Alright, so I'm kinda tired of typing b/c I've been catching up with emails after this weekend, but I will try to write as much as I can about my trip b/c it was so fabulous.
On Friday I took a 4 hour bus to Galway, which is a kinda artsy, youth-oriented student city on the west coast of Ireland. I got there, checked into my hotel, and almost immediately hit up the first pub (for lunch, of course;). This is an awesome city; there was so much to do. We met up with all the other IPA kids that were there for the weekend and basically hopped from pub to pub the whole night. But each one was a different experience: some were very laidback and catered to an older crowd, some were crowded with ppl watching soccer games, some had rock bands, some had dancing, some had traditional music. It was just so much fun. There was something for everyone there really, and I'm really jealous of the study abroad students who have programs in University Galway. Also, I discovered this fast food joint called Supermacs which has garlic and cheese fries....SO good. This was probably the first place I've seen thats open until 4 am (I've really missed late night post-drinking greasy food since I've been here...this place put Little Stevie's to shame - not that thats hard to do). So at some point after dancing in the final club, doing my first Irish tequila shots, and eating those delicious fries, I stumbled back to my comfy hostel and crashed.
The next morning we took an early ferry to Inismor, which is the largest of the 3 Aran Islands. The Aran Islands are huge tourist hubs b/c they're famous for sticking to very traditional ways of life. Most of their money is probably made from tourists, but they still have fishers and farmers and many live in small stereotypical Irish cottages, they also still speak Gaelic along with English...all the street signs are only in Gaelic. We rented bikes (which was interesting considering I haven't ridden one since I was like 10) and biked our way all over the island...most ass pain I've had since my bday party. The highlight was Dun Aengus, which is the ruins of an old Iron Age fort on top of this huge hill. It is overlooking these huge sea cliffs which were just BEAUTIFUL. I can't even express to you how awesome this place was...it felt like it was the edge of the earth, all you could see on the horizon was just miles and miles of ocean. And you could lay on the edge of the cliffs and look down, which was unsettling after awhile to someone who doesn't like heights. Anyway, so later at our slightly rundown hostel we had dinner at what they call the "vaguely vegetarian buffet". The proprietor of the hostel is the only black and homosexual guy on the entire island and he's a bit of an outcast....but he is a great chef. I don't even know what half of the things I ate were, but they were SO GOOD. We sat with this middle aged guy from Galway (who shared his wine with us, god bless him) and he talked about his travels all over Europe when he first got out of college. He was really funny and great...told us about killer hedgehogs. After that we made our way in pitch blackness (not many street lamps on the island) down the street to Joe Watty's pub b/c we had heard there would be trad music there. This pub was blessedly uncrowded and almost free of tourists, who don't tend to stay the night on the island (they're missing out bigtime). So we chilled with the locals and heard the greatest music...it was a family band: an elderly man playing the accordion, a middle aged guy playing guitar, and three amazing little kids...two boys probably 9 or 10 and one girl who was probably 6 and fell asleep way before closing time. The two boys are my new heroes. They had obviously been playing every traditional Irish instrument since they were very young, and no one on the island seemed to think that was unique. They actually sat in the pub until closing at 12:30 and just picked up various instruments at their whim and joined in the session. By last call, the adults would shush everyone in the bar and then sing solo sad Irish ballads while all the elderly men sat around and practically cried in their stouts...it was so....Irish. The entire pub would get completely silent for these heartbreaking songs, and then ppl would softly join in or just sit there reminiscing or whatever. It was fantastic. I was even inspired to go out and buy a bodhran (Irish drum) of my own....its the coolest thing ever :)
So then Sunday we took the ferry back to Galway and I stayed around and did some gift shopping there before heading back to Dublin last night. All in all it was just a GREAT weekend.
One thing I forgot to mention about the first night in Galway...there are a lot of street performers in that city, but one (which I will post pictures of) stands out above all the rest. He is what I have dubbed the Big Titty Yeti. We were walking from one pub to the next when we see this giant troll-like creature with enormous breasts...thats right. I of course stopped to take a picture b/c I didn't really understand what the hell this thing was but found it very amusing...at which point he started chasing me and my friends down the road. Thats right, the yeti with breasts attacked us. I don't know what it was all about but it was possibly the funniest and scariest thing I have ever seen. I could not stop laughing (sidenote: this event would have been so much more appreciated if Shannon, Izzy, and/or my sister were there...you guys would have understood the hilarity of it more than anyone). I'll put the pictures of this inexplicable phenomenon up; they're a little blurry due to the fact that I was running for my life. And that is all I have to say about Galway....I would recommend that trip to anyone who's ever in Ireland. It was fantabulous.
