This blog is about our second trip; Galway.
Galway is in the West of Ireland, and is easily one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We’ll get to that later.
Galway is also a college town, which means almost everyone is under the age of 30. Quite a contrast to the city-slicking, career-focused inhabitants of Dublin (aka-“Little Manhattan”).
Our first hour in Galway was spent in Eyre Square, a common meeting spot among the college kids. Students were strewn out on the lawn, basking in the sun (another rarity in Dublin), and a guy was playing his guitar and singing loud enough for everyone to hear. Students tossed their Frisbees and ate their sandwiches, while we took pictures and raved about how much we had missed the sun.
Then, our friend Kellie Herson (from Wisconsin) who attends the university in Galway, picked us up and took us on a walk to her residence at the college. She lived in what can only be described as a colorful, private living community, with each house painted a crazy different color (peach, teal, canary yellow, etc.) and a guard standing outside the gate ready to check our I.D.’s. Oh, and of course the ground was littered with beer cans galore, since the week prior had been “Rag Week”, a week full of partying and crazy outfits. That’s really all I know about the celebration, haha, but it seems like they had a good time!
After, we made our way back to the bus and checked into our hotel.
The hotel was NICE (we were lucky with our program-they always put us up in a swanky hotel), complete with a swimming pool, Jacuzzi, workout facility and two restaurants! Our second night was spent in the Jacuzzi/swimming pool area. Naturally.
That evening we all went to dinner at the hotel, provided by our program (again) where we had three courses and got to choose our appetizer, entrée and dessert. I had salad, fish, and chocolate cake for dessert. Can’t complain! :)
That night we went to a bar we’d been to for lunch earlier in the day with Kellie. I think it was called the Cellar or the Attic, or something like that?
Anyway, they had mixed drink specials that night, so I tried my first “Sex on the Beach” and a sip of my friend’s Cosmopolitan. Both delicious! And both very affordable.
A bunch of us went to the Cellar/Attic (including Julie’s parents) so we sat at one long table and shared sips of one another’s mixed drinks. It was fabulous!
Then, we went to a place called Quay’s, where they had balconies where one could wave like a queen. You better believe we did it. haha.
After such a fun night, we were all incredibly tired so we returned to our hotel for a long, glorious night of slumber.
The next day we ventured to Kylemore Abbey, an old monastery in Connemara. The ride to the Abbey was glorious, full of Irish countryside, amazing hills, valleys, and lakes. We were all asleep on the bus (the ride was rather windy so we didn’t want to get sick) and when we woke up it felt like we were in another world! SO beautiful! See pictures below.
After exploring the Abbey and taking a ton of pictures, we ventured to the old church on the grounds, then to the Kylemore Abbey “gardens”. I use quotations because the gardens looked like they hadn’t grown anything in over a century. But we pretended to smell the nonexistent flowers and had a good time traipsing around the grounds.
After, we boarded the bus and made our way back to the hotel for yet another night of banter (Irish slang for “fun”).
That night was spent in the Jacuzzi/steam room, where we sweat every toxin out of our bodies until we almost passed out from heat stroke. Hahaha.
Then we jumped back in the Jacuzzi and chatted for a while, before retiring to our rooms. I went to Lara and Jacque’s room for a middle school sleepover type of party, where we ate digestives (try them! they are delicious cookies!) and painted our nails. We also watched television, something we’d been without for far too long.
The next day we ate breakfast and boarded the bus to meet our ferry, which was to take us to the Aran Islands.
The ferry ride wasn’t too bad. Smelled of fish (surprised?) and I foolishly decided to get a coffee and attempt to drink it outside on the boat. Bad idea, but luckily the coffee didn’t spill and I was rewarded with a burst of energy for our bus tour of the Aran Isle.
Our buses were actually large minivans that took us to Dun Aengus, an old fort (actually it’s an archaeological gold mine) at the top of a very, very steep and rocky hill.
The view was spectacular, though (pictures below) and the trek up the hill in my Penney’s boots was well worth the walk. We (Ashley, Deven, and I) also got to talk a lot about our futures, where we’re headed and what we’ve enjoyed about college so far. It was a nice walk :)
Once we got to the top, I couldn’t believe how steep and dangerous it was! There are literally cliffs over the water, with no fences, allowing silly tourists (like ourselves) to sit and dangle our feet over the edge while taking pictures to show our friends. (If my mom were there she would have had a heart attack.)
After, we went to the gift shop and I got some yarn for Kelly so she can knit me a sweater, like the ones sold on the Aran Islands, haha. They’re famous for their wool sweaters, which are beautiful.
Then, our bus took us back to “town” and we walked around and enjoyed the island a little bit. Of course, we went to lunch (I got soup!) and had to visit the Centra to get candy and top-up our cell phones, but mostly we walked around and took pictures. There wasn’t much time for anything else.
Our ferry then took us back to the real world, where we went to our hotels and freshened up for the night.
That evening, we went out dancing to a night club called Cuba, where the handstamp they give you says “Castro” and pictures of the man line the walls as you enter. I’m not even joking. I wasn’t sure what to think.
But, the music was bumpin’ and they had different musical themes on each floor. Not too shabby and I’m pretty sure the entrance was free.
After a long, long night of dancing, we headed back to our hotel in a taxi cab and fell asleep for our journey home the next day.
After four days away from Dublin, it was sure nice to be home, but nothing can compare to the beautiful countryside of Galway. The West of Ireland is absolutely beautiful and hopefully the pictures can do it justice…
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