travels
Two trips in two weeks…
Dublin was fun – it was good to see elicia after so long, and refreshing to have someone with a familiar headspace to talk about being a foreigner with. we spent a fair bit of time just wandering about, looking in shops, art galleries, reading resturaunt menus, and looking at people.
We are adults now though. It is now unavoidable and undeniable… at least my sense of direction is developing a bit with my present maturity. we didn’t get lost once!
Tried to get tickets to Waiting for Godot, but it was sold out. and the following friday was sold out as well. we nearly went to a children’s play, which was selling “official merchandise” fiber optic sparklers on the street, but opted to just hang out at the hostel and chat instead.
Galway was short and sweet – we drove up through limerick, then hung out in galway for the night. We stayed in an inn above the pub across the street from the bus station (which was suprisingly quiet and good value especially in comparison with the hostel in dublin) and headed back to cork via the scenic route on saturday. I really really liked galway – walking through the old part of the city I felt more at home than I have anywhere else in ireland… I think it has something to do with the population that lives there and who they are. galway is home to dell ireland, and subsequently has lots of computer geeks and other intellectuals. Galway also is a very artsy place – the festival city of ireland, which has huge music and theatre festivals in the summertime. I also heard somewhere that galway has the first home-pickup recycling program in ireland. and the main pubbing/clubbing/shopping streets are pedestrianized, which makes wandering around so much more enjoyable. takes away the fear of getting killed by a car if you want to cross the road… and it’s a very old city too; we saw a shop with a plaque that said “built in 1580, refurbished in 1890″. 1580!!! the doorway was very short. 
we went for pints at a very traditional pub, which was crammed with people talking, singing, playing guitar, and laughing. rosy cheeks on all! and the walls were covered with posters for plays and festivals written in gaelic…galway and the surrounding rural area is one of the last remaining gaeltacht (irish speaking) areas. I felt like I was part of a scene in a novel…beautiful, interesting, friendly people everywhere and me in the middle of it all. of course, this may be a bit of a rose-tinted view of things, and I did wake up feeling somewhat hung over the next day, but I did have a genuinely fantastic time.
