10/07/08 - 10/13/08

This week was tough, I had three days straight of 10 am classes. The reason for this was our Celtic Myth and Legend class met twice this week as opposed to once. This means I don't have that class for two straight weeks. Tuesday was rough because I had three classes in a day, which doesn't seem to bad, but it came out to be 7 hours of classes in one day. It was pretty rough. I got through the day and made it to Wednesday. Celtic Myth and Legend was pretty cool because the first half of the class was watching two women perform traditional Irish music. It was really entertaining and I just wanted to drink a Guinness and dance a jig! Wednesday night Brian and I went to the pubs with Monica and Jeanine, it was awesome we hit a bunch of places (some had live music) before dancing the night away at the Porterhouse. Thursday came and I had two classes, the first one was awesome because we had a guest lecturer who talked about his life growing up about 20 miles south of Northern Ireland. It was interesting to hear someones perspective from the Republic of Ireland, close, but at the same time removed from the conflict. After which we had another class where I got to play on Google maps and then take a walking tour of the streets near the IES center. It was pretty cool, when we were walking by a group of flats (public housing). The lecturer stopped and was talking to us as two little kids starting throwing rocks and acorns at us from a distance. I thought it was hilarious, but Adam was kind of pissed off and threw a rock back as our lecturer said, "No Adam, no." Thankfully Adam has a very low accuracy throw and missed the kids, by a large distance, and we weren't embroiled in a neighborhood wide brawl. We made it back to our apartment after class where I found a grisly discovery, my laptop wasn't working. It still isn't working and I am bummed because I have to use the apartment's less than stellar Toshiba laptop.
That night we had dinner at the girl's apartment, they made homemade pizza, garlic knots and then some delicious m&m cookies. It was absolutely delicious, we were all so full that it was painful. Needless to say we came home and all pretty much went right to bed because the digestion was tiring. We woke up Friday and Jake, Adam and I packed and headed to the train station to go to Galway. The ride was pretty awesome, except for the group of middle aged women on a "No, Husband!" trip, who were loud, obnoxious, getting tanked and probably in bed by 2 pm (we arrived in Galway at 1). The ride was beautiful and I got a lot of reading done for my one class. We arrived and walked through the main square of Galway, it was weird for a city it definately felt like a small town. We walked to our hostel and put our bags in a locker room and then headed to this place called the Couch Potato for lunch. They specialized in all things potato and I had an awesome sour cream and bacon filled potato. We headed back to the Hostel and got into our room, the place was so much nicer then the one in Amsterdam. The Hostel was awesome, it even had a pool table. We then walked around some stores (I got an awesome pair of Batman boxers, Jake got an interesting pair of underwear) and hit up an art gallery. At this point we got a call from Derrick, he and his friend Erica had arrived (they had to take a later bus) and were sitting in a pub right on the sqaure. We left the gallery and met them. The Guinness was under 4 Euro so I was pretty pumped about that. We sat by a fire and talked to the one bartender who doesn't consider Dublin to be part of Ireland (I think someone is jealous). We headed back to the hostel so Derrick could drop his stuff off and then we all headed towards the bar area so Derrick and Erica could get some lunch. We tried to go into a pub with traditional Irish music playing, but it was full, so we headed a couple of pubs down and ended up in this pretty cool place called the King's Head.
After hanging out there for a little bit we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the night, on the way there we passed Kayleen, Elizabeth, Jeanine and Monica, who had just gotten into Galway on an even later bus. We went back to the hostel and hung out and got ready for the night. We talked to some weird guy from London who was in our room with us. He was in Galway to work and was sitting on his bed watching Charmed when we walked in. I think he may have been gay, because he knew about the gay clubs in Galway. He may have been a little off, but he was cool to talk to and we all enjoyed our convo. We pregamed a little in the room and then hit the town. We went to a couple pubs that night and had a really good time dancing at the King's Head. Even though we seemed to be the only ones dancing to the dj (we stuck out like a sore thumb) it was an awesome time.
Islands are off the coast of Ireland about a hour and forty minutes away from We woke up the next morning and got everything packed and checked out. We left our bags in the locker room and headed out to explore Galway some more. Exploring it meant going to the shopping area with the girls and looking in stores for a while. At one point, Jake, Adam and I walked along the river to the Galway Cathedral and looked in there for a little bit. The place was massive and awesome. We got some sandwiches (since I have been here I have discovered the joy of having stuffing on my sandwiches, it is awesome and I highly recommend it. There is nothing like chicken, corn and stuffing on a roll, it is delicious) and then hung out until we caught a bus at 5. We were taking the bus to a ferry which was taking us to the Aran islands. The AranGalway. It was Jeanine's birthday on Saturday and she wanted to stay there. So we arrived on this island which reminded me of a sea town you see in old movies. Not a lot of people or buildings. We got there at around 7:30-8 and the island was dead. The place had two restaurants and two bars open, the other couple buildings were closed. It was quite the experience walking there. The roads weren't well lit and had bushes and trees along the side, so it seemed like at any moment something was going to jump out and attack you. It was interesting, especially since it was so rural. At one point we passed a rundown building with three roosters sleeping on the walls. Needless to say the girls were a bit jumpy and when Jake imitated a chainsaw they were not to happy. Derrick and Erica had headed back to Dublin so it was Adam, Jake, Monica, Kayleen, Jeanine, Elizabeth and I making this walk. Not really sure where we were going we turned down a road and had to go down an unlit, moss covered road to a building we thought was our hostel. It ended up being our hostel which was hilarious because it is this old house with a bunch of beds in it. The owner was called a "druggie" by the captain of the ferry and she was interesting. She was an older woman, I would say 50s or 60s and she had this far away look in her eyes. Making us feel like we were in a bad horror movie even more so than before. Looking back it was pretty neat, at the time we were cursing Jeanine's name! So we got settled and put our bags in our rooms. Jake and I ended up sharing a room with Barbara from Texas and her friend Helen from Alaska (I talked to Barb right away and found out she had an Obama Mama pin and enjoyed her time in Dublin). Both of these lovely ladies were 80 years old, so needless to say Jake and I both had top bunk. I don't think Helen or Barb had seen the top bunk in about 40 years. After leaving the hostel we went back towards the bay to get dinner at one of the two restaurants open. We went to the first place, then the second place and then back to the first place for dinner. It was a really nice restaurant and our waitress was from Canada (what are the odds). Dinner was a lot of fun, we all laughed, a lot, had some really good food (who thought chicken fajitas would be so delicious on an isolated Irish island that probably has never had a resident of Spanish descent) and had the entire place sing Happy Birthday to Jeanine.
and I ended up talking to Helen about her life in Alaska (she lived there since 1952, before it was a state!) and how much she loves it. It seems like it would be a very interesting and rewarding place to live as long as you were tough. I After dinner we walked back to the hostel enjoying the walk more this time and laughing about our situation (laughter is the best medicine to any situation). We made it back to the hostel alive and headed for the living room to watch some tv (Road to Perdition was on). Instead Kayleendefinately want to visit Alaska some day. Helen also told us this was her second trip to Ireland this year because she enjoyed the last one so much. She also informed us of the awesome cliffs on the island (better than the Cliffs of Moher was the way she put it). Hearing that was awesome, because we didn't make it to the Cliffs of Moher and Jake and I were a little bummed. We found out that the Cliffs of Moher are touristy and you can't get up to the edge of the cliffs (where is the fun in that!). Helen went to bed and we all watched the latest episode of the Office, it was great I laughed a lot. Sleeping was an experience because Barb and Helen were in bed when we went in, so Jake and I tried to be quiet and climb to our bunks without disturbing them (it would have been easier if our bunk beds had ladders. Instead they were two beds on top of each other). The beds were really small and creaky and I spent the night fearing I was going to fall off. The reason I had so much time to think was due to the fact that I couldn't fall asleep thanks to the orchestra in my room. Barb snored worse than my Poppy (which I thought was impossible) and Helen breathed heavy and would go into random snoring that was even louder then Barb. So I had to contend with the loud snoring, creaky beds and fear that Barb was going to die underneath me from sleep apnea (which would have added to the lists of firsts for that night: 1st time sharing a room with two 80 year old women and 1st time having someone die in there sleep under me). Needless to say I didn't get a good nights sleep.
We all woke up early the next morning to a complimentary breakfast of Oatmeal and toast (thank you creepy hostel owner lady) and headed for the cliffs on the other side of the island (it is a 9x2 mile island, so it wasn't that far). The island was gorgeous, something we had missed in the dark and because we felt like we were in a bad horror movie. It was pretty empty while we were walking which was nice, and we headed up this stone and grass road past a lake and up a hill. Once we made it up the hill we could hear the roar of the ocean. We walked another 100 yards to the edge and looked out upon the ocean from the cliff we were on. It was magnificent, I was in awe. It blew the cliffs around Howth out of the water. The cliffs of Howth and the Aran Islands are two of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. It was amazing, wind and water vapor blowing into your face. You could get as close as u wanted and look down to the rock beach below. I wish we had more time to explore there, but before I knew it Jake and I had to jump back across the gap of one of the cliffs we were on and we all headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags and catch the Ferry(sadly I couldn't say bye to Barb and Helen because they were gone when I woke up). We made it back to the ferry, but not before I stopped and picked up this awesome wool scarf at the Aran Sweater Market. It is awesome and even though I am not a scarf wearer, my new awesome scarf might turn me into one.
We took a double decker bus back to Galway (of course I sat on the top) which was a pretty ride along the water. Everything in this country is gorgeous every bus ride, train ride, walk it is incredible how much beauty there is. We got back into Galway and then waited in the train station for our train to come. We made it back to Dublin and home pretty quickly. It was an awesome weekend, but it sure felt good to be home. We got back and I tried to see if I could fix my computer, I couldn't, and hung out. Jake and I had to do a project for our Irish Communal Identity class (it was due on Monday) so we sat in the living room and produced a screen play based on the reading we did (Emmy worthy). After Jake left, I sat in my living room and watched the Phillies game on the laptop (extremely disappointing). I woke up today and called Lenovo to see if I could get my laptop fixed and found out that my warranty doesn't extend to Ireland (It extends to pretty much the rest of the god dam world though). So if I want to get my laptop fixed under warranty I am going to have to wait until December, so it looks like the Toshiba and I are going to get to know each other a lot better. This week doesn't look like its going to be anything spectacular, mid terms are next week so I am going to start getting ready for those. The weekend after next were going to Northern Ireland for a couple days with IES so I am pumped for that.