galway

I haven't really posted anything in a while because I've pretty much just been going to class and writing essays for the past week or so. It's starting to get kind of busy here with all the work now due at once.
I finally got around to doing something fun though- last weekend the International Student Society planned a weekend trip to Galway. Except we were really only in Galway city for about 2 hours the entire weekend so I'm not sure why they called it that.
So Friday morning we woke up whoa early and met downtown at like 730 or something and headed out. The bus ride was pretty long- I think like 5 or 6 hours, but we stopped at a few places before getting to our cottages. Our first stop was the Cliffs of Moher, which are pretty famous in Ireland and were beautiful. The wind there was pretty intense. Actually the wind the whole weekend was pretty intense. So we looked at the cliffs for a while, as well as the castle next to it. I took probably 85 pictures of the cliffs, only to find that when I came home and uploaded all my pictures on the computer, every single picture looked exactly the same. Kind of like when Dad took all those pictures of Mt. Rushmore...
The next place we stopped at was the Aillwee Cave, which was known for its bear bones found there. We ate lunch in the cave's cafe, and then took a tour of what may have been the most commercialized cave I've ever been in. We were allowed to take flash photography and the cave had a paved pathway and lights, so it wasn't exactly the most rugged cave I've been in, but definitely pretty. The few pictures I have of the cave look just like I took some quality pictures of a black hole with so I won't put them up.
Our cottage that we stayed in was the cutest cottage I've ever seen. Technically, its maybe the only cottage I've ever seen but it was on the ocean front and was really cozy so I think it still qualifies. We had to pay 2 Euro, though, every few hours to keep the electricity going. We'd all be sitting around a table, for example, and out of no where the lights would just turn off and we'd be thrown into complete darkness, and whoever was in the shower at the time would start yelling to turn the lights back on because they were trapped in a what-became-freezing box of running water. I was lucky, though, and managed to take a whole shower without the lights going out, and it may have been the best shower I've ever had because I was so cold and the water got really hot. When I stepped out of the shower, the entire room was so hazy that I could barely see my hand in front of me. No joke.
Saturday morning we all got up and I decided it would be an excellent idea to take double the dose of Dramamine because we'd be getting on a ferry later and I wanted to make sure that I'd be as anti-boat sick as possible. Because of this idea, Saturday was the day that I became a narcoleptic. Apparently, Dramamine makes you sleepy. Before the pills started to take effect, I was wide awake and enjoying what may have been one of the most terrifying ferry rides I've been on. The water was so choppy and the boat went so fast that the entire ferry would rise up out of the water and then slam back down, motor boat style. We were swaying side to side, on top of crashing up and down, which caused many people to have to leave the seating area to go hang over the side of the boat. I, of course, had no problems with sea-sickness, yet this was about the time I started sleeping. Saturday pretty much went as such: We took a bus tour of the Aran Islands where I napped and then we got out, looked at a pretty view, got back in the bus, I slept, got out and looked at a pretty view, got back in the bus, I slept, got out and looked at a pretty view, got back in the bus, I slept, etc. When we were actually on the bus and looked at sights out the window, if there was something to see, Madison would poke me, I'd look out the window, and then go back to sleep. One of the places we saw when getting off the bus on the tour was a really pretty grave site next to an old church (see left). Actually it may have been an old monastery but since I was sleeping when our bus driver was telling us about it, I have no idea. Another stop was to look at the ocean, at a spot where a lot of seals usually hang out (see picture above).
For lunch, we stopped at another site called Dun Aengus (see picture- got it off the internet so the steepness of the cliff can be seen), which were cliffs about 350 feet above the ground. There were no guard rails or anything preventing people from falling off the side or from leaning over the edge, taking pictures (which is exactly what we all did). In the picture I took off of the internet, on the right, the center square in the middle of the rock wall is where we were at, eating lunch. This was maybe one of the prettiest views I've had of Ireland, not counting some of the hikes I've been on. Below/to the left are all shots I took of the cliffs off of Dun Aengus. I'm making them small to fit them all on, so just click on them if you want to make them bigger. I slept on the ferry ride home, and then I slept on the bus ride back to the cottages, and then I slept during tv night, where we were watching some really bad version of Ireland's American Idol, and then I went to bed at like 8 pm. Lesson learned: Dramamine is not necessary.Sunday, when we woke up to get ready to leave, there was a huge rainbow outside our cottage overlooking the ocean. Of course I took about 234 pictures of this, along with several shots of the view outside from our backyard (see left and right). We then headed to Galway, where we spent about 2 hours eating lunch and shopping in the streets. Galway was such a cute and pretty town, very touristic but very pretty at the same time. There was this one mural painted on the wall of a building, which was a really accurate painting of living legends (such as Michael Jackson, Bono, etc.), legends who have died and are now 'in heaven' (such as Lennon and Johnny Cash, and then at the very top was God, hanging out with Elvis. I couldn't fit the living legends level in the picture, but the rest can be seen below.
I'm having a really good time here and I'm not ready to go back. I'm starting to plan my easter break, where I think I may go visit some friends in Europe, or I will just stay in Ireland and travel around a bit more.

Kym and I hanging out with Oscar Wilde and his dad in Galway: