Galway, Biscuits, and Why it's Hard to Keep up with Blogs

So, as predicted, Galway was amazing!  Our hostel was cute and clean and we managed to score a four person room with two sets of bunk beds, which was perfect.  The hostel was right in the middle of the city  so we were able to easily walk everywhere to explore.

The hostel

We got there after dark on Friday night and we were absolutely starving.  Unfortunately, most of the restaurants were already closed so we spent what felt like a million hungry lifetimes wandering around on a desperate food search.  Luckily we didn't give in to the tempting options of open fast food chains and we eventually found a nice little Irish restaurant serving traditional Irish meals.  This was the first traditional Irish meal I had eaten, so I was really excited.  I had shepherd's pie, chips (aka french fries), cabbage, and rutabaga.  It was delicious, and not only because I would have eaten a guinea pig in that state of hunger.

Potatoes are big here.

After dinner, we visited a few different pubs around the city and listened to some live music but we didn't stay out too late because we had to be up early the next morning for a bus tour.  The tour lasted the whole day and not even the nasty weather (...no, I don't think I'll ever get used to it) was able to keep me from appreciating all that we saw!  One of my favorite stops was the ring of fairies, a place in the woods where some people believe that fairies meet at night to discuss the problems of those who leave them there.  It was a really beautiful place, even though I was slightly disappointed not to see Tinker Bell.  But I don't think she's that kind of fairy anyway.

Ring of Fairies

The last and main stop of the tour was the Cliffs of Moher and there is no real way to describe it, so I won't try.  

Cliffs of Moher

The tour guide warned us not to walk past the railings up to the edge because apparently pieces of the cliffs will periodically just fall off into the water.  He described the edges of the cliffs like thick layers of icing on a cake that eventually just plop off.  It was not a warning I needed to hear twice.  

When we got back from our tour that evening, we were exhausted but also not about to let that stop us from going out again in the city.  We went to a place called the Hole in the Wall and danced until they finally kicked us out at closing time.  It was impossible to leave because they kept playing the best/most unexpected songs ever, including country songs!  When the DJ played Wagon Wheel and Chicken Fried, I had to seriously look around to make sure I wasn't actually in Columbia, South Carolina.  I simply could not get over it.  We left Sunday morning, exhausted and pledging to make it back to Galway again before the end of the semester.  

The past couple of weeks since Galway have flown by and I can't believe I've been here four weeks now.  I spent last weekend mostly just relaxing in Limerick.  I watched some of the Super Bowl on Sunday, although I was disappointed to realize that the funny Super Bowl American commercials were, of course, not airing here.  I have been eating biscuits (which would be called cookies in America) with Nutella like it is my job.  I have also not been keeping up with this blog because it is not my job, and I usually do not know where to even begin.  But hopefully I will write another post next week when I get back from Glendalough, which is where I am going this weekend!  It is a trip organized by the Outdoor Pursuits Club and I got a spot after getting to the sign up an hour early and waiting in a huge line filled with other students who wanted to go.  We'll be hiking on Saturday and there is a ball on Saturday night.  Apparently there is also a possible outdoor swim on Sunday, although I am hoping that that is some kind of Irish joke that I do not understand??  But I can't wait.