So, as evidenced by my last post of pictures, Pat came to visit for his spring break. It was good craic, as the locals would say. We managed to fit a whole lot into a week, and squeeze in some time to celebrate St. Patrick's day Irish style!
One of his first days here we went to the Cliffs of Moher (my second trip there) and the Burren using a tour service that I had used before. While the weather was supposed to cooperate, in true Irish fashion it did not. I always joke with my parents that I never know what the weather is going to be because even the weather service isn't quite sure. Usually on the news they just shop Ireland with a lot of misty cloudy-ness over it, which means very little. My computer is usually pretty uncertain too:
(This is an example of a weather icon that can't make up its mind)Anyway, the weather started out really nice but by the time we got to the Cliffs it was nearly raining. A really cool thing that we experienced while there was sea foam being blown up from the treacherous waters below. At first we thought it was seagulls flying through the air but once we caught some we realized it was just foam being blown up from about 700 ft. below. Pretty incredible!
After a couple of days of raininess we were blessed with about 5 days in a row of the most beautiful weather I have seen while in Ireland. This translated into the most perfect weather for St. Patrick's day. Galway is one of those cities that just absolutely comes alive at the first sign of sun. Even on a normal day all of the locals make their way into the city center to shop and eat and appreciate the scenery, but for St. Patrick's day the crowds were even larger. The pubs were open pretty much all day and all night long, with a lot of them having special traditional music performances for the holiday. Pubs are actually much more peaceful during the day because there's no struggle to find a seat or a table. Some of them even have outdoors seating when it's nice out. One of the pubs we went to pre-parade was one that I had never been to before and don't remember the name of (it's in Irish...I have trouble remembering what I can't pronounce). It's a really cute locals spot and it's cozy because they have little booths that you can go into to get a little privacy. I'll try and include a pic of this here:
After a pint or two we headed to the parade, which was very different from what I expected. I had been told that there would be a lot of local children and sports teams marching, which there were, but for some reason the Galway parade seemed to be a kind of celebration of multiethnicity? Strange in a town that is far from diverse. There was an Asian group marching, a group from Africa, and a group that held Obama masks over their face. Oh and of course the Jersey City police department! Wouldn't be an Irish parade without some Garden Staters. We actually saw them later on that night, at about 1 or 2 in the morning and it seemed that some Irish ladies had taken a liking to them, so I'm sure they enjoyed their Irish stay.
Other than the parade and some drinking, Galwegians pretty much spent all of St. Patrick's day sitting by the bay and just enjoying the amazing weather. At night town got a little crazy, we heard some locals complaining about it the next day. They should probably work on their open container laws.... Thankfully the nice weatehr lasted for the next few days. Pat and I had the opportunity to explore Galway a little bit. We headed to the Galway Cathedral, which is even bigger than I expected, and bought a frisbee to throw around one day by the bay. It seems mother nature wanted to hold out for his stay.
We then made our way to Dublin for a few days. I had received extra tickets to the Guiness factory on my first visit there so we returned and got to take advantage of getting in for free. We also saw St. Pat's Cathedral, Christ Church, St. Steven's Green, Trinity College and Grafton Street. We made a visit to Nude, for my second time, and got to sample some of their amaaaazing bangers and mash and their beef and Guinness stew. We also went to the National Gallery and the National Library, which was actually closed by the time we got there. Overall we made really good use out of time in Dublin.
Also while we were there the finals of the Six Nations Rugby competition were on. The six nations are: Ireland, France, England, Wales, Scotland, and Italy. This is the biggest deal in the world of rugby and Ireland hadn't won in many decades, that is up until this year! The final game was Ireland versus Wales and the whole time we were watching it on TV the commentators were talking about how Ireland wasn't the better team, so it would take a lot of heart to win it. The game came down to less than a minute, but by some miracle the field goal guy (that's the technical term) from Wales missed the goal posts by just a bit and it became an Irish victory. (My Irish roommates make fun of me for calling it a field goal, it's actually a penalty kick I think). It was a great victory for Ireland and ended in a great moment where the captain from the Irish team traded jerseys with the captain from Wales. Touching, really.
After that it was time for Pat to head home. But as one Pat left, another arrived. I waited in the Dublin Airport for about an hour after saying goodbye to Pat to great my Aunt Pat and cousins Kelly and Karen. They were arriving on holiday and I got to meet up with them for a little while before they departed on their tour. I also got to meet up with them later in the week at their Galway hotel which was right across the street from my accommodation. Aunt Pat bought us a round of drinks before dinner and we all got to chat and catch up. I also got to meet their tour guide, who was quite the character. They seemed to have a really good experience in Ireland and it sounds as though they're already planning their next European experience!
It was so nice to see so many people from home over that two-week period. The good news is only 5 weeks until I get to see everyone else!
Next post: My trip to London last weekend.
Great picture of you and Pat! Who took it and where were you?
ReplyDeleteSt. Stephen's Green in Dublin at sunset. It was taken by a french tourist who didn't know how to work the camera!
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