes up to dry. In fact, even if we could hang up our clothes outside they would end up filthy again because where we live is so urban and dry (so dirt tends to blow around) but even as humid as it is in Ireland it didn't take all that long for clothes to dry. Don't get me wrong - we totally tested the limits of their laundry system and it wouldn't be practical to air dry all of our laundry in the space that we have but in the interest of reducing our power usage we could absolutely air dry a couple loads a week. In any case, that afternoon Chris and I headed back in to Galway for dinner and to catch a "trad session". A trad session is a live music session where they play traditional Irish music. Typically one or two people are payed to play at a pub and anyone else can show up with instruments and join in. It's improvisation at its best and it's always a little different. And, of course, it's at a pub so most of the musicians are drinking Guinness. Now, I said before I'm not really a beer person and I am definitely not a Guinness person so luckily, Chris's mom introduced me to Bulmers which is a hard cider. Really, I consumed more alcohol on this trip than I have in a very very long time.

Jacob was in charge of interpreting the trail markers.

On Wednesday we went hiking at Coole, which is now a nature preserve but was once the home of Lady Gregory. There is a tree in the walled garden where William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, and a number of other literary giants carved their names. The hike was fairly flat but longer than the boys are used to. Their favorite part was that there were numbered signs so they could run ahead and find the numbers. They also enjoyed finding and following the directional signs. I sense scavenger hunts in their future! The weather was pleasant - cloudy and cool - with just a little bit of rain. Unfortunately the rain was right when we got to the lake. After a picnic lunch we headed back to the house to finish packing. The next day we were heading to Dublin for a couple days before the trip home!