Holy adventures!! In which Mary drives on the left side.

I did a little shopping two days ago in preparation for my trip to Morocco (I leave Sunday night!! GAH!!!) and got some nice light linen pants and a headscarf, just in case (I can always use it during the summer, while driving merrily in my convertible...). I found some sunglasses at Dunne's which, although they were bigger than sunglasses I usually go for, I quite liked, and they were 10 Euro, which is a middling price. However, while trying to decide if I really wanted them or not (wearing them, staring intensely at myself in the mirror -- I made sure no one else was around at the time), I made the mistake of smiling. The glasses lifted. My cheeks made the sunglasses rise about an inch up my face. It was weird looking. I put them back. Maybe next time.

Monday morning (this is back in April now) we feasted heartily upon the victuals provided by the B&B -- throughout the trip we waddled away from the tables of each B&B we stayed at, overcome by too much food, but it was all so delicious -- before picking up the rental car. That was quite a process, but eventually we had the car. It was very tiny. We named it "Tiny Car" because we're 5. The plan for Monday was to hit up a number of religious-themed sites (plus a Quiet Man-themed one) - Knock, Ballintubber, and Cong. Mary was a tad nervous striking out into the world of left-side driving, but we think she did a corking job - no injuries, no deaths, not even from the sheep who insist on walking down the road in more rural areas! That's what I call a victory.

We drove to Knock, which is an apparition site, and checked out the lovely little church and large basilica. They have the stones from the apparition gable set into the outside wall of the church, so that was really cool to see. We walked through the very large Basilica, then into the church for some prayer, sitting behind some adorable Indian children. The inside of the church is very pretty, and you can see it in my (or Tine's, or Mary's) Shutterfly pictures. Then we headed down towards the museum, but elected not to go in, and over to the old graveyard, our first of many on this trip. There was a really cool stone wall around it that had weird holes in it, like Swiss cheese. Next we headed to Ballintubber Abbey, which has a newer church built right next to the old site and a garden with Stations of the Cross you can walk through. Most of it was very nice, but some of the stations had weird modern sculptures of squiggly shapes and whatnot, and I don't really go for that sort of thing. Anyway, the church is very nice, with some lovely stained-glass windows, and the ruins of the old Abbey were cool to wander through. There was a series of arches around a central courtyard that we noticed at other places too, like Cong, so it must have been a popular style. We walked through the stations as well... the one for the Resurrection was really cool, because it was a little cave you could go into.

Heading away from there, we spotted a very pointy mountain in the distance, which we correctly guessed was Croagh Patrick, a pilgrimage site in honor of Ireland's patron saint. We saw it again later during our travels, but we never actually went there. Our last stop of the day was Cong in Connemara. Not only are there cool Abbey (maybe monastery?) ruins (and an old graveyard!), but it's also where fans of The Quiet Man can see the bridge and cottage from the movie or stay at Danaher's Hotel. On the way there we passed a castle that you can stay in and where, coincidentally, the boy who sat next to them on the plane was staying with his parents. We considered visiting, but ultimately decided against that plan. Cong was very very pretty. After you pass through the ruins, you walk out to a stream and then into some woods. On the stream is a fisherman's house (now roofless) built right out on the water. There are lots of stone arches and little gates, and it was all quite picturesque. My camera, unfortunately, kept dying at this point, but if I gave it some rest sometimes it would work again for single pictures. We finally came across the Quiet Man cottage (hooray!) and Tine posed for a quick picture before we set off for Galway, as it was getting close on to evening. This was our last night in this B&B, as tomorrow we were setting out first to explore Connemara and from thence on northwards to Donegal!