Two more counties down...

Last Thursday night my cousins Mike and Tom Malloy came to Galway for the night. The next morning we were to go to County Mayo, the home of our Great-Grandmother, Mary Burke and the site of the Gronell estate. We were to catch the bus to Partry a small town near the aforementioned estate and walk, hoping to find it. We had an old map and directions from family members but still weren’t sure how easy it would be. We awoke to a beautiful day (which means no rain) but we all knew not to jinx it by making a comment on the weather. We made it to Co. Mayo perfectly. The bus was easy enough as it stopped right in front of a pub in Partry. And when we went inside the bar keeper knew exactly were we were to go. A man at the bar even said, “oh yeah the Gronell Place. I know where that is…” I was filled with pride and happiness!! People in Ireland knew my family’s name like it was a local family in a small town, which actually it was for many years.

The property was about a 15 minute walk down the main road. Luckily there was a footpath and loads of sheep and other farm animals to make the trek all that more pleasing not to mention safe. The house itself is in ruins but we expected that. It had been at least 20 years since anyone had lived there. And houses like it were common all over Ireland. Small, made of stone, with what used to be thatched roofs. They were abandoned for more modern housing in Ireland or wherever people emigrated to. Back to the story…

The three of us took numerous amounts of pictures, both of the house and each other. It was a proud moment for us all as we looked at old pictures of our grandparents and realized that we were standing in those very same places. We then met Eleanor the neighbor living across the street, who happened to be going for a walk. She and her family had bought the land from my Grandmother about six years ago and she had met many of my aunts and uncles who had come to visit at one time or another.

She invited us to go to her mother in laws house which was situated next to hers and just down the road. We were on a roll as everything seemed to be working out perfectly. Maura was a delightful woman at approximately 85 years of age. She was mildly forgetful but she knew our Grandmother May Gronell and was happy to entertain us. After about thirty minutes of questions about our time in Ireland, our family and talk of the weather we all gave her a hug and proceeded on our way back to the bus stop.

On our way we took more pictures from behind the old house and of a local church that we suspected our great grandparents attended while still in Partry. One stained glass even was donated on behalf of our family.

That evening we caught a bus to Limerick for my cousin Mike’s Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. We woke up Saturday and headed to University Limerick. We thought we would take Bus Eireann but it zoomed right past us. Luckily another bus came shortly after and was headed directly to the University. We made it to the campus and were lucky enough to see a flying Frisbee appear over a hill top. Amazingly and quite randomly we had found the tournament! The pitch, consisted of three main fields with games or practice going on on each. Tom was there watching Mike get ready for his second match of the day. Cousin Mike must have talked us and our frisbee skills up because we were quickly recruited for the Cork B team (which was made up of non-students or beginner players) as soon as we got to the field. We found Tom and he became our photographer. The team was very friendly and happy to have some subs to make the game a tad bit less strenuous for everyone. They lent us shirts and everything. The game was a bit lopsided in the other teams favor but yours truly did make a diving catch that lead to our first score.

The rest of our day was spent in downtown Limerick. We toured King John’s Castle and walked around the city taking in all the shops, wonderful architecture and old buildings. The Castle was awesome as it offered a great view of the city and the Shannon River. Not to mention all the history it held. On the river there were about five kayakers playing in some rapids. Very neat to watch as they did tricks and turns to stay in a small pocket of the river that was particularly fierce.

After our sight seeing we met up with Mike, Tom and the team for dinner and trip to Riddler’s Pub, a seemingly tame place with cheaper prices than the Pubs in Galway. Eventually we made it upstairs to find the DJ and the “real party”. We didn’t know this but people from the various Frisbee teams had agreed to dress up Halloween style with the theme being video games. We saw great costumes like pacman and his ghost, two sonic the hedgehogs, the Mario brothers, and Lara Croft.

The team invited us to play again on Sunday but we decided to sleep in and head back home at our leisure. We slept in and made it just on time to the bus station to catch the bus back to Galway. All in all it was a great weekend. Full of fun people, a new city and a healthy dose of ultimate!

Tour Buses and Friendly Folks

After St. Patty’s day we booked ourselves onto a bus tour (much to my chagrin at the time, since I always thought they were the epitome of touristy and avoided them like the temptation to ever say “top ‘o the mornin’ to ya”). This bus was taking us to Connemara, an area that is lovely and very rustic. Despite my stereotype of the tours, we were very excited to be getting out of Galway for a while and to get a chance to see another part of the country for more than 2 hours. We were picked up by a taxi (as part of the tour!) and boarded the bus with 32 other ‘foreigners’. I think that we were the only ones on our bus that spoke English as our primary language, which made it really fun!

We made a bunch of stops throughout the day. One of the highlights was the ruins of a famine village. There were more stone walls here than we could believe! It looked like a giant labyrinth. The village homes were very tiny one room stone houses, of which roofs were missing and often walls were collapsed or destroyed by the landlords of the homes. Many of the people were forced out of their houses and had to watch as their homes were literally ripped apart by the owners of the land if they could not pay rent. The history was incredible.

The landscape in Connemara was beautiful. Homes were sparse and there were more sheep than people in most places, which Mike and I enjoyed seeing very much. We could tell a few farmers shared some land for grazing their sheep because some of the sheep on one field would be spray painted red, while another was pink and blue!

Lakes and mountains are sprinkled throughout and cast a breathtaking view when the sun shone upon them, which to our surprise was quite often that day. Greens and deep blues scattered the landscape. I was hoping to see the reflection of the mountains in the water, but the wind was so fierce that there were actually whitecaps in the lakes. Michael really enjoyed being outside in the beauty, and being able to get a sense of this area that we will be able to share with our visitors soon.

Another highlight was the Kylemore Abbey. It was originally built by Mitchell and Margaret Henry as a castle-home for their family. He built it right on a lake, overlooking the mountains, what a life! After his death it was bought by Benedictine nuns who transformed it into a private girls’ school. They restored the gardens and church and have kept it up beautifully. We’d like to go back to see the large gardens in bloom, there is a whole herb garden and ‘herbaceous border’ and I bet it would smell like the best kitchen ever! Oh yeah and we want to go back to see the ‘Nuttery’ as well, hee hee!

We met a friendly lad named Luca, on the tour. He’s from Turino, Italy and we got a chance to talk with him a bit. After the tour we met him out for pint at Taffe’s and for “Irish” music. However, there were so many tourists from the weekend that they played more American music, to humor them, than Irish songs. Tunes like “Country Roads” and “Bridge over Troubled Waters” were sung loudly by the crowd. We were a bit embarrassed to be American at that point, and disappointed to not be hearing Irish music in Ireland… oh well the tourists seemed happy.

The next night we met Luca again for a pint, but this time it was at Monroe’s for the set dancing (see previous blog). The music was jumpin’ and so were the dancers! Luca was dying to be on the dance floor and I was joking about how serious and intimidating these dancers are from my experience watching them last week. Well, before I knew it, Luca was pushing me aside, but kept pushing and pushing until I was right beside the best dancer on the floor. Luca was standing and looking down at me as if it were our turn on the greatest carnival ride. The next thing I knew was I was being lined up and was given instructions on how to do the next dance! I quickly looked back for Michael, who was happily having a conversation in Spanish to another person we met from Spain. He beamed at me, gave me a thumbs up, and I wondered was he secretly laughing at what was to come.

After watching the dancers I knew a bit how move my feet in a triple step, and after my three second lesson (literally), I had a vague idea of when to switch partners and when to hold on for dear life during the spinning. I was so dizzy after one of the dances that I had to keep hold of my partner for fear of looking drunk and falling to the ground. Michael said that I looked great and that I looked like I knew what I was doing. It was a big advantage to have the best male dancer as my partner, and I kind of just kept my feet moving as I was pushed and pulled in figure 8’s and tight circles on the floor. It was so much fun!! Luca definitely held his own, and he was proud to have done what it seemed he had come to do. We hope to meet up with Luca again, whether it’s in Italy (as he invited us to stay with him if we are traveling) or back here or the US (as we did the same for him).

St. Patty's Day

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Our March 17th started with a drenching rain as we walked to catch a bus downtown to watch the parade. Typical weather for the Irish holiday. The parade itself was wonderful with many schools, organization and sports clubs being represented. Some of the spectators and marchers even wore kilts but most wore green and with a shamrock somewhere, usually in the form of face paint, sticker or funny head piece. We wore green but didn’t have the luxury of additional flare as we were limited to the number of bags we could take on the plane over here :)

We took an umbrella as well but quickly learned that they were useless as the wind swirled so much that you never knew at which angle the rain would be attacking you from. And ours went inside out so many times we would have been just as well with a colander over our heads.

After the parade had sufficiently drenched us, we tried to find a not-packed pub to watch the rugby match in and to dry off a bit, which proved to be a difficult feat not only cause of the holiday but because it was the final rugby matches to determine who wins the Grand Slam. Eventually we found The Hole in the Wall. That’s the pub’s name, no joke, but it wasn’t as small as you might think. It even offered stools and a near by fire so we were in good shape. Ireland won the match in convincing fashion but everyone was on edge to see how the French team would fair because the teams were tied for number of games won, and the team with the greatest point differential would win the coveted Grand Slam. All was well until France scored late in the match on a highly contested try to steal the Grand Slam by a measly 2 points. The refs were being called all sorts of bad names across the country. I have a feeling all the fans drowned their sorrows in a few more pints but we opted for dinner and music at our next destination.

Dinner was unique as all the Irish restaurants were full with long waits so we ended up eating at an Indian restaurant. I know, not what you expected, but it was a place we had wanted to try, and only try once… pretty disappointing, we should have waited in a line.

We then moved on to the Crane Bar, which was having free “trad sessions” all day. That meant that they had random people lined up to play acoustically which is tough to hear with loud drunk people all around not so interested in the music. It was fun when random people joined in singing traditional songs. They were good but it was lacking the pep we had experienced in our other trad listening adventures.

I hope we're not disappointing everyone with the lack of flare and extravagance that was this St. Patty’s day, but we realized that American’s celebrate with just as much excitement and partying, and even more so because they get to pretend they’re Irish for a day… while here, well, they never get to pretend.

I’m rather happy and full as I report that Michael has tried his hand at another Irish meal. Tonight was corned beef and cabbage and it was bowl-lickin’ good, literally! It’s very handy to have the culture living right with you (Colm, our landlord) to tell you the history and “real” way to make it. The Irish don’t actually have it all the time on St. Patty’s day like we in America think they do, and in fact a more common dish here is bacon and cabbage. There you have it, and how was YOUR St. Patty’s day, we’d love to hear the American (or British or German or African… wherever you maybe reading this) version!

Move over Michael Flatley

Every Tuesday night, at Monroe’s Pub on Lower Dominic St, the dance floor is open and a handful of set dancers come out to show there stuff. The music is upbeat and the place is packed with the dancers on center stage. Now to an American it looks like a combination of country line dancing and square dancing and indeed it is. After talking to a native I found that both American dances have origins in set dancing tradition.

The dance itself has about 4-5 varieties depending on the song played. Most of the time there were two groups of 8 people doing variations of spins, circle dances and partner switching. The whole scene is lively and you can tell that the dancers are getting a work out. We didn’t try to dance ourselves, even though Christina, was dying to be part of the craic. We merely watched, but we might look into trying to learn if we can find a class or someone to teach us a little. Our housemate, Collim, has an 8 year old daughter who does Irish dancing, Christina may see if she could get free lessons.

During the course of the evening we met one of the girls who had been dancing. Orla and her Fiance Joe were fun people who were more than happy to chat it up about dancing, life in Galway and the like. All in all the evening was “grand”!Good drink, good dancing, and most of all good craic. We’re definitely going to check that out more often

Weekend Rambles

The weekend started by a trip to the farmers market. Held every Saturday just off Shop Street in downtown Galway, it hosts farmers selling locally grown and organic produce and so much more. There are also loads of other booths including a cheese monger, a purses and jewelry guy, hand made pottery, and various food stands, namely falafel. I had been craving one of these Middle Eastern delights ever since we arrived but either I wasn’t hungry (imagine that) or the line was 20 people long. But this day I was not to be denied as there wasn’t a line to be seen. It was worth the wait. Toasted pita, fresh veggies, creamy tahini sauce, spicy chickpea patties. Yum! After I ate my treat it was time to take in more of the market and make our way towards a pub to watch the rugby match.

Eventually we ended up at The Kings Head to watch the match vs. Scotland. This time Ireland squeaked it out at 19-18. It was back and forth but with less than 10 minutes to go Ireland took the lead for good. And for those who have been following the 6 Nations Tournament, France lost so now we have a chance at the Grand Slam! (Which means winning the whole shebang). Going into the last set of matches, it’s a tie with England France and Ireland all with one loss. The tie breaker is total points in which we are only 4 behind France. We play Italy, this Saturday, St Patrick’s Day, so if we do well we might have a chance to win it all!! And on St Patrick’s Day no less!

Sunday was a bit different as there were no pubs and definitely no falafel. We took the bus south to Co. Claire. We tried, tried being the operative word, to see The Burren, a beautiful limestone rock formation with numerous trails and interesting plant life. We made it on the bus ok but we didn't have enough time to see The Burren as the Sunday bus schedule limits us to a measly 2 ½ hours pretty much where ever we would choose to go. Well this trip went wrong in so many ways! We got dropped off in Ballyvaughn, a very thoughtfully planned out place because from our books this is in the heart of the Burren, and there is a great exploratory center only ¼ of a mile away! We got off the bus in the continual rain and asked at the information station (which was a miracle in itself to see because it wound up being pretty much a one road town) and got informed that that center is no longer there. Ah, of course. Surely there is a way to hike through this Burren, being in the heart of it after all, and being able to see its presence all around us on all the hills- imagine hill after hill of what looked like stacked rectangularly shaped stones, as if they were planned and placed there… certainly the land wouldn’t just be formed that way with such lush green fields all around, but yes that is the mystery and beauty of the Burren. Well, all those hills were someone’s farm and property, which made sense why they were sheep and cows attempting to graze on some of those stones. We were then informed that we could take the Burren walk that would EVENTUALLY take us through some of that stone work we want to see. But we only had 2 ½ hours and this walk was about 3 miles just to the first hill top. We then decided to forego that walk and try a closer, albeit more touristy, cave instead. We were told it would be 2 km. away, very walkable, however, it wound up being closer to 4 km one way, and remember, all in the rain, by foot with no “footpaths” and mud everywhere. We never made it because we had to get back for the ONLY bus that would take us back to Galway, so we ended up with a tour of the countryside and a chance to see some sheep close up. It rained all day and we didn't see what we set out to see but actually it was a lot of fun. We definitely had to adjust our attitude at times towards the whole thing, but in hindsight, it was just neat to start our exploration of the rest of the country. We have plans to go back already but this time we will spend the night nearby so we have the whole day to hike and explore… in the right place.

Mike’s Turn

I know everyone has been enjoying Christina’s blog entries but I wanted to write one of my own for a change.

How to summarize life in Galway… My days during the week started of a tad bit less exciting than Christina’s but that has begun to change. I started by looking at the internet and local paper searching for jobs. I learned about what was available and what I might be able to do. You see I am an eligible spouse which means that I need a work permit of my own but because I am already in the country and my wife has a work permit they try to make it easier for me to get that permit. They don’t have to advertise the job within the EU and I don’t think we have to pay the 500 Euro fee. Keep your fingers crossed about that! So all that being said some companies are not interested in me right off the bat because they don’t have to go through the hassle when they can hire a regular Irish citizen. So now more than ever I need to stand out! So now a few weeks later I have some applications sent in and a few interviews lined up and hopefully those will all go well.

To supplement my time I have begun volunteering. So far at only one place, Enable Ireland, but hopefully more assuming I don’t get one of these jobs. Enable Ireland operates a thrift shop to raise money for children with disabilities. I sort clothes, price them and send them upstairs to be bought. Its tedious work but the staff and other volunteers are fun and it’s great to meet new people. We take a tea break and we chat it up about everything from Rugby to why we moved to Galway. The other site I am interested in volunteering with is Community Catering which is similar to Meals on Wheels and the work I did at Café 458. I have been disappointed though as they have not returned my calls or emails.

We are also looking into joining a hiking or outdoors club as they would be a great chance for us to meet people with similar interests. So far it’s still just an idea as we haven’t found a group yet.

Well I am off to another interview tomorrow. Wish me luck…

Our Surroundings

We havn't posted in a while because we're having trouble viewing our own blog... grrr.. that problem still isn't fixed but at least you all can see and read what we're up to.


We had the craic (please refer to blog #1 for information on this excellent phrase) this weekend! The most talked about rugby game was being played on Saturday. Ireland v. England in Croke park (which has historically ONLY held matches of Gaelic sports- Hurling and Gaelic football) and was named after the Archbishop Croke. It’s a big deal for them to allow rugby to be played there after Bloody Sunday in 1920. One of the biggest controversies was over the British singing “God Save the Queen” There was a lot of buzz about this going around and we couldn’t wait to be apart of it. We got some info about some good places to watch the match and the #1 places was the King’s Head which is where we watched the match the first weekend we were here and we wanted to check out a new place. We went to the Skeff Bar on Eyre Square PLENTY early- we were told to get there 2-3 hours early because of the crowd of people that will be there. We got there at “half 2” (2:30) and the game didn’t start till half 5!! We had lots of nibbling and drinking to do. We kept ourselves merry watching the Scotland v. Italy rugby match before hand- Italy spanked ‘em!! GO ITALY! By half 4 the place started to fill up, all the seats were taken and people started to crowd around any inch of a table that was slightly open. A friendly bloke found a stool and sat next to us and he wound up being our personal rugby informant- very helpful and VERY enthusiastic about the game! During the game there were cheers abounding, shouts of joy and songs to go along with just about every good thing that happened to Ireland, or bad thing that happened to England. We couldn’t quite understand what they were singing except for this one where they kept singing “Cheerio” to the tune of “stars and stripes forever” as we know it. Well it was a great victory for all Irish with a 43-13 win! People were crowding the streets with Irish flags, cheering and talking only and all about the match! It was unbelievable!

Sunday turned out to be so beautiful so we spent all day just biking and walking along the shoreline and the "sea" as they call the bay. We checked out some wind surfers who looked like they were taking a beating from the gusts the Ocean brings in. The shore line changes so quickly from being boardwalky to rugged to farmlandy all within about 2 miles. We found a driving range to keep up our golfing skills, a trailor park and some mini cliffs which you can see in the pictures to the right. We had a great time finding our own way around, but welcomed some advice from a worm scavenger (people pay 1 Euro per worm for fishing!! geez!) on how to best to get to the cliff we eventually walked along. It was a beautiful albeit grayish view out to sea from there but so very refreshing to be at the water after 3 years of landlocked life in Atlanta.


We trekked back to the sea this weekend as well and continued on to Barna Woods. It had a very green, almost rainforesty feel to it. We walked into the trees and we instantly were struck by the contrast of the deep browns of the mud and wet bark to the rich green of the moss on just about ever living and non-living surface you could see. The moss covered almost every rock, and there were tons of them, so it looked like fuzzy little aliens in hiding just waiting to pop up and scramble around. We were definitely reminded of Lord of the Rings scenery.



We were foiled by the weather Sunday. We had planned our first day trip to the Cliffs of Moher. We researche the bus schedule and had everything checked up on. When i woke up on Sunday to the sounds of rain smashing up against our window by gusts of wind that must have been about 40 mph, i thought of Michael and i standing at the edge of the Cliffs, which have no railings, and imaging being uprooted by the wind and tumbling the 300 m. to the picturesque sea below and thinking... hmm.. i think this isn't the ideal day for this trip. We sadly lay in bed thinking of what else we could do today. Time passed to when we should have gotten on the bus and wouldn't you know it about 5 minutes later the sun was so bright our room was filled with it and the curtains were closed! The weather here is as moody as a high school girl with PMS. We learned our lesson and are not letting the weather change our plans next weekend!

The house that we're living in is now full. We have a new flat mate, Paddy. He's a friendly bloke and will be living up stairs. I'm glad that we like everyone that we're living with. Even the cats here are more friendly, we have one that comes around and dispite the sneezing fits that could ensue, i can't help petting her beautiful striped fur. She's nudges your hand when you stop petting and lays her head in your lap in total relaxation like a dog. I think thats why i like her so much.


I'm slowly getting more and more confident at work. Having a student given to me for the last 2 weeks of his placement helped a bit since he knows more about the system than i do. Its a symbiotic relationship really- i teach him about treatments and documentation and he teaches me about the practical things about the hospital and the irish health system.
Michael has 2 more interviews this week, both of which seem more promising than the last few. Friday he went on a day long "second interview" for a sales position. He went door to door with the sales woman. They were selling products like Desperate Housewife board games, craptastic game boy wanna-be's and make up kits. The products were all knowingly poorly made and just about useless. His hours would have been half 7 to half 7! We decided he'd have to sell his soul to do this job with a clear conscience. He didn't take the job. Hopefully these next 2 jobs will not require a sold soul, keep your fingers crossed.

Let us know if you get Skype- we'd love to talk!