My mom came to Galway on Feb 17th after having a long, overextended journey from Philadelphia. Her flight was on time and running smoothly until about 2.5 hours into the flight when the pilot realized that the "de-icer" wasn't working. This meant that the plane had to turn around and go back to Philly. After this meaningless 5 hour flight, my mom took another 6 hour flight into Dublin, took a bus to Galway and SOMEHOW we figured out how to be in the same place in the same time without any communication. Its funny how things like that work out! After the plane disaster, I think everything else ran smoothly (or smooth enough at least). The first day my mom was here, we walked around Galway while I tried (unsuccessfully) to set up a bank account in Ireland to avoid the international fees that have been killing me since January! After we realized that we didn't have the right paper to open the account, we decided to do a little shopping and have tea and food at one of my favorite places- Griffins Bakery! My mom loved it as well and decided that it was almost like a fairytale. After this, we went to see Galway Bay and the Claddagh, some of Galway's most famous places. After this, my mom cooked dinner for my friends and I which was SO delicious and much needed. It was nice to have a home cooked meal after I've been making pasta and cooking microwavable meals for the past few months.
The next day we woke up to go to the Cliffs of Moher, which was gorgeous as always! It was nice to go with my mom instead of friends for a change and I think she really enjoyed it. I don't know how you can't enjoy it! It's gorgeous! After we got back from our tour, we had another home cooked meal :) and then we went to see Kings Speech in the "cinema." I wasn't especially excited to see it because I hadn't heard anything about it but it was amazing! So good and I didn't want it to end! After the movie, we went to bed so that we could get up early to go to the Aran Islands the next day. After taking a bus and a ferry to Inishmore, the biggest island, we decided to rent bikes for the day. It was beautiful and so much fun riding around the island, even though some of the hills were a little more than I bargained for! That is, until it started DOWNPOURING!! We had ridden 2 hours away from the starting point when it started raining and after eating our lunches under our umbrellas, we realized that we would have to bike back in the rain! The actual biking wasn't too bad- I wasn't thinking about anything else except trying to get back into dry shelter! By the time we got back to where we started, we were absolutely drenched. We tried drying ourselves off in the bathroom to no avail and we shamelessly took a seat in one of the only restaurants open, sopping ourselves into their dry booths. Somehow we managed to stay positive and just kept laughing about how good of a story it makes.
After taking showers and drying off, we decided to go out for one last hurray in Galway. We went to my favorite pub, The Skeff and enjoyed a few drinks, included Baby Guiness shots which are Kahlua and Baileys on the top, to make it look like a pint of Guiness!
The next morning, my mom woke up early to take a cab into town and to catch a bus to go to the airport. Even though it was a short trip, it was definitely a fun one! I was so glad that I was able to show my mom my house, my room and my favorite city! She got to see how I live and experience the culture like I do. It was also so nice to have her here and to spend some much needed time with her!
The next weekend I went to Dublin with two of my friends. We went on a pub crawl and went on one of the free walking tours of the city. On Sunday we went shopping. Dublin is a really nice city, but I think its best for a weekend visit. I was definitely happy to come back to Galway and enjoy (what I think is) the more cultural city of Ireland. I just felt like Dublin was very globalized and that it could be found in almost any country in the world! Galway definitely belongs in Ireland and thats why I love it so much!
The next week in Galway is called RAG week, which stands for Raise A Grand. It started as a week of raising money for charity, but eventually has turned into a crazy week for the college students to drink all day and all night. Gort, where I live, was especially crazy this year with several student-made fires and glass bottles being shattered everywhere! It got so crazy, that they had to hire security 24/7 and put up gates. Only residents were allowed in, which is never the case. It was a fun excuse to go out and have a good time without having to worry about classes, but when it was over, I was definitely happy!
In the middle of RAG week, a few friends studying in Florence came to visit. Sam and Rachael, two of my best friends from Fairfield arrived on Wednesday at 3 AM. I happened to be out in town so I picked them up at the bus station as they arrived. The timing couldn't have worked out any more perfectly! On Thursday we woke up and I showed them around Galway. Thursday night, I, of course, took them to the Skeff where we met up with the other girls from Fairfield and we all had a good time! It was so nice to be able to go out with Rachael and Sam and show them the pubs that I've told them lots about! Friday, they went to the Cliffs of Moher and loved it! That night, my friend Ania and I made up our own Galway Pub Crawl for them. We started off at Taffes, which has traditional Irish music. Then we moved onto the Kings Head, which has cover bands of current music and also classic rock. After that we went to the Quays, which is one of the more famous pubs in Galway. It was far too crowded so we ended up at the Skeff again. Rachael and Sam had tons of fun dancing with Ania's friend, Zuzu, but Ania and I were exhausted. We decided to be boring and just sit and talk while our friends had a great time on the dance floor.
The next day, we woke up for an Irish breakfast made by Ania's housemate. It was so delicious! We had bacon, sausage, white pudding, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms and bread. Yum! I hadn't had one yet and Sam and Rachael wanted to try an Irish breakfast before they left, so it was so great that it was homemade and that we could enjoy it with all everybody! After that we went back and took a nap and then we decided to check out the weekend market in Galway. We walked down to Galway Bay, took a few pictures and then had fish and chips from McDonoughs for dinner. After dinner, we went back and got ready to go out for one last night! We went over to our friend's house to hang out with everybody else from Fairfield, including other visitors from Florence and some from Barcelona, too! It was definitely a packed house. After that, we went to the Skeff and had an amazing and hilarious night. The other Fairfield people left earlier, but Rae, Sam and I decided to stay at the Skeff because we were having such a fun time. We met a group of men from Cork celebrating their friends Bachelor Party. They were definitely entertaining. Sam had a volatile relationship with the DJ and Rachael got to talking to one of the Bachelor Party members and he offered to buy us all drinks. Seeing as it was about a 1/2 hour after last call, we all thought it was funny that he thought he would be able to get drinks. He asked Rachael if whiskey shots were okay and Rachael responded with "yeah, sure" thinking there was no chance the bar would serve him. Well- 10 minutes later, our friend comes back with 4 whiskey shots, which we all did together. Even though we were all frightened to try it, it was fun to have that story to take away from it.
The next morning, we all woke up and took the bus to Dublin. Rachael and Sam took the bus to the Dublin Airport and I took the bus into the city to meet my friend Erin Brookes, who was visiting her friend that was studying in Dublin. We got lunch together, checked out Phoenix Park, did a little shoppnig and got a drink before I headed back to Galway. I was a little apprehensive about going to Dublin, after the crazy week we had in Galway, but I was soo glad that I ended up going to see Erin. She was so happy to be in Ireland and I was happy that I was able to be a part of her European Spring Break Adventure.
Wow- thats a lot of information, but that is basically what has happened the past 3 weeks for me. I guess I should start updating more often so that the entries aren't massive! Now for some pictures:
My Mom and I on the Burren Walking Tour
St. Stephen's Green in Dublin
Sam, Rachael, Me and our "favorite" DJ
Rachael, Sam and I with our Baby Guiness Shots
The Infamous Whiskey Shot Incident
