Hi from the Republic of Ireland!

Hello from the Republic of Ireland – we crossed over the border this morning! The countryside we drove through today was very pretty- it reminded us a lot of the east coast

The first sight of the day was the churchyard where the great Irish poet W.B Yeats is buried. It’s was a pretty church, but his grave is very simple- hard to believe it’s the right one!

Our next sight was the area of Connemara. This was such a beautiful area to drive through! It was made even prettier by the first real sunshine we’ve had this trip!

This area was also where they filmed the John Wayne movie The Quiet Man. In fact, we passed by one of the bridges used in the film!

We had a quick stop and tour of the Connemara Marble Company, which is the only producer of the green Connemara marble. It was once used in cathedrals (more on that in a minute), but to preserve what little is left, they now only produce small items such jewelry.

The last stop of the day was the Galway Cathedral.

Although it looks very old, it was actually constructed during the 1960s. The marble used inside the church all came from the Connemara Marble Company- in fact, it was the last large-scale project  to be allowed to use the green and the red marble mined by that company!

After that, we made our way to our hotel, and I’m enjoying my remainder of my last day of being a 21 year old! J