Lots of Craic in Ireland

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Hi Everyone,
I realised that I never thanked Barbara and Granny for the Oxegen festival ticket as it was their present to me for my birthday. After arriving back in Dublin covered in mud I headed to the hostel, had a shower and ate some food. I had a quiet night that night and just watched some TV at the hostel. The next day I got up and packed up all my stuff (leaving the tent and sleeping roll in the luggage room) and the headed off to the bus station to catch my bus to Galway. After arriving at the hostel and dropping my bags off I headed off to explore Galway. I don't normally go and see everything in my Lonely Planet Guide, but this time I decided to use it as a guide and headed off to see some of the things. I headed off around Galway and saw Eyre Square, Kennedy Park (named after J.F.K who visited), the statue of Padraic O'Conaire, the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas of Myra, Lynch Castle (which is now a bank), the Lynch Memorial Window (where the owner of the castle hung his son who'd been condemned for murder) and the Spanish Arch by the river. I also walked along the river which was actually the best thing to do (but which wasn't mentioned in the guide) and was very pretty. I headed back to my hostel but was a little uncertain about what to do the following day as you can only spend a certain amount of time walking around a town aimlessly and I had done nearly everything that the guide said to do. I'd drawn the line at visiting the final thing in the book which was the house of James Joyce's wife.
That night I met an American guy while I was making dinner, and afterwards we met up with three Americans at an Irish pub. I drank a couple of Guinness, and had a really good time. We discussed all the classic reality TV trash, and other mutual loves like Passions. They told me things about Oprah and Dr. Phil that I didn't know, so now I should be able to hold a conversation with Sophie and Marcy about those shows. We didn't spend the whole time talking about TV but enough of the time went to it!
The next day I jumped on a tour bus along with a British guy from my room. The first stop for the bus was where half of us got off for a walking tour of the Burren. We walked up the limestone cliffs which had a great view. We also were able to see some remnants of the potato famine and early churches. The walking tour lasted for about 50 minutes and then we were back on the bus. We also stopped at an old tomb which was kinda cool, but we didn't spend long there at all. We then arrived at the Cliffs of Moher which was the main objective of the tour. The Cliffs are very tall and apparently they lose a lot of tourists over the edge, including one only a few weeks earlier. About then it started to rain a little bit but it wasn't long until the bus arrived. Then we stopped in a pub (where I had more Guinness) and than we stopped at a castle, and then back to Galway. I hung out with three of the Americans from the night before and we bought some vodka and lilt (a horrible drink that tasted much worse than the vodka) and played drinking games.
The next morning I got my stuff together and headed back to Galway. The rest of that day was spent exploring Dublin and relaxing. That night I watched a hilariously bad TV movie called "The Spiders Web" where people travelling through India got attacked and paralysed by spiders so that a rogue english doctor could sell their organs on the black market.
The next day I spent the morning on the computer and then that afternoon I headed out to St. Patricks Cathedral which was possibly one of the most depressing buildings I've ever seen - completely grey with absolutely no colour to it. After that I headed over to the Guinness Storehouse. It was much more relevant to Guinness than the Heinekin museum was to Heinekin but it was also more boring. It was so detailed about the brewing process. But the highlight (and I think what you really pay for) is the bar at the top which has a great view over Dublin and which gives you a free Guinness (which is the best I've ever tasted - the myth is true!!). I then hurried back to the hostel and ate. I was then slightly late to meet Jo (previous post) and her sister Sara-Jane (Edinburgh post). Overall it was a pretty expensive night out as all the places we went charged a cover charge but we had lots of fun. At one of the places they take your photo with a digital camera and then make it into a keyring so we had a couple done of the three of us. Drank a bit too much beer and jaegerbombs that night and I was glad to crawl into bed at 4:30. The next day I packed up my stuff and veged in front of the TV until it was time for me to catch my bus to the airport for my flight back to the UK.
I have to say it might sound like I didn't do heaps and heaps after the festival, but I feel like I did enough and I enjoyed everything I did which I guess is the important thing.

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Comments

[Sophie]

Oh no he DIDN'T
Did you just call Dr Phil 'Trash'??? You bastard. We're not friends anymore. Actually, I forgive you, because Dr Phil thinks we can't move on emotionally if we carry rage and hatred in our hearts. It sounds like you had an awesome time, and drank your fair share of Guinness. Did you know its good for you? Its full of...iron or something. How funny is the Guinness museum? I remember watching 20 minute video on how to be a cooper.