Hiking in Connemara National Park, Ireland – Day 6

Hello broskis! Today. Was. Tiring (and also kinda cool); keep reading until the end of this blog because I’m your FAVORITE PERSON EVER!!!!

Okay. So. I woke up at 9:00am, got dressed, visited a friendly dog that lives outside our Airbnb, and had some cereal for breakfast. Not just any cereal, IRISH cereal (Honey Pops). After two bowls of that and some TV that passed the time, my family and I went on our way on a 2-hour car drive to the Upstairs Downstairs Cafe in Clifden. I had a smoothie and hot chocolate, and everyone else got sandwiches and wraps. I MIGHT have stolen half of my mom’s sandwich by the end of it.

After lunch, we went to a cool abandoned castle named Clifden Castle. On the outside, we saw SHEP (yes, I mean shep instead of sheep), horses, and cows. We walked around inside the castle and tried not to step in all the cow poop (which was gross). In one room, a tree was growing in it! After that, we started to go back to our car. Somehow, my legs were already dying.

We went on ANOTHER drive, but luckily, it was only 20 minutes to get to the hiking spot (Diamond Hill in Connemara National Park). When we FINALLY got there, we started the hike after a quick bathroom break. The first 10 minutes were treacherous. I was walking with Mamafer behind all of my other family members. We took a lot of breaks but made it a bit more than halfway up the mountain in 33 minutes! (The mountain was small, but it was also steep and wide). (Jen here – I love that Kate thought it was small. We hiked 4.5 miles with just over 1,300 ft. of elevation gain.) I was exhausted only after that amount of time, but then I started talking about guinea pigs, and Mondra told me that when we got back from Ireland, I could adopt some!!! That made me way more energetic, and I talked about guinea pigs for the rest of the hike.

I then started hiking up the mountain with Veronica (V-money), and we became FAR ahead of Mamafer, Mondra, Evan, and Addie after a while. When we thought we were close to the top, we were really only close to one of the three false tops of the mountain. The other parts of the mountain were hidden behind what Vmoney and I thought was the top. I became very mad, I mean… DISAPPOINTED at the mountain for doing that to me. It was being really mean, tbh. The view was worth it, though. We sat down on some really sharp rocks and waited a VERY long time for the others to slowly come to us. Once they finally caught up, we had a food break.

After we got up from sitting, Evan said his leg “tasted like Sprite.” He really meant that it felt bubbly because it was tired; he didn’t lick his leg. We headed back down, and I went with Mondra this time. After like 30 minutes, Vmoney and Addie Baddie, who were ahead of us, texted Mondra about a RAM!! It was chasing them. (Sadly, they were okay.)

The RUN down the hill was short, and when I got down, I, of course, had to play with all the playground equipment for the 5-year-olds. It was all tiny and hurt my legs, but honestly, European playgrounds are so much more fun than playgrounds in the USA. THEY HAD TWO SEESAWS, OKAY?!

After a long day, we drove back home with sore legs after a quick stop at a store to get a treat to eat on the car drive. When we got home, we visited the dog again, and we later found out his name was Buddy. He peed on two of our car tires, but that’s okay, right???? I then went inside and started writing this blog while also watching a show. Multitasking does NOT MAKE FOR FAST AND GOOD WRITING. Luckily, the TV was turned off after a while, and I finished writing. I’m going to bed now; good night, y’all!!

 

-Katelyn =)