LAUNDRY DAY

Good Morning Canada,

I have moved on to the the college town of Galway. Which is the town where the Lynchs come from!

Lynch, was one of the original 14 tribes to settle in the Galway area, and being possibly the most powerful family in Galway at that time, 'we' actually supplied the town with many many mayors.

Yesterday I went to see the Lynch Castle, which has now been made into an AIB bank. But it still has the Lynch coat of arms engraved into the front wall. There are actually a number of 'Lynch' Cafes and restaurants... COOL, makes me want to just tell everyone that I am a Lynch!!

Nowww... Lets learn about how the term 'lynching' came about.. not a very pleasent story unfortunately...

SO, around the mid 17th century, we, of course, were in power under Mayor Lynch (one of many). So mayor Lynch had sent his son on a voyage with a large sum of money, and a large amount of it suspiciously went missing! Now in order to keep this unknown to his father (because we all know how scary Lynch fathers can be.......) young Lynch decided to kill a spaniard that was coming back to Ireland to speak to Mayor Lynch. Now, it was some time before Mayor Lynch actually found out about the muder that his son commited. But eventually he did learn, and the guilty young Lynch confessed.
In order to keep the high level of respect from the people that Mayor Lynch wanted, he had to decide on a suitable punishment for his son. And eventually sentenced him to death. So, to make this publically aware, he decided on a hanging in the middle of the town. And he himself, hung his own son. And the term of 'lynching' was born.
I am told that there is a small black monument somewhere in Galway that shows exactly where this hanging happened.. I'll be going to look for it today!

Also, very exciting news! My friend Emily will be coming to join me in Galway this afternoon!!!! And she'll be with me for a bit of my west coast trip :)

Another cool factoid that I was told; (Its totally made up and really just a joke! ) 50% of travellers are Aussies, 40% are Canadians, and 10% is the rest of the world... and I must say.. I have met far more Aussies and Canadians than anything else! So this made up fact almost has some truth to it!

Two days ago I went to the Doolin cave.. where there is a 23 foot long Stalactite!! So that was pretty cool... It has a cool history! 61 years ago there was a group of British cave explorers exploring around Ireland, now the young chaps were getting tired of searching for caves and decided to take a day off! Except for two fellas who just wanted to keep working.. and they found a stream, a real tiny one that disappeared into a rock wall. They pulled back some bushes and discovered a small opening, approx 2 feet high and 3 feet wide. Now, many people on my little tour were saying they were so brave to actually enter that (in my words..death trap coffin) but I just think they were bat crap crazy! They crawl on their hands and knees... IN THE DARK (because they had turned off their little headlamps off for fear of running out of oil to burn), for TWO AND A HALF HOURS... GAH. And they eventually came to a chamber.. they could hear the echo of their voices and turned their lights on.. and they found this gigantic stalactite that had been forming for 600,000 to 800,000 years!!
On the tour, they turn off all the lights on the path up to the chamber... it was honestly very freaky!! Then the man turns the lights on, and it was AMAZING! it was so huge!!!
Very very cool!!!

Well, my laundry (first time doing it since leaving...) should be done drying...and I dont want anyone taking it out of the machine on me.. sooo BYE!! :)