+53: Galway United Match!

I really, really, really, wanted to go to a soccer match while I was here in Ireland. On a whim, I checked the match listings on Monday and saw that Galway United's LAST home match of the season was on Friday...talk about crazy timing right?!
So, I asked around and Zach wanted to go, too; on Tuesday, we went to Elvery's, which is a local sporting goods store, to get jerseys. It turns out the team's sponsor changed from last season, which meant lots of jerseys on sale...ace, right?!

Anyway, I got the away jersey from last season, which is green, blue, and awesome and looks like this for 9€, which is an insane deal:




So, we left for Terryland Stadium (which is literally down the street from our apartments) at 7:00 for the 7:45 kickoff. We got to the stadium and noticed a lot of people drinking outside, which we later learned was because no alcohol is allowed, let alone sold, at the stadium--definitely a change from American sports! There were also two different entrances, depending on which team you supported. The two entrances led to two separate stands--fans were completely segregated. Really strange to see, but I guess the "soccer hooligan" stereotype is true! As a matter of fact, when there were about 10 minutes left in the match, there were several announcements asking Bohemians fans to stay behind 5 minutes after the match and to use a different exit than the United fans. There were also a ton of Gardai lined up in front of the Boh's stands to prevent fans from rushing the field after...I don't really blame them because Bohs fans set off fireworks when the scored. Definitely a little excessive and definitely a little illegal.

Onto the match! United scored about 20 minutes in, and the Bohs tied it about 3 minutes before half. Both teams scored again in the second half, and it looked like it would be a draw until about 5 minutes before the end of the match. That's when United rallied--it started back in defense and one player--couldn't tell you which one--stole the ball and CHARGED up the field. Another Galway man happened to be in the Boh's corner, dribbled past a few defenders practically up to the goal and scored. It was absolutely fantastic...the crowd went wild and the Bohs literally sat down on the field because they knew it was over.

SUCH an exciting match!

+51

The best way to start off a long weekend is a glass of champagne. At 3:30. At work.

+49

Oy, my philosophy class today was absolutely painful! Lectures have been on Plato's Republic for the past 3 weeks or so, but no one has read ANYTHING.

At one point the tutor asked us to make a list of Plato's main points; I quickly jotted down Theory of the Forms, Divided Line, Allegory of the Cave (although it's called the "Simile of the Cave" over here), and the parallel structure of the city and the soul.
I'm really hesitant to speak up in the tutorial because I don't want to dominate the discussion because I've already read a lot of what we're going to do, so I held back.

The tutor called on someone else. She thought for a good two minutes and then said "Em.....Socrates?"



oy.

Oh well, there are bigger fish to fry--just got my history midterm assignment and another paper due for my Irish music class next week, not to mention the upcoming BEST. WEEKEND. EVER.

+47: Paris Recap!

Before you read any of this, hit "play" on the video below, and listen to it in the background.





Sparknotes: PARIS IS FANTASTIC!


Wednesday/Thursday:
We left for the bus station in Galway at around 11 on Wednesday night to catch the 12:15 bus to Dublin, which took about 3 hours.
We got to the airport at 3 for our 6:20 flight...waiting ensued. After arriving at 9:30 Paris time (an hour ahead of Ireland), we navigated the regional rail system and the metro to drop our bags off at our hotel in Montmarte, which is an adorable neighborhood.
From there, we saw:

Some really cool nerdy graffiti:



Le Sacré-Cœur, a 19th century basilica, which is amazing in its own right, but also offers AMAZING views of the city:





Le Tour Eiffel:








We ate baguettes in the park at the foot of the Eiffel Tower for dinner. Obviously. Then we went to the Musee D'Orsay, which has mostly Impressionist and post-Impressionist works in it. It was a great museum, built in an old train station. Even better, though, is the fact that we got in for FREE with our Garda registration cards. Basically, a lot of museums in Paris are free for EU residents (not citizens, residents), which includes us. Ace, right?
We headed back to Montmarte and sat at a cafe around the corner from our hotel....that's when we found out that Courtney ended up in Belgium, but that's a completely different story.


Friday:


(musical accompaniment:


)


We saw le Arc du Triumphe, then went shopping on les Champs-Élysées:




Then we met up with Willy, my philosophy TA from freshman year, and his girlfriend Caitlin, who moved to Paris a few months ago. They took us to this amazing falafel place for lunch, and then Willy showed Colleen & I around the city for a bit. We went to the park behind the Louvre for a bit, then went back to our hotel for a little while...then Colleen and I went to the Louvre. THE LOUVRE. There are no words that could possibly describe it. It's fantastic and amazing and I got lost more than once, but I guess that's to be expected:









At one point, I went to ask a guard for directions, so I went up to him and said: "Pardon, parlez-vous Anglais?" ("Sorry, do you speak English?"), and he looks at me and says "Mais vous parlez français.." (but you speak French!). I got flustered and told him that I only spoke a little bit, and he switched to English and pointed me in the right direction. Hilarious, really.

[Just a note on language: I got by pretty well with very limited French all weekend. And by pretty limited, I mean "Bonjour/Bonsoir" "Excusez moi" "Pardon" "s'il vous plaît" "oui" "non, merci" and "cafe au lait"--basically, I was very polite and well-caffienated.]

After the Louvre, we met back up with Willy and Cait and went to a bar in their neighborhood. I had this fantastic beer called Desparados--it's basically Corona with tequila in it, served with lemon. Yum!


Saturday:




We went to Notre Dame, saw the Sorbonne, etc. in the Latin Quarter:







There was this adorable philosophy bookstore next to the Sorbonne--if I had a million euros/ could read French, I totally would have bought all of the books.




Later, we met Courtney and Rachel, who also goes to HWS, for dinner at this cute traditional French restaurant by Notre Dame. Then they took us to get crepes by their hotel, which were sooooo good!






Aaaand, that's about all she wrote. Our flight (which we almost missed, honestly) was at 10:15, and we got back to Galway around 3:30. All in all, an awesome weekend!

+42

We went to Cork this weekend...nothing spectacular to report, really. We took a 7 hour tour of Cobh and Cork city on Saturday, and then went to Blarney, Lahinch, and the Cliffs of Moher.

As usual, a photo montage explains more than I really ever could:

From a microbrewery in the city:




Brighton-esque gazebo in Cobh


Court, Kels, & I at Blarney


Surfer in Lahinch



Hobart kids being silly at the Cliffs:




And, arguably the most fantastic picture of the weekend, a closeup of the one above:







...the end!

+37

Whew, things are getting super busy here! Classes are in full swing, it's midterm season (how did THAT happen?!) and I'm in the middle of the month in which I'm traveling every weekend--two weeks ago was Dublin, last week was Castlebar, we leave for Cork in the morning, and next weekend, I'll be in Paris! SO EXCITED!

+32/+33: In which I find the craic

This weekend Courtney, Kelsey and I went to Castlebar (Co. Mayo) to see Riverdance! We left Galway at around 10:30, and arrived in Castlebar at noon. The day started off pretty well, aka we found a McDonald's and got milkshakes.
Then, the trek to our hotel started. Basically, it was a little outside of Castlebar (or so we thought). In my defense, as the person who booked the hotel, it seemed REALLY CLOSE on the map. But really close ended up being 3 miles...which doesn't sound like much when you say it but is, in reality, quite a hike. Being the poor college kids that we are, though, we thought we'd give it a shot.

(I should preface the rest of this by saying that there's been a lot of construction in Castlebar lately, and GoogleMaps hasn't been updated yet, so we were working off of this map I drew on Friday:

)

We found a real map at some point, but mine ended up being more helpful I think...(new career plans! cartographer!)
Anyway, as we walked toward the hotel, we passed a sign welcoming visitors to the city...yup, our hotel was in another town. We kept walking and walking and walking and finally stopped to ask directions to make sure we were headed the right way. We saw a B&B and thought that would be a good place...so Court rang the bell and stepped right inside when a teenage girl answered the door....long story short, it was not a B&B, but we were headed in the right direction.

So, we kept walking and walking and walking, stopped for a snack, and kept walking. By the way, it was raining the ENTIRE TIME.







Towards the end of our trek, we found two donkeys in a pasture. They seemed alright at first...




....but then one of them ATE OUR MAP:






I could tell you how we all felt when we finally arrived at the hotel, but I think this video (one of many Courtney took) is way better:





Obviously, we took a cab to and from Riverdance (which was FANTASTIC). But really, I don't think that's what I'll remember about this weekend. I'll remember the ridiculous 3 mile walk to our hotel because it was SO MUCH FUN. We've been talking about what "craic" is in one of my classes--basically it's Irish for "a good time," but it's apparently very elusive. Really, though, I think we found the craic while walking down the road from Castlebar to Breaffy. We didn't spend any money, and we didn't actually do anything, but it was the best time I've had in a while--Even though it was raining for most of our walk, we laughed for the entire two hours. It was just so ridiculous and unbelievable and I kept dropping my bag and did I mention a donkey ate our map?

I couldn't make this stuff up, and I don't think I'd want to--it's much more fantastic when you actually live it.

Good craic in Mayo...just watch out for the donkeys.