Skip Prague, Ireland: Day 1/2

So I have been way overdue in my blogging (as my mom has pointed out to me), but I am going to tell you what happened in week number one. So first off, let me say it is amazing, in fact if you have to get one thing out of this blog, know that it is the most amazing time I have ever had (through one week). I will try to get through each day.

Day One was the arrival on September 10th. We flew into Dublin airport and took one of those fancy double decker buses into Dublin. Once there we had to wait around for about 40 minutes for a bus across country into Galway. The bus ride itself took forever, about 4 1/2 hours to get across the whole country. Thomas and I spent a majority of the ride listening to loveline, a radioshow featuring Dr. Drew, the doctor on celebrity rehab...it is really a mindless show that insults both of our intelligences, but it passed the time. By the time we got to Galway bus station it was 7:30 and we had no way to get to our hotel. So we spent the next half hour trying to figure out how to use the payphones and we finally got through to a cab driver named Rauri who said he would get us to the hotel. Rauri is a longtime friend of the hotels owner and a really interesting guy. He was very energetic and more than happy to help us get acquainted with the city (I have since spent a morning having a cup of tea with the guy at his house and he is hilarious. I sort of wish that everyone would have the same view of the world as him, simply because it would be a magical world full of good conversation). The weather was gorgeous all day by the way (and we surprisingly have not seen a drop of rain since we arrived). After we got here we had to hear a thing or two about how the place worked then we went to bed...that was it, first day. Not too exciting, but still awesome! Oh yeah, the kids I am staying with are Pat, Ross, Ben, and Matt. Take note, dear reader, because these individuals will inevitable be included in many of my adventures.

Day two, September 11th (never forget and all that)
So in our little rundown o how the place worked I heard the most magical series of words, truly the only words any man needs to hear to be happy, "breakfast will be provided tomorrow." I know I already knocked on a free breakfast, but that was a hostel breakfast in a country that runs of Czech monopoly dollars this was a feast prepared by the wonderful Geraldine Foyle, a saint in the making who was one of the siblings that owns the Park Lodge. She was able to conjure up the most delicious meal I have ever had. There was (quoted from Matt Reeves blog), "fresh fruit, fresh bread, scrambled eggs, fresh cheese, fresh juice, amazing coffee, sausage, yogurt, and bacon." That is what Matt Reeve recalls, so I have to believe him. I on the other hand will never be able to truly remember what all was consumed. Plate after plate of this delicious food was devoured, but for some odd reason there were inturruptions from a few people saying things about "important information" and "it is essential to know. Obviously I was in the zone, so to speak, and I didn't really pay attention to what they said and I am guessing none of it was "need to know" stuff.

After our amazing amazing amazing (etc.) breakfast we went to Galway again. So we learned from the best bus driver in the world (a guy named Allen who can spit hot fire with a bus mic like no other) that Galway is a pretty crazy place. Not in the sense like it is wild and all that, more because it is old and seeped with history. The place used to be one of the most beautiful cities in all of Europe, but now it is sort of a small (about 90,000 people) city with a very small town feel. I went out with Pat and Maggie N and we ended up eating at a restaurant in Galway called Brannagans. They had fish and chips and I had a chicken and stuffing sandwich, looking back I wish it was warm, but it was still pretty good. We spent te rest of the afternoon trying to get ourselves acquainted with the city and just poking around in some of the shops. The whole plan that afternoon was to go to a large Super Target type store called Dunnes at the end of the afternoon, but the plans fell through. I have very few complaints about the trip, but this is my only one. I needed to get to this utopia of low prices and cheap fleece jackets! Since this fatal miscommunication, poor planning, bad directions, whatever it was that prevented our bus from taking us there, since that day Dunnes is my new holy grail, a place that I will have to enter with great reverence for all the potential it offers.

When we got back to Park Lodge we made our way into the small town of Spiddal to get some food (because our trip to Mecca was canceled and we had no groceries), and during dinner we had a run in with some of the Irish girls, specifically Geraldine's children and their friends. Now these little kids, although adorable and incredibly hard not to giggle at due to their cuteness factor, were a plague on our cabin. They grabbed a bucket of frogs and with a ruthlessness not seen in this country since the Viking invasions attacked our hearts and souls. We had to offer Swedish fish a a peace offering, but they stole them, along with all our remaining courage, and it wasn't until Geraldine (did I mention she is inevitably to become a saint in my book) called them off did they leave us be.

We ended up going down to the beach that night as a group where we all relaxed and watched the sunset. I am telling you right now that I will never forget how amazing that sunset was, with a whole group of people who I hardly know but will all individually be in some of the greatest memories I will ever have. It was almost surreal. This by the way was my secind view of the ocean. I had grabbed some Nutella in Spiddal earlier and went swimming in my boxers. The ocean is salty, I honestly wasn't expecting it. Maybe I am an idiot for being surprised, or maybe it looked so much like a lake (it is Galway Bay after all, not the real deal ocean) that I was just not thinking about it.