Over the weekend our program brought us to the Killary Adventure Centre in Connemara. Connemara is my absolute favorite part of Ireland, so the prospect of getting to do crazy activities in such a gorgeous area was an opportunity not to be missed! When we arrived on Friday we were able to sign up for a session (consisting of two activities) of our choice, so I picked clay pigeon shooting and archery. It was the first time I’d ever used a shotgun, so I didn’t have that great of expectations. By either blind luck or skill (I’d like to think skill J) I managed to shoot 5 of the 15 clay pigeons! Not too bad for a first-timer! Archery was fun too, since I’ve been practicing pretty often with the NUIG archery club. That evening we had a trivia contest, where twelve teams competed against each other for iTunes gift cards. Some of the trivia rounds were broken up by funny challenges, with my personal favorite being the male (dressed in girl’s clothing) fashion show. So hilarious! While we didn’t win, I think our team name (the Craic Fiendz) was pretty great.
On Saturday morning I signed up for the archery and laser combat course. Excited to put my Call of Duty skills to the test, I had high hopes for how I would fare during the challenge. Sure enough, out of the five girls and five guys participating, yours truly was the last one standing! J We played a few more games at the laser course (dressed in camo of course) then headed back to the centre for lunch. Afterwards, I set out to some gorge walking for the first time in my life! What is gorge walking, you ask? Well, it’s basically walking up a waterfall (assisted part of the way with ropes) through freeze water (in a wet suit, though) and a few small ponds. It was seriously one of the coolest things I have ever done! The pictures will do it far greater justice than any words of mine could, and I recommend that if you ever have the opportunity to gorge walk that you take it! The activity combined with the gorge walking was kayaking. After having to switch kayaks out on the water (we were told by our guide that the original ones we had chosen were not right for us based on the states we were from haha), some people chose to dive off of a platform. Being quite a wuss when it comes to heights, I decided to take pictures from my kayak instead. While we didn’t get to go too far out with the kayaks, it was still beautiful and a lot of fun! That night a disco was organized for us at the centre. Although I hate to dance, I decided it would be a great chance to teach my friends the “cat daddy” dance (just for you, football gang! J). I was even sober! Ha
Sunday morning we had time for one more session before returning to Galway. I picked zip lining, which at first I believed may have been a mistake. In order to get up to the platform that you start from, you had to climb a ladder, followed by something resembling a telephone pole with large staples sticking out of it. After about five steps I seriously contemplated chickening out, but realizing it may be awhile before I had the chance to zip line again (and probably never hearing the end of it from my friends), I decided to keep going. Definitely felt accomplished after that! I’m really glad I continued climbing, because zip lining was so much fun! I would do it again in a heartbeat. Afterwards, we headed over to the high ropes course, which was similar to a rock wall but just a bit crazier. Brianna and Kate gave it their best attempts, but unfortunately couldn’t make it to the top. I was way too scared to even try, so props to them! Following lunch and a group picture (all of Butler’s Ireland schools were there), we departed from the centre.
All in all, I don’t think I’ve had a weekend packed full of so many fun things in quite a while! The weather was incredible, the scenery spectacular, and too many great memories to count. This week is our final week of regular classes at NUIG. Where has the time gone?! This Friday I will be headed off on quite an epic adventure: 10 days through France and the UK with Amanda and Brianna! To say I’m getting excited would be quite the understatement! You can expect quite the novel when I return form that trip J Until then, thanks for reading!
Click here for pictures from our Killary Adventure Weekend!
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