Wishing I were a Galway girl...

And I've survived once again the fast paced weekend trip to another country! Before I begin to dwell on the escapades of Ireland, I'll share with you the highlight of this past week: facetiming my nephew! Marcus told me all about his pirate toys and the turkey sandwich he was eating (No, there wasn't anything else on it, as I had asked).

Look at that face!

We got to the airport pretty smoothly Thursday evening, until we went to get dinner and realized how expensive airport food is. I'm done with you, BK Lounge and your overpriced three nugget meals. We were just chilling by the gate and eating when we noticed the hour. It was nearly time to take off, but no one was around. We never saw a line of people at the gate, but suddenly the board read LAST CALL BOARDING - DUBLIN. Oops! Must have missed the queue when we were complaining about Burger King. So we quickly scrambled all of our stuff together, wiped honey mustard from our chins, and hobbled as fast as we could to the gate. 

In the back of the taxi cab

The picture above was taken moments before we got into a car accident. Our poor cab driver switched lanes right into a motorcyclist. He muttered some curse words universally known and got out of the cab to tell us that it was best we start walking. Luckily, we were close enough to the Airbnb that we didn't need to hail another cab.

Walking the rest of the way to the Airbnb

Our adventures continued as went to Temple Bar, of course. We got our first pints of Guinness and took in the splendor of middle aged Irish people shouting across the bar. Lauren and I decided to go check out the live music when we were immediately enclosed by some very drunk businessmen. With a combination of drunkenness and heavy accents, there were moments I could not understand them no matter how hard I tried, which was really awkward considering we speak the same language... 

Our Irish pals insisted on some pictures

Pretty confident they didn't make it to their 8 a.m. meeting

In the morning, we walked around the city center and explored Grafton St. a bit before coming back at noon to check out from the most barren (but sterile) looking Airbnb. 

Temporary Dubliner

Me & MK, MK & me

Since my family traveled through Ireland a couple years ago, I decided to skip out on the tourist attractions during this trip. While the rest of the gang headed over to Guinness Storehouse for a tour, I went to a restaurant to meet up with a friend from home who works in Dublin (how adult does that sound??). 

The lovely Caroline

Hoping to see this lady more than once this semester!

After lunch at Alfies, I walked over to the Citylink bus stop where I told the girls I would meet them at a nearby coffee shop to get Wifi. After waiting for an hour and my texts not sending, I became concerned when I didn't see them. I walked to the line of people at the bus stop to investigate when I quickly found out that I was in the wrong place. Panicking, I bolted into an office building lobby and asked the receptionist where this invisible bus stop was. True to their reputation, this kind Irish woman went out of her way to research the company and location, call the bus company, and walk me outside to point me in the right direction. There was a second where I considering hugging her before realizing I had no time to spare with a 20 minute walk ahead of me and 15 minutes until the bus left the city for Galway. And so began my only workout of the semester! I sprinted along the river with my oversized travel bag jostling on my back. With the luck of the Irish, I arrived to the bus on the very minute and dragged my sweating self onto a seat. The wave of reactions with relief from my friends sitting in a vertical line down the bus was almost comical if I didn't have pit stains the size of my head in front of this bus full of people. 

Cheers to making it to Galway!

We made it to Galway safely and quickly got some food that I'm fairly certain is the best food I've eaten since coming to Europe, but I could be biased. (Note: the waitress even described her favorite item on the menu as "savage" so we knew we were in for a treat.) Our friend Will was gracious enough to allow us to stay at his apartment for the weekend as he is studying in Galway for the semester. While I am SO THANKFUL for this, I feel compelled to share the full experience of this apartment complex.

This apartment contained all the SLU students studying in Galway so it was a tight squeeze with eight people, not including us. It had a lovely view of the harbor in Galway, but not without a price. Here is a short list of some of the "exciting" elements of the apartment:

• Toliet only flushes every twenty minutes so choose your time wisely
• Limited electricity in the apartment, which results in a power outage and a frightening alarm that goes off every 30 minutes
• Hot showers are a once in a blue moon kind of thing (Surprisingly I got one, much to the chagrin of Will's roommate Andrew who had yet to receive a hot shower since arriving a month before)

Why don't they get these fixed, you ask? Answer was: Because they enjoy complaining about it. 

Galway gals at heart

Accurate representation of the weekend

Will took us out to the King's Head that night where we drank Guinness to our hearts' content and danced the night away listening to covers of Clean Bandit's No Place I'd Rather Be. And, boy, was it true. 

 

Since I know you're all curious about my Local Beers list, I will inform you that this was a wonderful weekend for it, as expected. Lauren and I decided to stock up on some Irish brews to give them a whirl. Not pictured was my favorite, the Hop House 13 lager that was just scrumptious. Not including the beers shown below, my Guinness count came to... drum roll please... THIRTEEN PINTS OF GUINNESS in the two and a half days we were out and about in Ireland. I'd like to thank my ancestors for the ability to accomplish this personal feat. 

Will said two of these were smoky, but Lauren chose to refer to them as the "bacon ones"

Glug, glug, glug

Andrew and Will were kind enough to sleep out in the foyer on couches while five of us crammed onto this makeshift queen sized bed. Nice and cozy!

In the morning on Saturday, the girls woke up early to head off to an daylong tour to see the Cliffs of Moher, while I stayed behind to explore Galway a bit with Will. We started the day off with Will making us a traditional Irish breakfast. The meal include rashers, fried eggs, pudding, and tea. I learned that the pudding wasn't so scary after I read the ingredients on the label. Whose idea was it to call that food the most off-putting name imaginable?

Master Chef Will

Traditional Irish breakfast

After we strolled a bit through downtown where we did a little shopping, Will showed me around the university that has an ivy covered quad that could rival the one back at WashU. 

The Quad at NUIG

Up next was the Salthill Promenade along the water which included seeing the old Spanish arches and walking down an extensive dock to a lighthouse where we were able to see all of Galway. 

Galway Harbor Dock

Will in his natural habitat

In the afternoon, Will, Andrew, and I headed over to my first rugby game ever! The match was Connacht versus the Scarlets from Wales. While I spent a good portion of the game trying to figure out the rules, I enjoyed myself quite a bit. The 60 year old men and 8 year old boys surrounding me shouted the same two words the whole match: "c'mon" and "Connacht." Exclusively in that order. I thought this may have been the name of a star player until I read the scoreboard and registered this was in fact the name of the team.

Smiling through my confusion

At night we decided to be big spenders and drop the extra five Euro to go the exclusive upper levels of the bar, The Quays (pronounced "keys" for those who didn't know like myself). This area had several bachelorette parties, which included a blow up doll at one end and a bride's retired mother dressed in a flapper attire at the other. Despite being dressed in 5x more layers than everyone else there, we still hit the dance floor and enjoyed our final night in Galway. 

Slainté!

As I had yet to attend Mass yet this semester (sorry, Mom and Dad), I thought what place than Ireland to go for my first time? So I woke up early and strolled by myself to the cathedral nearby. Galway was a tad warmer than it had been the previous days. Walking through the quiet, sleepy town alone could be my favorite part of the trip. 

Early morning in Galway

Cathedral at UNIG

The inside of the church was absolutely stunning!

Pit stop after Mass

We were sad to leave this lovely country. In fact, MK and I continue to suffer from some PTD (Post Trip Depression) as words cannot capture the feeling of being in Ireland. Needless to say, I will be back to that country as soon as I can!

We thought the adventures of the trip were over on our Metro ride back from the airport, but no. After getting called "liars" by some security guards, MK and I then accidentally missed one of our connecting stops. Foolishly, we bargained that the short distance on the map would surely mean a quick walk from wherever we were to our apartment. Wrong. We emerged from the Metro station in an empty area outside the city by a poorly lit sidewalk around a lake. Why we didn't think to turn around and get back on the Metro, I couldn't tell you. We chose to pursue the 45 minute walk entirely uphill back to Sol.

Ahh abroad adventures!

Oddly enough, this walk turned out to be pretty cool and we passed through a lovely garden to arrive at the Royal Palace. We continued to pass all these fancy areas that we had never seen before. We even found this dope plaza that I kid you not is 500 yards from our apartment door. It was just in a direction we had never gone before.

Who would have thought we were so close to this?!

In the past two weeks, Megan and I decided to volunteer to teach English somewhere. We got an email describing just that and signed up. It wasn't until the training session that it was clear we had an entire class of 25 adults to ourselves twice a week and we were responsible for planning the entire course and syllabus. Stress levels were high at the first class, but I think we will be able to survive the semester. (But please pray for us.)

Class 1 of 22

So there you have it, one more week gone and time just flies past me. I look forward to what the rest of the semester has to offer. I'll leave you with an Irish blessing and a snippet of all the feels Ireland offers. 

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.