a million ancient bees began to sting our knees
sooo, i had an absolutely lovely weekend in galway and the aran islands and i think i need to express the wondeful things i'm doing in ireland here before i find something to complain about again. we had the most beautiful weekend ever, which was so lucky, because the weather can easily be awful out on the aran islands. but it was sunny and warm and the sky was blue and OH it was excellent.
i went with my roommate steph, and our friends annie and kristi lee. after a somewhat torturous 4.5 hour bus ride, we spent a nice evening in galway, which might be my favorite city that i've been to this semester. it is the epitome of a cute irish town, so pedestrian friendly, and had all these street performers, street markets, and funky restaurants. i'm a little sad that i didn't decide to study there, as much as i love cork. we went to a pub that belongs to my roommate maire's cousin, which was fun, and found this little hole in the wall club where a little indie band called the cheerfuls was playing a show. they were excellent and succeeded at living up to their name. we also had great luck with both of our hostels, which was a nice change after bantry.
saturday we went to inis mor, the largest of the aran islands. we rented bikes and biked all over the island, on tiny roads that went through fields, stone walls, cows, ponies, and was absolutely gorgeous. photos to come on facebook. our bike ride brought us to dun aengus, one of the best preserved bronze age forts in europe. the fort was cool, but the views from the fort were absolutely stunning. we were on a sheer cliff face, incredibly dramatic, just looking out over open ocean. it was amazing. steph and kristi lee dangled their feet over the edge in a way that would give my mother a heart attack, but we all survived. one of the best parts, though, was that we found the most amazing beach, and it was warm enough to take off our shoes and prance around. i was long due for some frolicking, and we certainly got in our fair share. it's been a while since i've run along a beach and chased the water in and out. as the irish would say, it was brilliant!
the trip would have been perfect if it hadn't been for the crazy drunk canadian woman who harrassed us all night. we were exhausted and just wanted to hang out and watch a movie saturday night, but there was a batchelor party in the pub nextdoor, and this woman seemed to think that we weren't living our lives fully enough because we didn't want to get hit on by the drunken 30-somethings, and she would not leave us alone. she was all "you're wasting your lives away, and i can't believe that you would just sit around on a saturday night like this!" and "do you even know any irish people?" and she MOCKED us when we said "thank you" and ignored her. she told us that she worked there, but it turned out that she didn't and that she's just this weird 30 year old canadian who hops from hostel to hostel working occassionally but mostly just getting drunk. she also had grossly huge tits and was NOT wearing a bra. ew.
anyway. this is my last week of classes! eek! i'm starting the wider european traveling in just a week or two, and i know the time will fly after that. this is the fun week where i try to write essays that are due in may because i won't be able to do them once i start traveling, and i also have trouble going to sleep because my roommate jenn is having loud sex with her boyfriend who is visiting. at least someone is getting some ass.
in my excellent ireland-semester fashion, tomorrow night, i plan on getting really langers like. (that was an irish thing to say. it means i'm going to get drunk) because i'm just that cool.
oh, and p.s. i am totally in love with barack obama and i think the world will be ten times a better place if he is elected president. i just finished listening to an audiobook of "the audacity of hope" and it was amazing. fuck, that man has really got it right.
ok, the end!
i went with my roommate steph, and our friends annie and kristi lee. after a somewhat torturous 4.5 hour bus ride, we spent a nice evening in galway, which might be my favorite city that i've been to this semester. it is the epitome of a cute irish town, so pedestrian friendly, and had all these street performers, street markets, and funky restaurants. i'm a little sad that i didn't decide to study there, as much as i love cork. we went to a pub that belongs to my roommate maire's cousin, which was fun, and found this little hole in the wall club where a little indie band called the cheerfuls was playing a show. they were excellent and succeeded at living up to their name. we also had great luck with both of our hostels, which was a nice change after bantry.
saturday we went to inis mor, the largest of the aran islands. we rented bikes and biked all over the island, on tiny roads that went through fields, stone walls, cows, ponies, and was absolutely gorgeous. photos to come on facebook. our bike ride brought us to dun aengus, one of the best preserved bronze age forts in europe. the fort was cool, but the views from the fort were absolutely stunning. we were on a sheer cliff face, incredibly dramatic, just looking out over open ocean. it was amazing. steph and kristi lee dangled their feet over the edge in a way that would give my mother a heart attack, but we all survived. one of the best parts, though, was that we found the most amazing beach, and it was warm enough to take off our shoes and prance around. i was long due for some frolicking, and we certainly got in our fair share. it's been a while since i've run along a beach and chased the water in and out. as the irish would say, it was brilliant!
the trip would have been perfect if it hadn't been for the crazy drunk canadian woman who harrassed us all night. we were exhausted and just wanted to hang out and watch a movie saturday night, but there was a batchelor party in the pub nextdoor, and this woman seemed to think that we weren't living our lives fully enough because we didn't want to get hit on by the drunken 30-somethings, and she would not leave us alone. she was all "you're wasting your lives away, and i can't believe that you would just sit around on a saturday night like this!" and "do you even know any irish people?" and she MOCKED us when we said "thank you" and ignored her. she told us that she worked there, but it turned out that she didn't and that she's just this weird 30 year old canadian who hops from hostel to hostel working occassionally but mostly just getting drunk. she also had grossly huge tits and was NOT wearing a bra. ew.
anyway. this is my last week of classes! eek! i'm starting the wider european traveling in just a week or two, and i know the time will fly after that. this is the fun week where i try to write essays that are due in may because i won't be able to do them once i start traveling, and i also have trouble going to sleep because my roommate jenn is having loud sex with her boyfriend who is visiting. at least someone is getting some ass.
in my excellent ireland-semester fashion, tomorrow night, i plan on getting really langers like. (that was an irish thing to say. it means i'm going to get drunk) because i'm just that cool.
oh, and p.s. i am totally in love with barack obama and i think the world will be ten times a better place if he is elected president. i just finished listening to an audiobook of "the audacity of hope" and it was amazing. fuck, that man has really got it right.
ok, the end!