WELL, last week Katie and Chris arrived in Galway, and it was sooooooo fabulous of them to come and visit me! I showed them around town the first day, got McDonagh's fish 'n' chips (oh how I'll miss you!) and got acquainted with the city. And I finally bought a Guinness baseball cap, though it has a slightly wonky brim. Whatever. That night I showed them my humble abode, made them dinner, and we all went into town to check out some pubs. I was very impressed with their ability to stay awake after traveling for so long--we even hit up a bar that had salsa dancing, though we didn't have the proper footwear to engage in said dancing. But it was exciting to watch and I definitely went back the next week..more on that later.
Thursday we walked around campus, got lunch, wandered around some shops and walked through Salt Hill along the ocean. It was a splendid day and I headed home to get my hair did for the Arcadia Farewell Dinner. But before the dinner, a few of my friends came with me to meet K&C at Tig Coili for a pint. So goooood, I'll surely miss that Guinness. But after the dinner (which was lovely), we met them at the Quays, sat for a bit, K, C and I went to get dessert next door, and then met up with the group at Townhouse Bar, which is so awesome. I don't know how I've missed going into it, but every different little nook is a different theme room from a 1950s style house. SoOoOo adorable. After that K&C decided to hit the hay while the youngin's skipped over to Coyotes, a superbly trashy night club. The same place I was in on the celebration of my 21st year. Anyway we danced to bad 90s techno for a bit and promptly headed home.
The next day was supposed to be the Cliffs of Moher trip, but considering it took them 35 minutes to drive to my house (it should've taken 4 min--they got lost) and we took a wrong turn getting there, I was a bit nervous about missing one of the 3 bus rides home. So I opted to stay home while they continued on their journey; good thing as it took them 2 hours to get there, which would've made me miss the bus.
On Sunday I took an early bus to Dublin to take in some of the sights I hadn't seen previously. SO, I started at the Queen of Tarts, a DELIGHTFUL cafe with the best darn scones I've ever had--full raspberries baked in--and got some tea. I visited the Chester Beatty Library and Dublin Castle after my treat; the castle was meh, but the Library was very cool. An American miner left all of his Asian art and bible/Quran collections to Ireland for some reason, and they made a cool museum out of them (which happened to be free). So I checked out snippets of the oldest gospels in the world, learned more about world religions, and generally enjoyed myself. Then I headed to Trinity College and--gasp!--snuck into the Book of Kells. It was really easy, actually. Instead of getting in line to pay 8euro (no way), I decided to look through the gift shop. HOWEVER, in the gift shop is a set of stairs that sort of say "No Entry," but I moseyed on up and found a beautiful library that Belle would've swooned over. Turns out I had found the museum part! I saw cool old books, the super old famous Irish harp, and the Book of Kells! Definitely wasn't worth 8euro to see, but I'm glad I got to see it...fo' free! Then I took a DART train to meet K&C at Clontarf Castle (no big deal, we stayed in a castle overnight). However, the directions were RUBBISH, as they always are. But seriously, this time the directions said "Exit the station and at the second traffic light make a right and the hotel is on the left of the roundabout." YET the station exited into a NEIGHBORHOOD. There wasn't even a stop sign that they could've confused with a stop light. So naturally I started walking in the wrong direction, found some people to help me (they were shocked I wanted to WALK to the castle--they didn't understand my desire to save money and just foot it a few miles) and eventually got there. It was loooovely and very cool. We had some drinks, headed to Temple Bar for dinner, had delicious burgers--mine with cashel blue cheese--and hit up the Porterhouse Pub. It was really neat inside and had lots of different homemade brewskies. Yum in my tum. Then we headed back to the castle to all sleep in the king size bed where Katie refused to spoon with me, and slept soundly.
The next day we took a free walking tour of the city, learned about the history of Ireland and saw all the cool sights with a really funny tour guide, stopped for snacks, took a rest and toured the Guinness Warehouse. Then we got dinner at an oh-so-charming establishment, complete with adorable waiter and live music. Katie tried to convince me to sing with him, and I TRIED but I just couldn't remember all the words to Oh Danny Boy. Better luck next time. But we had DELICIOUS "Boxty pancakes," which are basically crepes over goooorgeously cooked steaks. I must say, Katie and Chris spoiled me FAR too much, thank you guys :) Anyway right before dessert, our delightful waiter informed us that all flights out the next day were cancelled. Oopsies.
So they stayed another night in Dublin, and the next morning we went to Christ Church Cathedral where I saw the famous and weird mummified cat and rat, and then we headed to the National Museum to see the bog people from 2500 BC. They were so strange--preserved in the bog for hundreds of years with leathery skin with shocking red hair. Crazy stuff, very cool. Then we stopped in a pub for a pint and I headed home.
It was SUCHHHH a lovely visit, thank you guys so much for coming and spoiling me so so much! Love yaaaaaa :-)
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