Sunday, March 21, 2010

ireland~





finally i am back in my little southern city! it was a full 24 hour quest to get home but finally i am here, all cozy and at last relaxing. ireland was nice and it was such a treat to be able to spend so much time with abby. i missed her so much and we had so much fun talkin in our accents and laughing at everything. i love her.

the city of Galway itself was really cute & had wonderful shops, pubs and cafes. the weather was kind of dreary, windy and cold but that's what I expected I guess. The first night I met most of Abby's friends and we went to a wine & cheese night at her school with local irish music. It was great although I was completely tired from my trip.

Saint Patricks Day in Ireland was really a cool experience although it was also a very college-type experience. Drinking at 1030am until 3am. But we did get to go to the local Galway parade that was really bizarre but cute and festive. We saw so many adorable Irish babies and people just simply having fun. We wound up at this great pub that had an upstairs with a sun-roof type thing which let the sun shine on us while we drank our drinks. It was lovely.



That night we all drank and listened to music at one of the dorm apartments and then wandered to this great dance club called the Roisin which reminded me of my favorite bar The Jinx back in Savannah. Just great music, drinks and dancing. It was so sweaty and crowded but it did not matter. There was even a huge group sing/scream along to Wake Up by the Arcade Fire.

Basically, the whole trip was just walking around, exploring, meeting great new people and being with my best friend. Ah, yes and drinking of course. Tons of pubs that brought Irish cliche moments like bagpipe players, cute old Irish men playing Bob Marley songs with their guitar, stepdancers and all of that. It was cool and made me feel closer to a culture that I should feel connected to because of my strong Irish heritage. Also, I felt like every person (mainly just boys and babies) looked like they could be a member of my family.



I fell in love with this bar called the Townhouse that was so relaxing and unique. It was designed to look like a kitschy old house with sections of the pub made to look like rooms in an old house. Floral wallpaper, retro furniture, 60s/70s music memorabilia, etc. It was such an interesting place. I also tried Bulmer's cider for the first time there and it was deeeelicious.



A huge misconception about Ireland is that the food is just a potato and a slab of corned beef and that's it. Being the "foodies" (that sounds much better than People Who Like Eating Sometimes/Mostly Fat Things and Talking About It) that we are, of course we ventured to the most adorable and delicious restaurants and cafes. My favorite one had to be Nimmo's . I had herb roasted potatoes & Morrocan mint tea. It was right on the water and was decorated in a very relaxed, French vintage inspired way. Everything down to the tray that the check was laid on was perfect and pretty.

All in all it was a great trip, but I must admit I missed my Savannah so much. I'm happy to be back and ready for the next quarter~