Galway -> Dublin -> Galway -> Dublin – Galway

Last weekend was soso fun because we had so many visitors! Haley and Joe came from London and Andrew and Leah came from Dublin all to spend the weekend with us in Galway! All of our friends got in around the same time on Friday morning so we had a good part of the day to explore Galway. We took them to our favorite restaurant for traditional Irish breakfasts and didn’t tell them what black pudding was until after they tried it, it’s a right of passage! We walked around the river and Shop Street for a while, which is the main road in Galway. Leah wanted to get an ~authentic~ Irish sweater and Claddagh ring because Dublin is so touristy so it was fun to show her all the local shops! We took them to Tig Coilis to listen to traditional Irish music (another thing Dublin lacks…) and got dinner at Caribou, a chill pub that has a bunch of board games you can play while you’re there. Then we all met up with Una’s mom because she was visiting for the weekend too and she took us out for pints which was so nice! Una’s little brother was also here though so they headed back to their hotel relatively early and the rest of us went out. Our visitors did nottt appreciate the 30 min walk between town and our apartment but I’m so used to it now it doesn’t even phase me anymore. The sleeping arrangements for that night were interesting. Everyone was hanging out in my common room until like 4am and Haley and Leah were exhausted from their travels so I took the cushions off the couches and made a superbed on the floor of my room for them. Andrew and Joe slept on the couches in Claire’s common room, but mind you Joe is one of the tallest human beings I have ever seen and he did not fit on a tiny couch, oops!

On Saturday we split up a bit. Claire, Joe, and Andrew went to the Cliffs of Mohr with Claire’s parents, Una went to Inishmore with her mom and brother, and Leah went to Inis Orr on a relaxing solo vacation. I went to Dublin with Haley though because she wanted to see both places while she was in Ireland! There’s nothing too exciting to do in Galway so I’m not sure what I have entertained her with all day there anyways. We woke up early to grab breakfast and catch the 9am bus. Emily was staying in Dublin for the weekend so we met up with her at UCD. Her campus was beautiful and more of a campus than a city school, but it was a 40 minute bus ride to UCD from downtown Dublin which was notttt fun. I thought my commute to town was bad! We eventually made it back to the city center though and walked around Grafton Street and Temple Bar. Haley and I wanted to do something super touristy so she took us to the Guinness Storehouse and it was SO cool! It’s a self guided tour so you walk through all the exhibits learning how Guinness is made and what makes it so special and then you do a tasting, learning how to taste it the “right way”. You also get a “free” Guinness with your admission ticket and you can either learn how to pour your own Guinness or buy one in their sky top bar with 360 degree views of Dublin! The line to pour your own Guinness was so long when we were there though that we decided to just go to the sky top bar but it was so cool- it

reminded me a lot of the skywalk observatory at the Prudential Center in Boston. Afterwards we went to a cute cafe for dinner and then I headed out because I didn’t want to be taking the bus back to Galway too late on my own but I think Haley had a really fun rest of her time in Ireland before going back to London in the morning. And I got back just in time to meet up with Joe, Andrew, and Claire and her parents at Darcy’s, one of our favorite pubs (super convenient that it’s only a couple doors down from the bus station).

On Sunday I was productive! I hung out with Joe and Andrew in the morning until they left and then walked to town and went to the famers market. It took all of my willpower to not buy a new plant. I also went to the famous Charlie Byrnes bookstore in Galway and ended up buying a book on Irish folklores and fairytales which I’m super excited about. Then I bounced around between a bunch of coffee shops in town while I wrote an essay and decided which ones were my favorites for future knowledge (and also which ones had WiFi because surprisingly a lot didn’t…) I was in town for so long that I had to bring my backpack to meet up with Claire and Una and their families. We took them to the west side of town to listen to traditional music at the Crane and they loved it! I’m a little sad this was the only weekend I’ll be spending in Galway until December butttt I’m also so excited for all the cool places I’m traveling to!

My only exciting school update is the fieldwork I did on Thursday for my coastal dynamics class! There was unfortunately no transportation offered for us to get to Salt Hill and it was cold and rainy so instead of walking 1.5 hours to the beach over there I decided to take a taxi, such a move. There were two shifts so I purposely picked the one that my high school friend Siobhan wasn’t doing so that I’d hopefully make Irish friends and it worked! I met these two really nice Irish girls and they pulled me in because it had to be groups of three and we spent a few hours surveying beaches in Salt Hill. We looked at the changes in slope along the beach and cobblestone beaches vs sand beaches and lots of cool stuff. Now we have to create a presentation for our chosen research question based off the data we collected. We have a group chat called Coastal Craic – so Irish 🙂

This past weekend was our program trip to Dublin. Everything we did was cool but not necessarily specific to Dublin so I kinda wish we actually spent time exploring Dublin but oh well- that’s part of the reason I went with Haley the weekend before! On Friday night we got in around 6 and checked into our hostel (serious budget cuts I guess… we went from 5 star hotels to hostels…). As weird as hostels are, we got a whole dorm room for the 9 of us girls and it was so fun it reminded me of summer camp. We then got a yummy dinner and then we were given free time for the whole night so we met up with all of our friends that are studying abroad in Dublin at Trinity and UCD. I got to see Emily, Leah, and Catherine again which was so nice.

On Saturday we had toast in the hostel which was gross (how do you mess up toast…) and then went on a backstage tour of the Abbey Theater, Ireland’s national theater. We got access to the theater before it opened and saw all of the stages and prep rooms behind the scenes and learned about how they put on some of the most famous plays. It was especially cool because we returned to the theater later that night to watch Redemption Falls. After the tour we went to Glendalough for a hike. Claire and Una bailed on the hike because they had “so much work to do” (aka a great excuse to spend the day hanging out in Dublin) but I figured I could always do another day trip to Dublin on my own to see more sights but I’m never going to go on a hike 1.5 hours outside of Dublin on my own. I’m so happy I went because it was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. The hike was 4 hours and a little more strenuous than I expected but SO worth it. And it only rained briefly which was good. Look at the pictures below- honestly so cool and so fun. We passed waterfalls and enchanted forests, nature is crazy. After we got back from the hike we had a little over an hour of free time. We all had grand plans to explore Dublin but in all honesty we ended up just taking a group nap- that hike was exhausting! We rallied for dinner and then went to see the play at the Abbey Theater. Honestly, I really liked the idea of seeing a play at the theater but the one they picked was weird. It was super musical and a very confusing plot and only a few actors, not at all what any of us were expecting. We have to write a paper on it for our Notre Dame literature class though so we all had to pay close attention! In general a cool experience to have.

Sunday we got to sleep in until 10 and it was a blessing. A lot of us woke up a little earlier than need be though to get breakfast at literally anywhere but the hostel. We found a bagel place and I don’t know why my hopes were so high, it obviously was no New York bagel but I guess I’ll take what I can get. We went to mass at the Cardinal Newman Church, since he was canonized in Rome last weekend. Then we went to a “GAA Experience”. None of us had any idea what to expect but it was literally one of the most fun things I have done in Ireland so far. We learned how to play hurling, Gaelic football, and handball and had competitions against each other and it was SO fun. I want to actually play these around Galway now, I just have to figure out how. And now I am on the bus ride back to Galway! I’ve spent roughly 26 hours on buses in the past three weeks and let me tell you I am nottt a bus person. I am getting really good at sleeping on them though! I can’t wait for Copenhagen and Amsterdam this weekend- stay tuned 🙂