So Friday after seminar (which Liz and Kelsie did not attend…tsk tsk) I went back to the apartment and packed my backpack with a change of clothes and my toiletries before showering (I didn’t want to risk the hostel showers). Diana and I ended up leaving at the same time as Josh, Aaron, Stephen, and Jason so we all split a cab to the bus station. The bus ride was a pretty good time. Diana got a little loopy on her motion sickness medication and started talking about bringing cows onto the bus and the proper way to catch Canadian geese and Josh and I had an iPod party. Between the five of us we managed to induce Diana’s endlessly amusing fits of uncontrollable laughter at least four times on the bus ride. There was one slight bump in our travel plans. The bus stopped at Limerick and we were under the impression that we had like a half an hour before it left again (thanks Stephen) so we got off and found a fish and chips place to grab a snack, only to watch our bus drive away without us. There was another bus in an hour, thankfully, so no harm was done. We just spent four hours getting to Galway rather than three.
Aaron and Stephen on the bus
Once we finally got to Galway, Diana and I had to find our hostel and sign in. Luckily the Galway City Hostel that we booked was literally right across the street from the bus station. Hooray planning! I’ve never experienced a hostel and therefore have nothing to compare this one to, but it seemed pretty nice. Everything was clean and my roommates seemed cool (although the rooms were co-ed which I wasn’t expecting). I was in a room that consisted of four bunk beds that were jam packed with people’s belongings and a little square of floor in the middle. I’m happy to report that I got the top bunk! Diana’s room was a little less packed (only two bunk beds) and was right next door. There was a shower facility that was pretty clean and a nice, but small kitchen with an eating area and free wi-fi.
Walking in Galway City
Once Diana, Josh, and I had our sleeping arrangements made we all met up with Kelsie and Liz, who didn’t end up going to that concert, at a fountain in Eyre Square, which was, once again, conveniently located right across from my hostel. We wandered around downtown Galway City for awhile. I’ve come to the realization that my favorite way to experience a new city is to see it at night, preferably on a weekend. There’s something about it that makes it seem more exciting to me than just seeing plain buildings and shops in all their functionality during the day time. We did decide that Galway was the busiest city any of us have been to in Ireland so far. It could have been the fact that it was a Friday night or because of the arts festival, but the streets were packed and the pubs even more so.
Diana and I in Galway City
Anyway, eventually we met up with the other boys (Stephen, Jay, and Aaron…just in case you forgot) and started hitting up the pubs. The first bar that had a two cocktail for €5 deal, so all the girls (and Josh) took advantage of that. I have now had a White Russian, Sex on the Beach (the drink friends, geez), and a Blue Tycoon, which was my favorite. There were a lot of people trying to get people to go into their bars, claiming if you went with them you would get a free shot. We didn’t have much of an idea of where to go, so we went with a couple of them. One of them, Club K, was most likely a gay bar, but we got a drink and had a shot anyway. Highlight of the evening was when Jay, Stephen, and Aaron shook their groove thangs on the dance floor, much to the delight of all the men already occupying it, and causing the rest of the group to collapse in fits of giggles (keep in mind that this is still very early in the evening).
We continued wandering around and made several new friends along the way. The boys met a group of older ladies who were all dressed as sailors and who promptly rebuffed them. Their fragile ego was soothed by gaining several kisses from the bridesmaids that were out for their friend’s hen party. Josh met a girl who knew what the X-files were and decided that it must be fate. Unfortunately she wouldn’t hang out with us. We went into one bar that was so ridiculously full of people that it was impossible to breath, let alone move. We didn’t stay in there long.
The next morning Kelsie, Liz, Josh, Diana, and I woke up early, tried not to wake up the other people in our rooms, and grabbed an 8:40 bus to the Cliffs of Moher. After a two hour bus ride we arrived to find…nothing. There was so much fog that you couldn’t see 20 feet in front of you, let alone see the cliffs. We were really disappointed, but we wandered around anyway and the fog lifted just enough for us to get a glimpse of how cool the cliffs would be if we could actually see them. I bought a post card just so I could show people what I was supposed to be able to see. Regardless of the bad weather we did manage to have a good time.
I'm trying to save Diana from falling off the cliff, but Liz held me back!
We spent another hour or two in Galway that afternoon. Just long enough to get lunch and buy Kelsie a new suitcase before we grabbed the bus back to Cork. We decided not to tempt fate and just stayed on the bus the whole ride back, so we didn’t end up missing another bus. It was past 8 when we finally made it back to Cork and Diana and I had had enough of sitting, so we passed on the cab and hoofed it back to Brookfield (about a 20 min walk), talking about very deep and philosophical things the whole way (no really!). I chilled at home that night, just relaxing, and went to bed early. I ended up getting about 10 hours of sleep…it was fantastic!
Yesterday was Ashley’s first anniversary of her 21st birthday, so we had a whole day of celebrating for her, starting with lunch out at an adorable little Italian restaurant tucked into an alley called Scoozi. All our food was delicious, and we ate til we were bursting. Then we went shopping and we all bought some really cute clothes (I bought a whole new outfit! It’s really cute, everybody said so lol). Then we made a run to Tesco’s to get groceries for the last week and relaxed until it was time to go out. We ended up going straight to the Bailey and staying there the whole night. There was live music, but the band played mostly blue-grass folksy music so there wasn’t a ton of dancing, which was too bad, but we still had a lot of fun. Aaron somehow managed to avoid all my efforts to buy him a beer in thanks for being such a good guy earlier in the week, but I will prevail, mark my words!
At the Bailey! Left to right: Diana, Kaitlynn, Aaron, Liz, and Me!
Today has been pretty good. I’m a little sleep deprived, but otherwise fine. We started Yeats today and I’m way out of my element. I just don’t really get poetry. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll catch on…hopefully? I have to start writing my first literature essay on Joyce tonight. It doesn’t have to be as long as the history essays were, but I feel less confident about my grasp on the material, so I think it’s still going to be tough. I also have an essay test on Friday that I have to study for. We have a field trip on Wednesday that I’ll have to tell you about in my next post. It’s really hard to believe that I have less than a week left. I think I’m really going to miss the people I’ve met here. Anyways, I’m off to seminar!
Amelia
Well Little One, now added to your collection of Irish people, places and pints, you've come to the very soul of Ireland when you've met Mr. Joyce and Mr. Yeats!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your last week and travel home safely to those of us here who love you! :)
Peggy