Galway & The Aran Islands

I'm still exhausted after my weekend trip, but I decided I should post about it before I forget everything. This afternoon I am catching up on homework. I just read The Beauty Queen of Lenane by Martin McDonagh. It was excellent, I really like his dark humor, can't wait to read The Lieutenant of Inishmore. I also read a significant chunk of Dracula on the train this weekend. It's deliciously frightening. My resolution to indulge in Irish literature only has certainly paid off!

On Friday after voice class, Peter and I packed up and got on the train for Galway. I paid 6 euro extra to reserve our seats on the train, which is good because it was packed on a Friday afternoon and people had to stand. However, some rude businessman was sitting in our seats and refused to get up, so we had to find seats somewhere else. He was a real jerk.

Upon arriving in Galway we went to the tourist office to get maps and decide how to get to the Aran Islands the next day, and then we ate at KC Blake's. I had read about it in my guidebook, and we really had no idea where else to go, and we randomly stumbled upon it, so we ate there. It was great. I had a boxty burger: a burger served on top of mashed potatoes, with potato chip garnish, and boiled potatoes on the side. Another side that came with the meal was a puree of vegetables - I don't really know what sort of vegetables they were, it was orange and unidentifiable, yet tasty! Here's what my boxty burger looked like:

Yum. We then had a bit of an ordeal finding our B&B. The proprietor kept giving us poor directions as we repeatedly called them telling them that we were lost, and it took as three times as long as it should have for us to get there. It also was much further away from the city centre of Galway than the guidebook claimed. We were so tired upon arriving that we just crashed and went to sleep because we didn't have the energy to haul ourselves back into town and go to a pub.

The next morning we explored Galway City a bit. We went to the open air market and walked around their shop street. Galway was a little disappointing - it's the fastest growing city in Europe and is basically mini-Dublin. It has all of the same restaurants, chain stores, etc. that we have in my neighborhood in Dublin, and it wasn't as unique as I hoped it would be. We then boarded the ferry to go to Inishmore.

The Aran Islands are simply amazing. Beautiful, rural, and non-globalized, which is the best part. The first thing we did was check into our cute B&B:
The owner had a nice dog, too. We went to the Aran Sweater Market to shop for woolens and Christmas presents for our families, then took a mini-coach tour of the island. This was a great idea. Our driver didn't pick up any other tourists, so Peter and I had our own personal island tour. The driver even pulled over and took Peter's camera so that he could snap photos of his brand new, one-hour-old baby calf for us.

We spent about an hour and a half admiring the ancient beauty of Dun Aengus fort. It rests on a cliff. It used to be a circular port, but part of it fell into the sea when the edge of the cliff collapsed. It was so breathtaking. I wish we could have stayed there all day long.

Pete took this picture while leaning over the edge of the cliff:
And I climbed down to one of the ledges for this one:
And this is of the edge of the cliff extending out into the sea:

And finally, this one was taken when Peter pushed me off the edge of the cliff and I had to cling to the edge to save myself:
Just kidding.

The mini-coach tour took us around other parts of the island where we took some more neat photos:
We ran into two other IES students after having dinner at the island and we all went to a small pub right next to our B&B. The locals were wrapped up in the rugby game and there was a wedding party having a post-reception drink, so we found a quiet corner and enjoyed the atmosphere.

Peter and I got up bright and early to get on the 8 AM ferry back to the mainland. I proceeded to slip down the flight of wet stairs on the ferry and get a huge bruise on my backside and arm, which made my movement class rather difficult this morning. That's what I get for being super clumsy.

Once we got back to Galway, Peter and I took the city bus tour. It was nice to learn about the historical aspect of Galway so that I didn't feel so overwhelmed by its obvious commercialization. The city was very foggy on our first bus ride around, and since the tickets were good all day we got off at the aquarium to see the fish (more octopus! more sharks!) and we took it again later in the day once the fog had cleared, and the view was much better. I also picked up some gifts for my darling sister, but I'm going to keep them secret so that she doesn't read this and ruin her Christmas surprise. This is a picture of Galway bay that I took on the tour. This is the least commercialized and most beautiful part of Galway City:
And after relaxing in the park in Galway and taking the train back to Dublin, I have begun another week of classes. They're getting more and more exhausting. Tonight we go to see The Playboy of the Western World - A New Version by Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle. I have been looking forward to this production since the day we arrived, so I hope it's great. I've thoroughly enjoyed the Roddy Doyle pieces I've read since being here and I can't imagine that this show could go wrong. So far, reviews have been mostly positive. Nora and I are both writing our performance analysis on this show, so I must be extra diligent in taking notes tonight.

And now that I realize I've written an extra long post instead of doing homework, I should go.