Dublin and Galway

Ok, so I realize that I can't keep everything straight, but I am going to do my best at some writing this chronologically. So, Dublin is pretty big if you don't know, it is the biggest city in on the Irish Island with Belfast being second, Cork third, Derry/Londonderry fourth, and Galway as the fifth largest. I can't remember if I've used this analogy before, but Ireland is like a Teddy bear reaching for America. Northern Ireland is the head. I've met a couple Irish people here, not including the Irish students at the Gaiety because for some reason we/I don't hang out with them that often. Gemna is a pharmacist from Galway which is in the armpit of the teddy bear, Nora is from Wexford "in the bum" as she said, and Jason is from county Antrim at the very top of the head. Anyway, Dublin is in the back and Dublin isn't just a city, it is a county too, so it is pretty big geographically as well, so one weekend I did a little bit of traveling around. I went to two seaside towns which are in different directions, Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun leary) and Howth. Both of these places were pretty cute. Dun Laoghaire isn't that touristy, but it has a big Pier that was fun to walk out on and the area is pretty nice, the weird thing is that I ran into the director of the Gaiety School of Acting there Patrick Sutton. Howth was a little more exciting but is still just that kinda sweet little seaside town. There was an open air food market that I looked around and apparently the best fish and chips around are in Howth, but I wasn't completely convinced. Howth was really hard to get around, we picked up a little tourist map that was not drawn to scale, we walked around quite a bit trying to find Howth castle, and we only found it right before we left, but it was still nice to get out of the city for a little bit. I took both of these trips using the Dublin Area Rapid Transport (D.A.R.T.) system which is really easy to use and helpful.

Midterm was a couple weeks ago, so we got a week off of school. I was signed up to go to London for the second half but I didn't know what to do with the rest of the week. I decided to go to Galway. Like I said earlier, Galway is on the other side of the country, which means a 3 hour train ride. I couldn't get anyone to go with me on this trip so I went by myself, which lends a very different feel to any traveling you do. I suddenly get more introspective and think about how this place fits into my life and all that stuff, which is really corny but not necessarily bad.

I left Dublin pretty late, I wasn't in too much of a hurry. When I got into Galway I booked into my hostel and then went exploring a bit. Galway wasn't that exciting for me. I walked around. It was really windy and cold so I was all bundled up. I went to another place that was supposed to be the best fish and chips place in Ireland, McDonagh's. It was better but really I don't know what the best fish and chips in Ireland would taste like. I then went to a couple pubs looking for Irish music and I found it. Galway is probably the best place in Ireland to go for traditional Irish music. I stopped into one pub with a Gaelic name that I can't remember or pronounce, and there was a life traditional music session going on. There were a couple fiddle players, a man with a hand drum, an accordion type instrument, and a clarinet type instrument. They sounded great and they were having a good time.

I then went to another pub up the road that advertised Irish music, and this one was very different, there was a small stage with two men with guitars there. These guys were great musicians, they took requests and played all kinds of songs. They even played some Johnny Cash. A pretty girl requested the song Galway girl, which is a very famous Irish song, and the guys relented saying that they usually saved it for the end of their set but that they would do it just once. That night was pretty fun, and I slept well that night.

I woke up fairly late the next day, around ten or so, and set out to visit the Cliffs of Moher which are fairly close, but as it turns out for some reason there are only two buses a day that take you there and one doesn't even get you there before dark. So, I was a little disappointed at that, but I decided I'd go to the Aran Islands that day instead and the next day I would go to the Cliffs of Moher since I was going to be there for two days. So I had missed the first ferry to the Islands but I was all set to take the second one, but when I arrived it turns out that the ferry was cancelled due to windy weather. That was just great, I couldn't do the two things I had gone there to do, and Galway was already boring me, and disappointing me with its lack of transportation, so I went to the bus station and got a ticket for Limerick.

The bus ride to Limerick was nice and about two and a half hours long. I saw the countryside and everything. It was very nice. Limerick however was not that great. I walked around and saw some stuff, that didn't impress me much. There is a Castle but it isn't that great. I did however get the best kebab of my life there, which was delicious. I stayed in Limerick about 3 hours and then caught the next bus back to Galway. I took it easy that night. I went to the hostel and read for a while and then went to sleep early to be ready for the next day.

I got up early and bought a ticket to the Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands, and this ferry wasn't cancelled. The ride was rough and I don't do that great on boats, but I was fine when we got there. I rented a bike and went on my way. Last year I was in a play called The Cripple of Inishmaan, which takes place on one of the Aran Islands and it was great to see the place we were trying to portray. The islands are Gaeltacht, which means predominantly Irish speaking, which was kind of fun to hear spoken conversationally. I biked all over the island and saw beautiful cliffs and a few ruins. It only started raining when I was going up a hill to see the the light house before heading back to the ferry, that was also the same time that I realized the lowest gear on my bike was broken. But all in all it was great and it was so beautiful.

I got back into Galway later than we were supposed to, and I ended up missing the last train to Dublin, which mean I had to take a bus, which wasn't too bad and it was even relaxing. But it was almost 5 hours long. I finished the book I was reading and I had a relaxing trip into Dublin and back to my place. Alls well that ends well. I had a day off and then I was headed for London.