Its been quite some time since I wrote here last- over a week! But give me some slack- I've spent several of those removed from a computer in the capital of the Emerald Isle. Here's a bit of a recap, for those who are interested. I've now been in Ireland and away from home for over three weeks, or the length of one Mapendo. Time flies, and as I'm starting to plan out future weekend trips around the country and even a few to other nations, I can see how quickly the semester is going to fill up: classes and activities during the week, travels on most weekends, and home before I know it! That sounds good to me.
(soundtrack to writing this blog post: Ed Sheeran +)
Middle of last week, one of my former roommates from La Salle came to visit me in Galway! I felt like a pro being able to show her around the city I still get a little lost in, and I certainly had great craic, and I think that she did too. We visited a few pubs and heard 'trad' or traditional, music, she snuck into one of my English lectures (the one about the American South, so maybe not much of an Irish-educational experience there), and with her I had my first Irish breakfast! I didn't have my camera on that particular adventure, so my Facebook friends might need to do a little digging to find a photo of me with the full platter of eggs, toast, sausage, ham, tomato and what might have been the blood sausage. But google it and you'll get an idea. We found a nice place that had it for only 5 euro, so that's always a success.
Then, after she'd toured the Galway museum, bought an official original Claddagh ring, and talked me through some homesickness-type issues I'd been dealing with, we headed off to Dublin! There, we met up with a couple new friends and spent the weekend immersing ourselves in the culture of the city and nation. Since I know I'll be going back to Dublin twice more this semester, I didn't kill myself getting to absolutely everything, but it was a fantastic weekend, with a definite literary flair. We saw the famous Book of Kells, toured the Chester Beatty Library, saw statues of Oscar Wilde and James Joyce (my new favorite, I thought it was quite appropriate to read him throughout this trip), the birthplace of Jonathan Swift, visited an exhibit at the National Library all about WB Yeats, and found a secret hidden bookshop where I snagged a three euro early copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone! Score.
This past weekend was definitely an experience where a picture's worth a thousand words, so please check up the Facebook album if you want to know all about what I did- I can't sum it up here. But as a general rule, it was definitely interesting to go there after spending a good amount of time in Galway. I'd flown into Dublin but seen hardly any of it, whereas now I'm pretty comfortable in Gaillimh (that's the Irish way to say it!). Comparing the two cities, I'm really glad to be studying in Galway rather than Dublin. While Dublin was fantastic and full of even more treasures I didn't get to see this time, and I think I could explore it for weeks and not get bored, Galway has a wonderful small city feel to it. Everything is within walking distance, it's beautiful in it's history and natural surroundings. Dublin has wonderful old buildings and rivers as well, but when I came back on the bus, pulling into Galway had a definite feel of 'coming home' to it, despite still being my place of shelter away from 'real home'. Like the rest of Ireland, it was cold and rainy in Dublin (it snowed in Galway today!) and everything was even more expensive there than here. Still, I had a great time and am really glad to have gone, it was a perfect weekend for the period it was in the year. I did lots more than I talked about here, but this isn't really a diary or detailed breakdown of what I've been doing- it's how I feel, right? Whatever the intention, that's all for now, but I'll be back with more detailed funny stories later.
Keep reading, keep loving. :)
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