Work, brews after work with girls at the Ivy House, Libby tired, went to bed early
Friday:
Work!
The girls minus Michelle (she had the day off) went to Mickey D's at a local shopping center for lunch. Great discovery: McDonalds here serves veggie wraps with falafel and they are SO GOOD and super cheap. So had a yummy lunch and went back to work. The conversations we have are always so interesting to me, hearing how they talk about things using colloquialisms I'm unfamiliar with or about the cultural expectations for dating or clothing or other girl stuff. They're such nice girls and a wonderful part of my experience here.
I took my laptop in on Thursday and left it there Friday so that I could work from both computers cause I'm a super nerd. But I've been getting a lot of neat stuff done and I think things are really coming off quite nicely.
After work I took my computer to Starbucks and handed it off to Kels and Helene, then I met up with Jimmy to go see a comedy show. We went to a Tex Mex restaurant for dinner and I had a margarita and a yummy enchilada. Definitely not the Mexican food I'm used to! The stuff wasn't very spicy and the ingredients are far from authentic Mexican. Dinner was very good though!
We went to The Academy afterwards to watch Michael McIntyre, an English comedian, do a trial bit. It was so interesting to see comedy from a different side though. Instead of jokes about the dumb stuff Americans do pitched to an audience of Americans, it was, of course, the dumb stuff Irish people and English people do. Stuff like the Irish phrase "What's the story" to "Gaelic" and gaelic sports... stuff that sticks out to me as a foreigner was brought to their attention through comedy and of course, was hilarious.
Then he started making fun of Americans and how we don't really speak English, but our own dumbed down version of it. Instead of pavement, we say sidewalk. Or rubbish bin its waste paper basket. Or, my personal favorite, aubergine being eggplant. I laughed so hard, but at the same time, felt somewhat out of place. I like being a fly on the wall and a pretend Dubliner, but I'm American to the core and will always feel a sense of national pride for my linguistically challenged country.
After the show Jimmy and I got drinks, then I went home to get ready for Galway!
Saturday:
Woke up SUPER early and packed for Galway. We took an early bus to catch the bus to Galway with no stops on the way. I slept almost the entire time, thankfully, and arrived in Galway ready to roll.
Helene, Kate, Kelsey and I didn't arrive with much of a plan, just a general outline of activities. This can add to the stress of a situation, but I think we all rolled with the flow pretty well. After checking into our hostel by the pier in Galway, we got a bus ticket to the Cliffs of Mohr. This bus took about 2 hours, going south around Galway bay and stopping in tiny cities along the way.
As I watched the rain pour down from the bus and listened to some David Gray, I remembered taking a bus through Connemara last year. The Irish landscape is striking. Last year it captured my heart with its green electricity and rhythmic vivaciousness. It's almost so green that it glows, even in the rain. The stone walls enclosing sheep and cows, wild grass and bog, grey stones covering rolling hills, still hidden by mist. It's like looking backwards, the continuity and timelessness brought tears to my eyes again. This scene is why I returned to Ireland: the wild beauty of its land.
The Cliffs, while sublimely beautiful were a hilarious adventure. It was absolutely pouring rain, sheets of sideways wind soaked us all to the bone. We got a few shots of the Cliffs, and I think this one really shows what the day was like. I could barely even open my eyes for the picture without losing a contact.The visitors center was obviously packed with tourists, overpriced souvenirs and now, four soaking, cold and cranky American girls. I bought some shamrock boxers to change out of my jeans and we got a few other trinkets and food, then headed back to Galway, our attempt to see one of the most beautiful sights in Ireland defeated by the weather.
Upon returning to Galway we dried off, got some food and headed on to High Street for some craic (I'm trying to learn how to talk like I'm Irish.. hopefully I phrased that one right). I took a beautiful walk for my alone time along the Spanish Quarter and down the River Corrib. The sky was a moody gray and framed the river wonderfully. I saw forty swans taking shelter on the river, and a series of fly fisherman further up the river. The most beautiful thing though was the Cathedral topped with oxidized copper, a striking turquoise contrasting with the rainy sky and dark stone walls. My camera died, so no picture!
I went back to meet up with the girls and we had a great time drinking and talking along the High Street. I find the people of the West coast to be almost impossible to understand, both from their thick accent and tendency to speak at warp speed. We all had good craic (Irish for fun, I think) and went to bed quite late.
Sunday:
Today we woke up and got ourselves ready to head home. We had four hours to kill, so we went to the Claddagh area of Galway, which is a large park spanning from Wolf Tone bridge and the Latin Quarter over to the Bay. We walked quite a ways, then found some stairs leading into the sand and water of the bay. There were barnacles, shells, rocks, sea glass, dead jellys and all colors of kelp along the beach and we had a great time looking amongst the treasures. I haven't been to the sea in quite some time, maybe not since Ireland last year. I forgot how much I love the water and the beach, there's something so powerful yet calm about it all. It was probably my favorite thing we did in Galway.
After McDonalds and some more veggie wraps, we got back on the bus to Dublin. This bus took much longer because it wasn't a direct bus but we got to see lots of little Irish towns along the way home.
Finally, I'm home and recuperating before tomorrow and some more time at CMRF. Amazing weekend for sure
