Week TWO
Somewhere during the first week Amy, Amanda and I decided to become travelling buddies. Which is awesome because I do not want to be travelling alone or with people I don’t really like. Since Amanda was going to London the weekend of January 29th when our group had an optional trip to Galway, the three of us decided to go the first real weekend, January 22-24.
The thursday before, I stayed in and watched The Departed with my roommate—a taste of home. But Amy and Amanda went out and apparently got pretty trashed, as Amy ended up throwing up in the elevator which I found HILARIOUS when they told me. It’s still so funny to me, I love it. So anyways, instead of leaving DCU by 10, none of us work up til ten. It worked out fine though, we made our way to the Bus Eireann station downtown and headed off to the West.
Galway was absolutely beautiful. It’s an adorable little town and it’s mostly college students, which is great. There are a ton of cool pubs and nightclubs, it’s right on the water, and the origional claddagh ring was made here, and the shop is still operating today (Amanda got a ring there).
We stayed in Barnacles Hostel friday night, it was okay for a hostel. Met up with my friend Lauren who works with me at Uno’s in Boston—she’s studying abroad in Galway this semester. We ended up having a really fun night out.
The next morning we woke up early for free breakfast aka all the toast you can eat. Then we reluctantly left Galway for Doolin, a tiny town down the coast about 18km from the Cliffs of Moher—our main goal.
Doolin was ridiculous. Literally one street. No stoplight. No people, really. But three pubs. That’s how you know you’re in Ireland. We rented bikes for 5 euro each from a man we later found out used to be in the IRA…pretty badass. We then proceeded to BIKE up a MOUNTAIN to see the cliffs. 18km. And by we I mean Amy and Amanda rode and I rode like 1/3 and died the other 2/3. It was such a workout. Even just walking was a crazy workout, especially pushing the stupid bike. Let’s just say I now hate bikes.
The weather was also insane. It was so foggy half the time I couldn’t even see Amy and Amanda in front of me. We did stop at Clare’s Jam Shop on the way hoping to get food since we were starving, but they just had jars of jam, which wasn’t that appetizing. The worst part, though, was that when we finally got to the cliffs, we could barely see anything because of the fog. We were like ABOVE the fog, which was cool, but we really wanted to see the dramatic cliffs, so it was a downer for me.
That night we painted the town red in Doolin! And by that I mean we got dinner and had 2 drinks. There was amazing traditional Irish music though, and they were playing right next to our table! It was so cool. We ended up meeting and talking to a kid from Gloucester, MA who randomly was in Doolin too, so weird.
It was so eerie there at night. No streetlights at all, no cars, no people. And freezing cold. It was pretty shady. But we made it out alive. The next day it turns out we had the bus schedule wrong so we had to hang around for two hours longer…not so fun since NOTHING was open. Except the pub. So we ended up there for lunch.
Doolin was interesting, but the weekend was really fun overall. I’m glad I experienced Doolin even though it was weird, definitely something we wouldn’t have seen if we did the group tour.
That week we had classes. We went on a fieldtrip to Newgrage in Co. Meath on Monday for history class. It was interesting. It’s a burial site that’s older than the pyramids. The best part, though, was just getting out of the city and seeing some sweet countryside!
The rest of the week was pretty laid back. tuesday, I think, we went out to the Bernard Shaw, which was a place we’d been wantng to go to. It was pretty dead since it was a tuesday, but they had a really good DJ and 2 for 10 long islands, so you can’t go wrong there! They also sell tis thing called Buckfast, which is like wine but super alcoholic and basically tastes like grape medicine. Not very good, but it’s pretty popular here and in the UK in the shadier crowds, which apparently we’re a part of? All I know is that on wikipedia it’s blamed for “social disorder,” so that’s pretty amusing.
That brings us right about to January 28th, with all the stuff I can remember, at least! Next time it’ll be my laid back weekend and an equally laid back week at DCU…
