Blogs from County Galway, Ireland, Europe - page 36

Today was supposed to be a visit to the Aran Islands, three islands off the coast of Ireland, just out of Galway Bay, where the people still live much as they did over a hundred years ago. This is also where the Aran sweater originated, the traditional Irish wool sweater with different designs woven into the sweater. Each design has a meaning, and each family had a specific pattern which identified their family. The sweaters were worn by the fishermen and helped identify their bodies if they were lost at sea and washed up onto the beach. We missed the first ferry and the next ferry only allowed us 3 hours on the island before we had to catch the last ferry back to the mainland, so we decided to drive north and visit The Connemara ... read more

We're finally in Ireland! We arrived in Dublin at 9:30am and unbelievably so did all our luggage. Yea Delta! We had too much luggage for the car we rented...must have been the bag full of shoes for "you know who". Upgraded to a Hyundai SUV Diesel...gets good mileage but sounds like a truck. We made our way cross-country and arrived in Galway around 2:30pm. Met up with Jessica and after lots of hugs and kisses, we checked into the bed and breakfast. It is a nice place overlooking Galway Bay. We have a room with a balcony that looks out over the bay. After we unpacked and freshened up, Jessica took us to the city center to see the shops and pubs. We started our pub crawl at The King's Head where I got a pint ... read more

4.18.08 Update since back in London… Dartmoor was incredible. Got back into London, and enjoying it better this time. A tale from the hostel...(rated R) First night back at the hostel a pretty young lady stepped in the room while I was about to go down and make dinner. We got to chatting and decided to go get some dinner at a Greek restaurant just down the street, it was raining. She’s Canadian and lives and works in Wales and was down in London to go on a cooking network TV show. We had a bottle or so of wine, and back at the room, things looked to get interesting when suddenly our other roommate returned - a young Scotsman named James, an actor with a lot of creative spark, pride and something indescribably unsettled in ... read more

What an enjoyable weekend. I planned on getting some homework done (but isn't that always the case?), but it was such a beautiful day who could stay in doing homework? Anna and I went the dock behind the apartment to watch the day go by. We took some books out with us and relaxed by the water for a few hours, reading, talking and daydreaming. Later that afternoon, I went over to Erin's apartment to watch the big Galway vs. Clare hurling match. Ten minutes into the game we were screaming at the television, cheering for Galway. They lost, unfortunately, but it was the first hurling game I had ever watched. Surprising how quickly we got sucked into the madness of that sport! Afterwards Lauren came down with her violin and played some tunes for us. ... read more

So here begins my first days as a Galwegian! At least for the next five weeks. A slow morning: cup of tea, talked with the roommates, and met the group to go to the university for some orientation business. Afterwards, Jennifer, Lauren, Erin, Anna and I did some clothes shopping, grocery shopping, went to lunch and really just enjoyed the city. I relaxed with the roommates for a while and got to know some more people on the trip. I absolutley love getting to know all of these new people. Everyone is so different, have different backgrounds. I'm really looking forward to the connections I can make in the next 5 weeks or so. What an opportunity! First day of classes: very exciting for me! Started out with Modern Irish History with Doctor Angus Mitchell, raised ... read more