Adventures at Connemara National Park

This past Saturday some friends and I went on our first trip outside of Galway. Although Galway is a beautiful, vibrant city, there aren't many significant historical attractions to see and we were all getting anxious to see the natural beauty of Ireland. We decided a hike two hours south of Galway would be a good place to get our traveling feet wet.
We got up early and caught a bus towards the town of Letterfrack where the Connemara National Park is located. We had a long days worth of hiking planned. Being the inexperienced hikers we are however, we forgot to see if the park was open or, more importantly, what the weather forecast predicted. The bus ride to our destination was beautiful with plenty of mountains, lakes and small towns along the way to keep us occupied. We were weary of the ominous storm clouds overhead and the bouts of heavy rain we drove through though.
When we arrived in Letterfrack we stocked up at the local grocery store and walked to the park entrance which informed us that the visitor's center was closed from January through March which left us on our own. There were trail maps posted though so we had an idea of where to go.
As soon as we started on the trail the rain came. It started light at first and our attention was focused on a bunch of mountain goats on our path anyways. As we started hiking further and farther, the rain picked up and half way up the mountain it started hailing. The wind was so strong we could barely stand. The rain was coming down in sheets and pelted our faces so hard we couldn't look forward. Rarely in my life have I been as helpless to the forces of nature as I was then. It was obviously time to turn around. Finally, we made it to the bottom completely drenched, cold and relieved. The next bus wasn't leaving towards Galway for another five hours so we were forced to drink and loiter in one of the small towns two pubs.
We sat around for two hours until the rain passed. Not wanting to stay at the pub any longer, three of us went out to find the sea. It was a great adventure. We knew the general direction so we headed down a road and cut across fields for a few miles until we reached the rocky shores. Although the rain had stopped, the wind was as strong as ever which made climbing over the rocky wet hills pretty dangerous, especially since I wasn't wearing proper hiking shoes. We also had to watch out for bogs. I was the first victim. I made one wrong step crossing a field and my foot sunk into a freezing hole up to below my knee.
The adventure was a blast and the trip showed us the beauty of Ireland and some of the landscape it had to offer. Later, as we had one final beer at the pub before leaving, the bartender told us the storm was as bad as it gets for those parts. We got back to Galway that evening exhausted, cold, and wet but I had a great time and it was well worth it.