Ireland had been great so far! Today we are going to Galway and then the next day a little town, famous for irish music, called doolin. We missed the walking tour the first time we tried because they moved the time to eleven instead of noon. We walked around on our own and saw some great things. We are really close to a giant cathedral, hello loud bells all the time. Apparently in the bottom of this cathedral there is a crypt with a dead cat chasing a rat on display. Sweet.
We grabbed some cider from a store and watched a couple movies in the hostel that night because we were too exhausted to go out. They have a giant collection off movies here. Five or six on a disc with around fifty discs. We have watched black swan, inglourious basterds and The social network.
Made it to the walking tour the next day and heard all about Irish history and saw some cool old buildings, castles, walls, parks. Went to st Stephens green, largest park in Europe. It was gorgeous. Water features galore. My favorite. The walking tours all end up at pubs for food and drinks, I got a half pint of something called the "Galway hooker" it was okay.
After the tour we went to find me a new backpack. I have been using a 40-45 ish liter backpack that Katie had for weekend trips in Luxembourg. After seeing all the backpack options at a couple stores I am amazing mine lasted this long! I thought my bag was just fine, top loading, one or two pockets, okay material.... But no. It would appear I have been living in backpack squalor for six weeks and didn't even know it! My back ripped at the seam between the top lid and the straps because it was not reinforced for extreme capacity. My new backpack is insanely reinforced, has a side zipper entry as well as top loading access, padding on the back, multiple compartments, bottoms compartment with divided to the inside, a rain cover(!), and a bunch of different straps and buckles to hold things to the outside. Amazing. If I knew how to write a sonnet, I would write one about my backpack. Also it is 55 liters, bigger than my old one. I'm still learning the best way to fit everything in it so I have my sheet attached to the outside. Better than before though where I had my sheet on one side and my towels on the other!
We did the pub crawl Saturday night. I'm done with pub crawls too, i think. No More museums and no more pub crawls. The pub crawls don't really end up being worth it. The free drinks are weak and the main draw is supposed to be free entry into a club, which I don't even like. So... No more. We did go to a few cool places though. Great live music. If they aren't playing traditional Irish music, they love johnny cash, kings of Leon and Mumford and sons. We went to the pub that was featured in ps I love you. I didnt recognize it though. I'll have to watch it again. The club was some giant place called dandelion. Bumpin music and insanely bright lights paired with weird trampy looking people and creepy guys= someplace I want to leave. We rayed for ten minutes listened to a couple jams and left.
I am so excited for doolin, little pubs with live music are so great. We went to a pub last night that we had gone to on the pub crawl and spent a couple hours there. Got a few pints and sang along with the guitar player. It was grand(say with Irish accent). Feckin' grand is a common phrase. It is not a rude word/curse word when it is pronounced "feck". Awesome. Using it at home.
We learned on the tour that they are some crazy laws in ireland, one being that everyone has to ain't their door a significantly differnt color than their neighbors. Why? Because too many drunk Irish people were stumbling into the wrong house at night causing a commotion with the real house owners. Hilarious. Our tour guide also had a really moving speech about Ireland's struggle for independence from the UK. He has givens hundreds of tours so I know he has had a lot of practice with this speech, but it was amazing, very impassioned, I almost cried.
We considered going to the guiness storehouse, and then didn't. Also considered going in trinity college's library... Then didn't. Too costly. The library was used as the Harry pott library though! So great. And we got guiness in a pub. So thrifty.
Shout out to mr kander if you are reading this, we did a bunch of things on your suggestion list, thanks! Popped in the bank vault bar and it looked really sweet. The crowd was a little to fancy for our current outfits but it was cool to look at!
Today we have to find the train station and get on a train to Galway. Once there we have to find a hostel. So not prepared. We will stay in Galway for a night then go to doolin where we have booked a couple if nights in a hostel that is a converted farm house. From there we wait for Ben! Woooooo.
Hope everyone reading this is doing well!
No comments:
Post a Comment