Sunday April 22, 2012
Today we
started the day very early at 7:30 A.M. After a nice breakfast of toast and
cereal, we departed from Galway towards Belvedere, but with a few stops along
the way. We drove out through the desolate but beautiful landscape of Connemara. The first stop was at Kylemore castle. It is an estate that was sold
to Nuns after the previous owner's wife had died, and today nuns use it as a home and a monastery.
It was a very nice place, and a lot of the guys picked up some nice gifts at
the gift shop. 
After a long bus ride we stopped at Cong for lunch. It was a
small town that used to be very popular because of a monastery. It was also
popular because of an ancient cross that was found there, and that we saw in the
National Museum of Ireland. We dined in a restaurant on some good finger
sandwiches and chips and took a minute to celebrate Brendan Walsh's birthday. With full stomachs, we headed out and stopped again at
Ashford Castle, a castle that was turned into a five star hotel, and is one of
the most famous hotels in Ireland. We technically weren’t supposed to be in
there, so the paddy wagon had to be very careful where it went on the grounds.
It was going all right until we had to turn around, but on the bright side, our
mark will be left on the grass forever. 
Our last stop before returning to
Dublin was at Belvedere House. This man owned both this house, and the site of the original Belvedere
College. The view from the front door was amazing, and we could see far out
across the lake it was set on. The Gardens were equally as beautiful, and some
of us even got to go to Narnia. That is where the movie was filmed. Finally, we
made our final approach to Dublin. We arrived at Belvedere at 6:30, and we all
headed home with our host Brothers to end another good day of adventuring in
Ireland.
Brendan Walsh, Mike Mondo
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