Also see Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

Day 5: Galway to Connemara
When I woke up on the morning of the fifth day, I knew I was doomed to be sick for at least the next week. I had a full-on cold and it sucked. The other girl was still sick, and our professor was starting to feel it too so we all walked to the Chemist to get some drugs. Then we loaded onto a bus to head to the Connemara region. We started out on a big coach with several other people, but then our little group was transferred to a mini-bus with Ray, the best driver in the history of drivers. Unfortunately the roads are so not smooth. So not smooth, in fact, that I nearly barfed. I had to have Ray pull over so I could get out and try to hold back the chunks. Luckily no vomiting, but now I had a cold, bad hair, and I was barely not barfing.

The ride to Connemara was also a tour, so our first stop was at some castle ruins. Even though it was windy and chilly, it wasn’t raining, so we could explore this roofless ruins freely. It was almost magical.

Next we stopped at Glebe Stone Circle, kind of like a very miniature Stonehenge. Nobody knows why it’s there. Mostly it just looks like a bunch of rocks though, so instead I’m going to share this picture (the stones are up there by those trees):

That’s two of my fellow travelers, and it so perfectly shows how we were feeling. It was a beautiful day, everything was so green, and we were in freaking Ireland! You kind of have to run and twirl in those circumstances. Then we took the bus of sickness (seen below) to some castle resort that I failed to get any good photos of.

After that stop, we continued toward the hostel. We drove all through the Connemara region – vast expanses of mountainous green. And lots of sheep. Because we were in the small bus, we got to go up into the mountains and make little stops that the big bus wouldn’t have done.

(Note the utter failure of my bobby pins against the Irish winds.)

That guy on the right is Jack, the Connemara Pony. We were driving along and Ray says, “Jack the Pony is usually waiting around here somewhere for us. I don’t see him yet though.” We rounded a bend and there he was, standing at the wall looking for us. Like he knew we were coming, and he was just waiting. Like it was planned. Anyway, we got out and fed him apples. Mmm… pony slobber.

After a few other quick stops, it was on to the hostel. Once we arrived, we spent a short time exploring the grounds. The hostel is pretty secluded, but surrounded by so much beauty, as cliché as that sounds.

By that time I was feeling really awful. My head was imploding and my whole body was exhausted, so I found our room and laid down for a minute. That minute then turned into 2.5 hours, and the only reason I woke up was because someone came to tell me dinner was ready. I ate a small scoop of potatoes, helped clean up, then laid on the couch in the TV room and watched a movie with everyone. Then back to bed. Unfortunately, the next five or six nights were almost completely restless for me. It was awful and not what I needed to cure a cold.