Thursday began very early. I had the option to have breakfast at 6:30 before we left for Galway, but I am so apathetic toward breakfast anyway that it didn't seem worth it. Instead, I rolled around in bed and Facebook messaged for a while, because my things were already packed. I got up and dressed around 7, and we were leaving at 7:30. The bottle of malt vinegar that I had gotten at the fish and chips place in Dublin had been slowly leaking vinegar into my towel, so I decided that it would be best to leave it behind. I wrote a very nice, if probably very puzzling, note to the management, informing them that they could keep the vinegar, because I didn't know what else to do with it. So one slightly insane letter to housekeeping later, I was ready to head off for Galway.
We had a good long drive ahead of us, and I got plenty of writing done (as you can tell by the lengthy message titled Slea Head, Supper and Socialization, which was both written and lost during this drive.). We drove past Gabriel's house, and since his last name is Finn, and all of his family live on the same street together, he calls it Finnland. We saw the school where he and all of his brothers, and both of his two children, attended primary classes. Gabriel is a really interesting person, and I really like him a lot. Unfortunately, he was also born with the gift of gab, and is an almost constant liar. He said that our ferry ride, which would shorten our drive to Galway, would take 2 hours.
After 20 minutes of observing the very calm waters between the Dingle Peninsula and the road to Galway, we all piled back into the bus to continue on our journey.
He also said that there was a glass bottom on the ferry where you could see the water below us, and the guy at the concession stand laughed at us.
We continued on for another hour or so, and stopped at The Cliffs of Moher. It was a fabulously beautiful and clear day, and we had a very good view of the Cliffs of Insanity from The Princess Bride. To the right, you could see most of the cliffs, and to the left, you could hike out to see them from the other angle. Despite admonishing others for jumping the stone guardrail to get closer to the cliffs, I eventually jumped the guardrail as well. It made my stomach turn everytime people were leaning over to take pictures, but of course it was far less terrifying to be the person doing the walking. It was excruitiatingly hot, and had to be at least 75 degrees out. We all wore long pants and most of us brought our coats, so it was very hot by the time we got to the top.
Near the top, we ran into this girl named Morgan who is also a UW sorority girl, and who knew nearly everyone on our trip. She had done a month in Paris, and then went to London and Dublin before she flew home. She complained that no one on her Paris trip wanted to go out and drink at night, and all I could think was that I wished I had applied for a month in Paris instead! (Not really, of course.)
It was a long hot march back to the bus, but we made it and were all quite exhausted. Gabriel drove us on a while longer, to a place called The Burren. It is like the face of the moon. It is a barren landscape entirely made of stone, and apparently it was formed when the tectonic plates were moving. There is similar stone in the Mediterranean, and it is likely that The Burren moved north with the plate. It was covered in glacier for most of it's existence, but was exposed when the ice melted. Plants like orchids and other semi tropical plants grow at the Burren and no where else in Ireland.
After that, we had one more little stop at a place that looked exactly like The Burren (and I suspect we only stopped so Gabriel could take a phone call...), and were instructed to take pictures. Everyone was fairly peeved with this unnecessary stop, so we obediently piled out only to immediately pile back in.
After that it was a straight shot to Galway. We arrived fairly late in the afternoon, with time to tour the city via bus. We were on our own for dinner (which I believe is quite unfair, since we are new to this city), and were meeting, dressed up, at the bus at 8:30. The girls in my room, Evalina, Reilly, and Catrina, and I decided that we all hated all of our clothes, and needed to find the nearest Penney's. Koryn ended up going with us instead of Catrina, but the four of us headed up the street to Penney's. It was in the mall, which was on the same block as our hostel, Kinlay House, and we actually walked past it on our way to find it. I was sick of wearing all close-toed shoes, and I had hoped to find some sandals. Unfortunately, I forgot that it is technically fall here, despite the unseasonably hot weather, and they had absolutely no sandals. Except a fabulously tall pair of espadrils for 7 euro. Bought and paid for, my friends.
We were not sure what the surprise was, but after heading for Thai food and being too stingy to pay for it, we hypothesized that it might be riverdance or something similar. Indeed, we were richly rewarded. Gabriel got us a deal on tickets to Trad on the Prom, a night of traditional Irish music and dance on the Promenade, the street facing the beachfront in Galway. In the movie P.S. I Love You, the Promenade is featured heavily (apparently).
The night was fantastic, with lots of music, and girls and guys from Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, and live musicians, and Sean Costilo, the acclaimed voice of Ireland. He sang a song called 15 years, about immigrating to America, and it genuinely brought me to tears. The dancing was incredible, although I have to wonder why kicking with straight legs is not more important. But that skinny legged girl could certainly fly across a stage! There was one particularly cute male dancer, but after much ogling, I realized that he was probably about 17, which makes me a pedo.
Oh my God, guys, nothing that I am saying does justice to how great this performance was. It was absolutely incredible, and I loved every minute of it.
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