Oh my goodness, I am so horrible at posting on this. My appologies. Well, since my last post I have been to Galway, the Aran Islands, Sligo, and went to County Clare to see the Burren and Cliffs of Moher.
We'll start with Galway:
We left Dublin at 10am and got on the road for about a 2 hour bus trip to Galway. On the bus ride, I definitely did my share of sleeping but we also watched "The Crying Game"...an interesting movie--kinda strange. Anyway. When we got to Galway, we were taken straight to where we would be staying--Corrib Village. It is a little bit outside of the city centre but it backs up direction to NUIG (National University of Ireland-Galway). We all got settled into our rooms...most of us had singles which was really nice. I had a single with a double bed which was amazing! After sharing a small room for the past three weeks it was definitely nice to have my own space and be able to spread out in a big girl bed. :) After we got settled me and a couple other girls too the shuttle into town (Corrib Village provided a free shuttle every hour into the city centre). We went to the grocery store to get food for the week--a much cheaper way to go. We had little kitchenettes that were equiped with a fridge, sink, stove, oven and plenty of cups, dishes and silverware. So we stocked up for the week for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was a smart decision. When we got back it was later, so we made ourselves dinner and then got ready and a big group of us decided to head back into the city centre and check out what the Galway Nightlife had to offer. It was definitely a different scene than Dublin--it was kind of crazy and a little intimidating. All of the bars were overflowing onto the street and there were people
everywhere
. It was nuts. We found a bar called The Quays (pronounced keys) and found a low key area in the basement where we could all fit which was good.
On Sunday, we woke up and two of the guys were making us 4 of us girls breakfast! It was a pleasant surprise and delicious...scrambled eggs and then peanut butter toast and bananas! After breakfast we got ready and a group of us went back into town to check out a parade that was going on. The Galway Arts Festival was starting this week and the parade was the kick off. It was very interesting--there were a lot of mini-vinettes rather than floats and bands like we were used to. Everyone was in costumes and basically performed the entire duration of the play. Very neat. However, there were a lot of cuts made at America which was weird. They were handing out fake money--which resembled the American Dollar and on it said various things like "In Cash We Trust" and something along the lines of "You wont finish what you start, but it doesn't matter". Very strange... After the parade was over some of us girls walked around and went shopping for a little while. We decided to catch the 5:30 shuttle back and make dinner. Took it easy that night and stayed in Corrib Village, hung out and got a good nights sleep.
Monday we headed off to the Aran Island, InisMor. We took a bus to the port and then a ferry over to the island. The ferry ride was absolutely gorgeous...little did we know the beauty we were about to encounter once we got to the island. We got there and had lunch at a cute little B&B which an incredible view. Then we all rented bikes (kind of like mackinac) and we took an amazing bike ride all around the island. We saw so many beautiful views and then we ended up at a cliff called "Dun Aengus" It was incredible. The view from up there was amazing (I will try to post some pictures if I can get it to work!). We had a beautiful day for all of this riding. It was amazing. It was definitely one of my favorite things that we have done so far. The bike ride back was seriously a work out- so many hills- I never thought it was going to end. (Charlevoix group- you would have been so proud...I went on a bike ride. An intense one at that!) We were all exhausted after the trip (most of us fell asleep on the ferry ride and the bus ride). There was definitely no going out for me that night...I think almost everyone stayed in and just passed out right after dinner.
Tuesday, we had class-well we had a guest lecturer. He was very entertaining. He talked to us about Irish theatre...and you could tell he was very involved in theatre himself. He was really interesting and keep us listening for sure. After his lecture, I'm pretty sure it was about lunch time--went back and made some lunch. (All of the days are running together, and i have been just as bad which my journal as i have been with this...whoopsies! i'm doing my best to put the days together correctly). After lunch I went shopping in the City Centre with Sandy and Caitlin. I splurged and bought myself a GORGEOUS sweater. Its beautiful..I can't wait to wear it during the cold Michigan winters. The two girls got themselves Claddagh rings. It was a successful day! We came home for dinner and then went over and hung out with some other people in a group. A group of us decided to go out to a famous Galway bar "The King's Head". It was a very low key night, which was good--we had a smaller group, which always makes things easier.
Wednesday: We woke up did breakfast and had to get to the university to see "The Field" at 10. It is a famous Irish film, but it is slightly bizzare. After the film we had a guest lecturer on the history of British settlement in Ireland. I'm not going to lie, he was pretty boring. His topic just wasn't very interesting and he really did not try to make it interesting. Oh well...you win some you lose some. We have had very good lecturers, so I guess we can deal with one boring one. After the guest speaker, we were all starving so we went back to Corrib to make some lunch. We had a little down time after that and went on a Walking Tour with a student of NUIG. He took us around the City Centre and told us some good places to eat and then of course showed us what pubs we should check out. When that was over, some people stayed in town and ate, but to save money I went back with Caitlin and we made ourselves dinner. Then it was time to get ready and we went to another low key bar called "The Living Room". We had a bigger group that night but it was a lot of fun. Our group is really meshing together well and everyone gets along so well. It will be really sad when this is all over.
Thursday: We had another guest lecturer in the morning--I swear with all these guest speakers, my prof is getting off easy on the teaching department! This guy was a little more interesting...He talked to us about Irish film..and he had a lot of clips from films--if he hadn't had those it would probably have been really boring. At 1:00 we went to a bar called Roshin Dubh for a traditional irish music performance. It was 3 guys...probably in their mid-20's called Gannon and Friends. They were phenominal--it was so cool to listen to them and watch them play. At the very end one of their friends came up on stage and he did some irish dancing which was really neat to watch as well. After that was over we had some down time and then Caitlin, Sandy and I went to dinner at "The Spud House". Wow it was soooo good. It was basically a intensely stuffed baked potato with an awesome salad. It was sooo good. We then walked to another music performance called Music at the Crossroads. It was amazing. It was 7 musicians and 2 dancers. Each of the musicians played at least 3 different instruments...a bunch of people bought their cd so we can all listen to it! The dancers were amazing...I cannot imagine how strong their leg muscles have to be. They move so fast! After the performance I went back with a few people and I was able to talk to Janell on the phone for a bit which was really nice! I miss everyone from home.
Friday: We were up and at 'em and on the road by 10:15. Today was a long tour to the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. It was incredible. The weather was not as clear as I had hoped, but it was still awesome. The Burren is really cool because you are standing on these coral looking type rocks, that used to be the ocean floor. Its really pretty amazing. And then the Cliffs of Moher..well they were just breathtaking -- I took a ton of pictures and hopefully will be able to share on here and of course when I get home. After we all got back, I had some dinner with one of the girls and then we all started getting ready for our last night in Galway. It was a blast...made for a rough bus ride the next morning though.
I'm going to end this here...give you all a break and go write a paper and I'll come back and post again about Sligo. I've been having a blast in our travels...but oh is it good to be back in the Dub!
Miss you all and will talk to you soon!
