Hello new friend – thanks for having a look at my blog.
Believe it or not, my study abroad travels in Galway ended over two years ago!
In those two years since, I graduated from college and have actually moved back to Ireland – this time moving to the big city Dublin.
To catch-up on my current life, now working not studying, in Ireland you can find me right over here.
Hey folks! Sorry it’s been ages since I’ve updated… I promise that I will post soon about travels, etc. I’ve grown to love talking about my time in Ireland and am actually planning on turning the blog into a nice little book!! But I’ve made it back to the states and have been busy, busy, busy. Spent last weekend in NYC after coming home to Connecticut and then tomorrow I head out to Cape Cod.
I miss Ireland already though and cannot wait to get back. This picture is of Frank & I on my balcony having one last dinner and some champagne with our roommate Corbo. It was a lovely evening besides the fact that I had to leave the next day. I’m already counting down the days til I am back in Ireland. I’ll post soon later on this week and next!
Sorry friends for my lack of updates this week. Believe it or not I leave Ireland and fly back home to the states in less than a week, five days to be exact! So please excuse me for being tardy in posting about things I’ve mentioned before. I will definitely post about them later (most likely when I have some time back in the states) so I can just relive all of those memories.
This whole week Galway has been absolutely mad because the Galway Races have been on, which is a huge horse racing event. Town has been busy every single day and nights have been no exception. Yesterday at the races was Ladies Night (where all the ladies compete for best dressed lady, winner received something like an 8,000euro tiara!) and although I didn’t go out to the racetrack, everywhere in town was packed at night. This is the only picture I have of that night (sadly I forgot to take out my little canon camera) but there’s a photo of Frank & myself on my balcony all dressed up. At least I remembered to take one on my nice camera before heading out!
So I’m just starting to pack now, ideally I’d like to have it all done today as I’m heading out for the weekend and want to make sure my last few days here are spent to the full… not packing away inside all day. Also I’m running around town doing everything (really shopping) that I meant to do in Galway before I have to leave for a little while. If you’d like anything from Ireland let me know now so I can be sure to bring you back a little something! Hope you all have a lovely weekend.
A few weeks ago on the way home from the Tall Ships Festival in Waterford, Frank and I stopped at the Rock of Cashel on the way home. Being that Cashel was a mere 30km out of our way, I asked Frank if we might be able to make the minor detour to see it. I’m elated that we did because it was very enjoyable. Even though admission cost money (like everything, although it was relatively cheap) it was worth it to explore the grounds and see the magnitude of the site. It’s a big, old castle like most other places in Ireland, but at the same time it has a bit of speciality to it. You can see remnants of old paintings in some of the ceilings and they have some recreations of how it used to look ages ago. A bit different than anything else you really see in an ancient structure, so I would recommend visiting if you were anywhere near Cashel. We didn’t really check out the village that it’s located in, but it certainly looked pretty cute.
It’s been ages since I’ve put up a music Monday post and it’s been long over due. Even though the quality on this video isn’t fabulous, the band is too good to not share. On the way home from Northern Ireland yesterday there was literally not a single radio station that we could find. With my iPod dead, I searched the car for any CDs I could find. I found a blank one in Frank’s car and figured out it was three songs by The Eskies. Frank’s friend from when he was in college at UCD was one of the lads in the band and Frank thought he’d lost the CD. From the three tracks on the too-short disc I could tell I really liked them. I don’t think the band is signed or anything, but the lead singer’s voice is so unique that I wanted to share it.
I’ll be posting later this week about the past couple weeks (including the Rock of Cashel, the SB3 western races, and my most recent weekend trip up to Northern Ireland) but for now I’m going to have to head back to sleep. Unfortunately I got sick over the weekend and have a really bad cold. Too bad it’s my last full week here (so sad) and it’s the Galway Races! Until now, I’m hanging out with a cup of lem-sip and started to pack, tear. At least I have The Eskies to listen to now.
A few weeks ago on the way back from the Tall Ships Festival, Frank and I stopped off at an Irish Apple Farm! It was so much fun and I’m very happy we saw it on the way to the festival so we knew to stop. None of the apples were ripe at all (apple season’s obviously in the fall) but lovely strawberries and raspberries were ready to eat. We got delicious apple juice, no cider… I still haven’t met an Irish person who’s had non-alcoholic cider, and hung out for a little while outside enjoying the lovely weather. Here’s some photos from the trip.
The apple orchard was right down the street from the Bulmers Factory, one of my favorite Irish drinks, alcoholic cider. It’s freaking delicious. We weren’t able to go into the factory at all, but of course I had to go take a picture with the sign. The cool thing is about the factory is that all the apples they use come from local orchards. So their drinks are only made with the best, local Irish apples. Love it!
You Say Goodbye and I Say Menlo 