I’m back to talk more about my trip to Ireland last month. As it fades from recent memory with the stresses of being back to daily life, it’s nice to have these blog posts to remember what I did and bring myself back to the Emerald Isle.

Probably my favorite part of the trip was when my family took a rental car across the country from Dublin to Galway, where we stayed at The Connacht Hotel. My dad shepherded us, the rest of us anxiously reminding him to stay on the left side of the street, especially when it was time to go through a roundabout or make turns. Galway itself is such a cute town, with cobblestone streets and plenty of small shops and pubs. But the main reason we were on the western side of Ireland was for exploring and getting into nature.

On our first full day we drove through the Connemara region to Kylemore Abbey. Though we had a destination, the main point of the day was honestly the journey. Driving through the landscape genuinely felt like being in another world. My mom kept saying, “It feels like we’re on the moon,” and we made fun of her at the time, but she did have a point. The rocky terrain, distant mountains, and isolation of the region all contributed to the feeling that it was just us and the sheep here.

The country roads in Ireland are quite harrowing. They are extremely narrow and winding with minimal guardrails and a high speed limit, and, of course, there’s the added complication (for American visitors, at least) of having to drive on the left side of the road. There was no shortage of shrieks from my sister and me in the backseat as my dad would narrowly miss hitting a sheep sticking its hind end into the road, and I was white-knuckling my car door handle for pretty much the entire hour-and-a-half drive.

Despite the terror, it was also one of the most magical and unreal experiences of my life. After a brief downpour, we saw a rainbow arcing directly into the lake next to our car, the biggest, most vibrant and closest rainbow I’ve ever witnessed.

Kylemore Abbey itself was interesting. We didn’t have time to go inside, but we saw it from a distance and took the shuttle to the Victorian Walled Gardens on the grounds, which you could tell were impressive in the right season but were sadly a little barren in the early spring. I still enjoyed walking around and looking at everything, but I imagine the experience feels a little more complete in the summer.

I was also disappointed because the pigs and ponies I was promised were on the property were completely hidden. The pigs were in their enclosed shelter, and I have no idea where the ponies could have been. We definitely did not pick the right time of year (and day) to go, but as I said, it was about the journey more than the destination, a cliché that was genuinely true for perhaps the first time in my life.

— Hannah Gruen, administrative coordinator