This week was very short due to UL open days. What are these? It is when all of the classes before 4 p.m. (16:00) are cancelled in order to let prospective students explore the campus. This means that a lot of high schoolers were walking around the campus for several days. These days occurred on Thursday and Friday, so I did not have class either day. The professors of the night classes had decided to be kind and cancelled those as well. Due to these extra days I decided to plan a trip with some of my friends to Galway. Before getting to the details of the trip, which is pretty much the remainder of this post, I wanted to talk about the first few days of the week.
On Tuesday I was invited to go see a movie with my friend Marion and four other girls. We went to Odeon, the movie theatre in Limerick, and saw the new Dracula movie. The movie theatre itself was very similar to the ones at home. When you entered there were different food vendors and places to get snacks for the show. This particular theatre had a Ben and Jerry's ice cream station, a coffee station, and then the normal popcorn and goodies station. The individual theatres were filled with the same types of seats, but were situated farther away from the screen than in the United States. There also were no advertisements playing on the screen as we waited for the previews to start, but some nice music playing in the background. The previews that were shown were for some movies and the theatre itself. These lasted about twenty minutes and then the movie began. We ended up going to the captioned version, so the words were on the bottom of the screen for the duration of the film. This made it easier for the French girls who spoke English as a second language to follow along. After the movie we went to a McDonald's that was across the street. In my defense it was late at night, so that was the only place open. Wednesday brought an enjoyable professor to my Traditional Irish Music and Dance class who helped me to understand that playing the pipes can be as difficult as "trying to make love to an uncooperative octopus."
Thursday morning began my journey to Galway. I was accompanied on the trip by two friends of mine, Jill and Kaitlyn. A fun fact for you about Kaitlyn is that she goes to my rival school WMU and lives in the same town as me. It is funny how small our world actually is. Anyways, the three of us caught a bus into town to make our way to the train station. We then took the two hour trip from Limerick to Galway. Finding our hostel was more tricky, but luckily we had the address and someone with a GPS. For those who have no idea what I mean by a hostel it is like a hotel with community rooms, bathrooms, and kitchens. We had a room with nine other girls in it, so it was not bad. We then ventured into the major shopping area of Galway to try to find something to eat. We found a nice bar that had a student special named "Taffees", so we decided to go in. We actually ended up meeting some Floridians who were on vacation in Ireland. After dinner we went to a few stores along the street, but they were all closing down for the night. We ended up heading to another bar named "Monroe's Tavern" that had live music playing at it. The musical act consisted of two men who played guitar and sang. They did a lot of covers for songs such as "Falling in Love With You" by Elvis Presley, "Smooth" by Santana, and "All My Loving" by The Beatles.
Friday began our day of being tourists! We started the morning with checking out some historical and popular places including the Spanish Arch (built in the 1500s) and the Galway City Museum. We then went in search of Eyre Square where we found a bar named "The Skeff" that sold scones for a quick breakfast. We followed this by a journey through a few shops and then on to every Catholic church we could find in the city that allowed the general public to enter them. The thing about churches in Ireland is that they have a lot of history behind them, they are well preserved, and they are absolutely gorgeous inside and out. My favorite part would have to be the stained glass windows, because they always have intricate designs that are simply exquisite. We were beginning to feel peckish by the time that we got finished at the biggest church in the area, St. Mary's, so we decided to hunt down a place to grab lunch. We followed a canal in an unknown direction and somehow managed to end up near our hostel. Across the street was a cafe called "An Tobar Nua" or "Cafe on the Canal." I got some parsnip soup with bottomless coffee (I do love my coffee), and we then headed into the shopping district to try to hit the stores that we had missed. Each store is unique, and it really reminds me of traveling to places in Michigan like Holland and Saugatuck. My favorite stores were a toy shop called "Wooden Heart" and a unique craft place called "My Shop... Granny Likes it." For dinner we decided to go back to Monroe's Tavern for some pizza. We invited a girl that we had met at our hostel named Fabienne who was from Italy. Jill, Kaitlyn, and I also wanted to try a beverage that we had seen on tap at a few places called a "Galway Hooker". This was a pale ale that did not taste very good, but that we thought was fun to try for the sake of the name.
Saturday was a day of adventuring and trying to see as many parts of Galway that we had missed the first couple of days as possible. We started our day at an Irish tea house called "Cupan Tae". This was the cutest restaurant that I had ever been in. The place was filled with lace, frills, tea, and cakes. A man would lose some testosterone just walking inside, which makes the sign outside of the door addressing the "Gentlemen of Galway" that much better. We all ordered scones, which have become a new addiction of mine, as well as some tea. Kaitlyn tried a gentlemen's tea that had hints of cocoa and whiskey in it. My tea was named "Dreamy Creamy Galway" and had hints of coffee and cream. It was delicious! We then made our way to Green Park where we walked along the beach and down a long pier. We then made our way back into town to try to locate the Barnacle family's house. Nora Barnacle was the wife of the very famous Irish author James Joyce. He is the Irish author that I am studying in one of my classes, so it was especially fascinating for me to see the home. On the way we discovered a market that is only open on the weekends (much like the milk market in Limerick). After we found the house (the actual museum was closed, so we could only see the door) we headed to NUI Galway. This was the local university, and it was gorgeous. All of the buildings were covered in red ivy, and I was feeling a bit of jealousy for the students who are able to enjoy the scenery everyday. Lunch was next eaten at a shop called "Gourmet Tart Co." and the rest of the day was spent going through the shops on the main shopping street and in Eyre Square.
Saturday night we went back to "The Skeff" for dinner. I ordered their seafood chowder, which had about seven different types of fish in it and came with Guinness bread. This was a really delicious meal that disappeared much too quickly. After dinner we tried to find a bar that was playing live music, and eventually walked into the place where the band "The Feedback" was playing. I posted a video of them doing their final song below. They were made up of three guys who played different instruments throughout the night like the guitar, banjo, harmonica, and bodhran. This song they played through a few times and went a bit faster each time. By the end it was unbelievable to watch. The skill level that it took to play like that was amazing.
Sunday we all headed back to Limerick. By the end of it all we were exhausted and very pleased with our decision to make the trip out there. Galway is unique in its own way, and discovering all of its hidden gems is always a fun experience. It is sometimes intimidating to go to new places without any guidance, but as long as you have some good friends to go with, some spontaneity, and a good sense of direction it is always worth it.Fun Facts:
#1: Have you ever seen the movie "P.S. I Love You"? Even if you have not there is a popular Irish song in it that is called "Galway Girl." Now when I say popular I mean that it is well known by the Irish and well liked by the Americans. The funny thing is that Irish musicians hate playing the song. It is mainly because it has become a tiresome song. It is the same with the song "Danny Boy."
#2: Claddagh rings come from the area of Galway known as Claddagh. They have several different stories for how they came to be, but they are available in almost every shop in Galway. You probably have seen one and not even realized what it was. The picture to the right is the sign right outside of the Claddagh ring museum that has original casts for the Claddagh ring and the tiniest Claddagh ring in the world. They are worn by both men and women, and wearing it different ways means different things. Wearing it on the right hand with the heart pointing away from you says that your heart is open (you do not have a love interest). Wearing the heart towards you says that your heart is closed (you are in a relationship). On the left hand they work as engagement rings and wedding rings.#3: Most (if not all) schools in Ireland require students to wear uniforms. These are usually made up of thicker material and are required up through high school.
#4: It is very easy to find musicians in Ireland. There are a lot of street performers who play instruments, sing, and dance. You can also usually find bands playing in various pubs. The pubs will have signs outside of their doors that advertise live music.
#5: The University of Limerick offers some modules that have multiple professors teaching them. This does not apply for every class, but I have already had five different professors in my Traditional Irish Music and Dance module. This is due to their areas of expertise. Some of the professors specialize in dance while others specialize in instruments, so they end up teaching what they know!
