February 08, 2003
04:08 PM dublin time
we decided to take a break from doing nothing in dublin and spent a weekend in letterfrack, county galway - a couple of friends had been in college down there and were renting a cottage for a weekend revisit and invited a gang of us along.
it really is beautiful part of the country, with twisting narrow roads curving past little hilly mountains, oceans of lakes and rock strewn, stone wall lined fields. while we were there, the temperature plummeted and the mountaintops became snow sprinkled. it was incredibly picturesque and surprisingly reminsecent of new zealand - ireland really can live up to some of the lord of the rings scenery. it might be a minituraised version, the mountains are not as high and the lakes are smaller and shallower, but from a person-sized point of view when you're bang in the middle of it, it's just as impressive.
the west coast of ireland also has an atmosphere of abandonment and isolation to it. we went for a walk up the nearest bump - the 1170ft 'tully mountain' and truely felt like we were on the edge of the world and about to be blown off. i've rarely felt wind so strong and so bitterly cold.
incase i'm making the weekend sound a little too healthy-out-doors-y, i must add that there was also a reputable amount of carousing and pint consuming in the local letterfrack pubs.
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