Climbing Croagh Patrick!

Hi everybody!

I hope you are having a great week so far, I heard that MN was having a little bit of heat stroke for a while and I hope you all got to enjoy it! My last week has been pretty low key, but I thought I would shoot you an update anyway since I don't have very many weeks left! This past weekend I had two friends from St. Norbert who are studying in Spain wing through Ireland on there two week spring break travels, so they stayed with Alexa and I for Friday and Saturday! It is always great to see a familiar face and to get to show my home to someone. I wish I could share it with all of you! Kerrie and Katie came in Friday evening and we went out and did a little tour of the Galway pubs, then they left on Saturday to come back and we had a nice little night in on Saturday night. It was nice to catch up with them and get to hear all about there study abroad experiences. It is so cool how everyone I talk to is having such a different experience and to hear all about them. I had two final papers to do this past weekend and I finished those and handed them in on Monday! That means besides my final exams next week I am totally done with school work for Ireland, and had a very relaxing week this week knowing that those two papers were finished.

Yesterday my friend Maggie, Alexa and I decided we wanted to go on an adventure and climb Croagh Patrick, the mountain that St. Patrick fasted on for 40 days and banished the snakes out of Ireland from. We didn't really know what to expect, but we don't have very much time left here and are trying to experience as much as possible. We found a bus that would get us there leaving at 9am and transferring in a small town about two hours from here, then getting on another bus for an hour. When we left that morning it was cloudy and kind of drizzly, but the sun came out at a perfect time for us! When we finally arrived in Westport, the town the mountain is closest to, we found a bus to take us to the mountain and finally started to climb a little after 1. There were like 6 other people on the bus with us, all little old ladies, who got really excited for us when they found out we were going up the mountain and told us they would say a prayer for us. They were so cute! When we were on the bus we saw a really big mountain in the distance, and we all were like "how cool would it be if we got to climb that one!" But we really didn't think that was where we were going. When we started climbing we found out that the HUGE mountain was where we were headed! It was such an exhilarating feeling.

The way up was a really rocky path that felt like you were walking on those little rocks that surround houses for landscaping. It was kind of a faux path from people walking so often. Going up wasn't too bad at all until we got about an hour and 15 minutes into it, then we saw what we had to finish. The last stretch was at like a 70 degree angle straight up the mountain, still trying to maneuver on these very slippery little rocks. My lungs were yelling at me, and I realized how out of shape I was, but it was SO fun. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the view kept getting better and better. When we finally got to the top every pain and tough breath was totally worth it. It was the most amazing feeling, like standing on top of the world. There was a church at the top dedicated to St. Patrick, and the most amazing view. We didn't have a whole lot of time because we had to get back down to catch a bus back to Westport, but it was totally breath taking and the most fulfilling feeling to know that I made it up.

The way down was the same rocky path, only trying to walk down them was almost impossible! Maggie and I fell on our bums a few times, including one really graceful fall that left me with some pretty cool scratches on my arm haha. It was kind of like surfing down the side of the mountain, only instead of water below there were more pointy rocks. The way up was tough on the lungs, but this was tough on the knees and hips! We laughed the whole way down as we slid around and tried to keep our balance, and talked to every body we passed motivating them to keep going, it was totally worth it once you get to the top. We got down fairly quickly, about an hour compared to the two hours it took getting up, and ran to get the bus we thought was coming at 4:40, but then found out it wasn't coming until almost 5, oh well! We got back to Westport confident that there was a bus back to Galway, but it turns out the bus we thought we were going to catch only comes on Monday's and Thursday's, and there wasn't another bus until the next day! I went into minor panic mode, but we found a bus driver on one of the other buses and he told us that if we got to Castlebar, the next town over, there would be a bus to Galway in about an hour. We had to get a cab to Castlebar, which was frustrating because of how expensive they are, but we got on the bus and made it back in one piece! It is all part of the adventure I guess!

We went to Monroe's, our traditional Tuesday pub, for pizza and a little bit of Irish dancing but we were all exhausted and smelly and in sweats, so we didn't last as long as usual. It was one of my favorite days since I arrived here, top 5 for sure, and I am so happy we took the opportunity to do it. It was extra fun because it wasn't a tour or a planned thing, it was more spur of the moment and we had to figure it all out on our own. It was one of the first times here that I feel like I got to experience nature rather then just look at it, and I absolutely loved it.

This week I am going to the Cliffs of Moher on Friday, then celebrating my last weekend with all of my Ireland friends! We all start to go home starting next week, and I leave for Italy next Sunday! It is going to be so weird not seeing all of these wonderful people everyday, but it will be much easier to stay in contact when we are all back in the land of cell phones and cars! I am so so so excited to come home, I am missing everyone so much! I still have lots to do before I leave, so time is flying by! 25 more days!

I love you all so much, write when you get the chance!