This is going to be really, really long because these stories require as many details as I can remember to make them legit. And also, we just did a load of stuff in Galway.
Friday, February 26, 2010
So ended up having all of the day off (no sense in coming in for just an hour to work). Slept in, took a shower, finished getting packed, and all that jazz. Met up with Garrett and headed off to the city. Had to go to an ATM, hit up the €2 store, and finally got to McDonald’s. Ate a quick lunch, with Elizabeth getting there from work as well, and then went off to the bus station
Bus Éireann was running a discount for students where you sign up online and get a €10 voucher emailed to you. So obviously we all did this. I had trouble printing mine at work so Elizabeth tried at her place. Well she couldn’t get the picture of the voucher to show up so she still printed the email to show I had it. Well the lady at the ticket window refused to accept this. She just HAD to see the picture of the voucher on the paper or no discount. So despite the fact that the email said my name, said ‘here’s a voucher’ with a space for a picture, and was identical to Elizabeth & Garrett’s emails, she wouldn’t give me the discount. This is called being a bitch in my book.
Well despite this we got on our bus almost immediately. It was one of the nicer buses we’d ever been on and off we went. The scenery on the way was absolutely gorgeous; true Irish countryside with hills. Got to watch the sunset on the way which was so cool. Because it’s a really long journey we had to change buses in Limerick. So we went in to the bus/train station to freshen up and grab a snack. Coolest station ever! Just looked awesome and had a vibe about it. After a few minutes, we got on to our second bus and off we went towards Galway.
Both of our bus drivers turned out to be crazy men because they definitely got us to Galway at least a solid hour ahead of schedule. No complaints. Upon arrival, the quest for our bed & breakfast began. We asked where a certain road was, thought we understood the directions, and off we went. Turns out we didn’t understand the directions. Definitely ended up walking around for about a half hour, having to ask again for information, before finally finding our way up to our B&B. Got checked in and LOVED IT. Cute little room with a queen bed & single bed. Nice bathroom with a legit shower. We even had nook!!! It was grand.
Decided to go out and get some food and then explore. Hit up Supermac’s (it’s supermacular afterall!) before venturing off in to Galway. From the start it was pretty clear they had a real night life going on. We walked around a lot in to the city centre, which is the biggest and best of any of the cities thus far. Eventually made a decision and headed in to a bar called Taffe’s. Turns out in the back was an Irish band. It was really crowded but we stuck around. The fife player was also an Irish dancer so in between playing notes, and sometimes while playing notes, there was stepping and high kicks. Pretty freaking awesome.
The band definitely played ‘The Fields of Athenry’ and this is definitely #2 in my life to hearing ‘The Green Fields of France’ live at a pub in Ireland. Irish music, let’s be BFF4L kay?
Eventually the too-cramped atmosphere got to me and I requested we leave. Seeing as Garrett was still wearing his ‘track pants’ (and Ireland actually has dress codes for some bars/clubs) we were denied a few places. None of the places we could get in to actually made us happy either. So we ended up trucking it back to the B&B so he could change in to jeans. And off we went again.
Found our way in to a bar called Coyotes. Guess what kinda bar this was? An American bar. Yea, you read that right. The first part was based on Coyote Ugly (complete with dancing on the bar & a singing bartender), the back part had a Scarface theme (the pool table area as well), the downstairs dance floor was meant to be glammed up Hollywood like, and then in the back was a mechanical bull to ride.
The Americans WOULD find the American themed bar in Ireland. facepalm. Though I will say it was kinda nice in a way to see license plates on the wall from back home and empty cans of Milwaukee’s Best and Colt 45 along the top of the bar.
Well it was nearing 2 or so at this point so we decided to stick around because it was still open and a lot of the other places would be closed. We mingled, walked around, and people watched quite a bit. Talked with some boys and then talked with some others.
Met the owner of the bar. We happened to sit at the table he had left his drink at. Got to talking to him a bit. He bought us a round of shots because they “love Americans”. Apparently on St. Paddy’s day they do an American themed celebration. WTF? In Ireland, they do an American celebration for an Irish holiday? I still find this information really bizarre and not easy to comprehend.
Anyways, one guy at some point was very insistent I dance with him when he came back from a smoke and I gave in. So Elizabeth & I headed to the dance floor. The music they play in Irish clubs KILLS ME. Total 90s flashbacks. Too funny. Definitely recall dancing to Wham, Britney Spears, House of Pain, and other really random old-school and new-school jams. Hilarious each and every time.
Eventually lost my original dance partner only to find a cuter one. Elizabeth went between some boys, and one was rather drunk and weird and stalking her, so it was a game to keep him away. After a good solid half-hour of shaking it and bouncing around (in a hoodie) I was sweaty and tired. My dance buddy asked to buy me a drink so we headed back upstairs.
To this moment, I do not know how the following happened because for the life of me 60% of the time I could not understand what this boy was saying to me. (Side note: The Irish are always saying how different parts have different accents and up until now we didn’t notice it. In Galway, we noticed. And damn were they hard to follow sometimes!) Anyways, said dance partner ended up kissing me. He called it ‘Irish kissing’ and wanted to know if it was better than American, which he said was too aggressive/intense. Oookkk…kinda see where he was going with it and kinda don’t, but I just played along. After some solid kissing for a few minutes finally got that drink (yea, no shame!).
Ended up talking with him for a bit. He was really funny and sweet. Told me I had a good personality and was really pretty. Apparently Americans have a rep for being kinda bitchy, and he was surprised how not that I was. Well gee, I just try oh so gosh darn hard! For the parts of his talking that I understood, he was funny and sweet as well. And cute. Did I mention cute?
This following funny story needs to have a back-story first. Right now in Europe there’s these twins called Jedward that were on some talent show. They sing a mash up of Queen & Vanilla Ice, complete with bad choreography, and even though they’re really not that good, they’re famous. Like, selling out stadiums famous. In their music video, Vanilla Ice makes an appearance. It’s weird, I don’t get it, but hey, that’s Europe.
So anyways while at the bar talking to the cute make-out dance partner boy this Jedward song comes on. Well there are twins at the bar, blonde like the real band, and they decided to get on the bar and put on a show. Like, dancing around, taking off their shirts, and trying to ‘be’ Jedward. It was awkward to say the least because they were cute but not that cute. The guy I was with was all 'Doesn’t bother me if you look’ and I was all ‘I don’t want to look at those weirdos’. It was funny on some levels and just dumb on others.
It became obvious that it was getting late (like past 3AM, which is super weird because places have last call at 2AM usually) and I needed to find Garrett & Elizabeth. Went outside to Garrett who was having a smoke and we decided to call it a night. Went back inside to track down Elizabeth who was back on the dance floor with some cute boy who was wearing her jacket. Really funny. Told her we wanted to head out soon and went back upstairs.
Garrett and I are standing around upstairs waiting for her and suddenly FIIIIIGGGHHHHTTT!!! The owner has some guy in a reverse headlock and is trying to escort him from the bar. A glass in broken in the fray and other security guards are required to get this drunk guy out of there. Intense moment. So we head outside so he can have a final cigg and finally Elizabeth makes an appearance.
As we’re about to leave a fight restarts with the drunk guy. There’s a girl, a friend of the drunk guy or his sister (still don’t know which), trying to get him out of the situation and she ends up getting punched in the side. So Elizabeth and then I rush to check on her while Garrett kinda meanders over to the guys to help out if he can. So we’re talking with her a bit, as she’s really upset over all this, and the drunk guy just can’t leave well enough alone.
He ends up instigating the security guards as well as other people around. Another friend of his tries to get him in a cab, and after a lot of bullshit, does. But within moments the cab stops a few feet away and the drunk guy gets out. Wonderful. The girl, LuLu, is still trying to talk him down and keep some way of peace in the area but it’s just not happening.
The drunk guy starts instigating a HUGE guy across the street. (We eventually nicknamed this guy Sloth, like from the Goonies, and it was for a reason.) So drunk guy goes across the street and is all up in Sloth’s face and swings at him. At first Sloth doesn’t react but then he goes all Hulk and just SNAPS. He’s trying to get to the drunk guy who is now being shoved back by his friend for safety. Garrett and others (including security guards) runs across the street because this is about to get BAD. They’re holding back Sloth and others are shoving drunk guy further away. Sloth is like roaring and grunting and punching the buildings and windows. Next thing Elizabeth & I see is LuLu on the ground against the buildings because she got in the middle of drunk guy and her friend so we run over as well.
We help her get back up and get her shoes on. Drunk guy is now in a fight with his friend (Sloth is being contained by others further down the road). Drunk guy is instigating his friend, trying to get him to throw a punch, and his friend is holding back for the most part because he doesn’t want this shit right now. Garrett is trying to keep them a part a bit and we’re trying to keep LuLu from getting in the middle again. Well this doesn’t work and suddenly the friend is kicking the utter shit out of the drunk guy. He gets him on the ground in the middle of the road and lands legit kicks to his face. We HEARD the kicks connect.
Garrett gets the friend away and Elizabeth & I run to drunk guy because LuLu is FREAKING OUT. We try to get his attention and he finally comes around and snaps at us to ‘stop touching him’. We back up before he gets violent, because we had no doubts he would swing on us (and not only would Elizabeth or I swing back, so would Garrett). So eventually he gets himself up off the road and Garrett & others get him to one side. His friend who he just fought actually listened to us and kept his distance from this point. LuLu uses one of our phones to call someone to come pick up the drunk guy.
Well we get them all walking away from the bar and from the scene and here comes the Garda. Fabulous. The Garda instantly go to the drunk guy and start talking with him. I get LuLu to calm down a bit before going to talk with them because as I explained to her, she doesn’t want to go to jail with him no matter how much she loves him. So she goes over to talk with the Garda and my phone rings for her. I give it to her and it turns out it’s her Dad who’s on his way, within moments. The Garda are good with this and just talk with them till her dad gets there. The drunk guy gets even more pissy and ends up ripping off his shirt and throwing it in the road before getting in the car (still don’t understand why that was necessary).
Once we see they’re all in the car we head off back to our B&B, officially exhausted, sober, and wishing we didn’t have good hearts to care for people.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Woke up and got a bit ready for the day. Headed out to the dining area for our Irish breakfast. Puuummmpppppeeeddd. There was toast, tea, juice and then the main meal. Sunny-side up egg, pork&beans, 3 types of sausage (black & red pudding (yea, it’s meat with seeds in it) then just regular fat links), and a slice of ham. YUMMY. The black & red pudding were odd for sure, and the black definitely didn’t win the taste test competition but I ate it all anyways because it was a full Irish breakfast for €5 and I was hungry.
After getting fully dressed & ready we headed off in to Galway City. There was a market going on that morning so we went off in search of it. It was more of a farmer’s market with food but there were some crafts & odds/ends for sale. I actually ended up buying my mom a necklace here which is super pretty and handmade by the guy.
We stumbled upon a historical site during this time. It’s a stone wall with a window where some man actually hung his own son out of because his son had committed a crime (I think murder?). It was kinda bizarre to be like ‘I’m standing where a dead man hung’. Also bizarre because it’s in the middle of random buildings & roads. History is legit everywhere in this country.
Seeing as we had minimal real plans for the day we just walked and stumbled upon stuff. Watched a man perform as a living statue (he was really good at it!). Went in to a few stores. Ended up at the waterfront and it was GORGEOUS. We sat with our fair-trade coffee & tea from a cute little cafe and enjoyed the moment. While we were sitting there we realized we were in front of the Spanish Arch. Oh hey, Arch, way to not stand out. We walked down the stairs on to the stones and stood at the water for a bit just taking in it. Such a beautiful day.
Behind us was a museum and Elizabeth was determined to get a picture of a statue in a museum and wanted to see if it was that one. Turns out, it was. The statue was right there. Cool thing about Irish museums: Free Entry. Take note America, you should want everyone and anyone to be able to take part in learning and culture; and not take their money to do so!
Walking around the museum was pretty cool. Learned a bit about Galway and it’s incredible art history. Learned about ‘skin boats’. Went through an art exhibit of graffiti art which was just amazing. I was seriously in awe of the work and how insanely great it looked. I wanted to live in that exhibit. We ended the museum by going through an exhibit on Ireland’s history of wars. Intense, enlightening, and eye-opening. All in all, a great museum.
Decided to head over to the Galway Cathedral. Amazingly gorgeous. High domed ceiling, stained glass, huuuuge inside. Loved it. Felt very at peace inside. Walked around for at least a half hour in it. Unfortunately the church store was closed for lunch at the time. So we headed outside for a bit to walk around the water before going back. Bought some souvenirs for family members before heading out.
Elizabeth wanted to stop in a clothing store to see if she could find a dress to wear out that night. No dice. However I did notice behind us a Spanish restaurant and we decided to go for lunch. Any place that advertises having ‘gringo’ food is a go for me. Turns out, the food was KICK ASS. Not only was it delicious, it was huge. Those Irish ladies knew their Mexican/Spanish.
After stuffing ourselves, decided to walk back through town and then over to Claddagh. Guess what? It’s just a normal residential town. So after not finding anything interesting (or cheap rings) we headed back in to the city centre of Galway. Did some shopping; lots of souvenirs for our friends & family. You’re welcome.
Took a walk down along the river to the area we hadn’t been before. Ending up walking the whole river side, and out on to the walkway which takes you out to some fort or something. IT WAS GORGEOUS. The views were incredible. Water, mountains, sunset… Amazing. Just breathtaking really. Galway definitely wins Most Beautiful Views.
Ended up heading back to the B&B exhausted from our day out. Took a nap before getting up and getting ready to go out.
We killed a bottle of Huzzar by doing shots & also mixing it with orange and pineapple juice. When we finally headed out, we were all feeling pretty good. I was wearing my Drunk Dress as I call it (I have never worn said dress and stayed sober). I deeefinitely kept the tradition going.
So this is the part where if you still want to view me as a good kid you should stop reading because I get sloppy, and it gets ugly.
Anyways, we head out to the bars. Garrett decides he wants to go in to one he had been denied the night before due to his track pants. So we go right in. Order a beer each and a shot of some apple something or another (shots were on special). Continue to drink a bit and somehow meet two guys.
Next thing you know drinks are being bought all around. I somehow end up taking more shots. I pass off the whiskey to Garrett and end up with a beer. The guys we met, Dave and John, turn out to be 20-something and 30-something respectively. They’re apparently fisherman who were supposed to go out on a trip that night but due to weather the trip was postponed. Lucky us.
So at some point we go outside for cigarettes and fresh air. John, Garrett, and myself get back in but Dave and Elizabeth get shut out. WTF? We have no idea either. So the three of us continue on in the bar while the other two head down to Coyotes.
I told Garrett earlier in the night that if we were to finds guys to buy us drinks, we’d make them buy him drinks too out of fairness. And who stuck to it? Me. I totally pulled it off by playing coy & sweet and saying I couldn’t leave my friend out of our talking/drinking. John ended up buying Garrett more Guiness than he knew what to do with. So they chat & drink and I stand around being pretty.
I started to feel the alcohol at this point. I know it’s not good. I excuse myself to go outside. And surely, I begin to spit up a bit. The funny part is there’s some guy out there who in between my mini-vomming decides to start a conversation with me! It’s like “Hi are you ok?"’ [spits on ground] “I’m grand.” “Oh, you’re from America?” [a little vomming] “Yep, New York.” His friend appeared at this point and the first guy tried to take me off with them for food. Now I may have been DRUNK but I’m not dumb. I promptly said no thanks and my friends were coming out.
Things get really, really fuzzy here. I do know John & Garrett appeared moments later. I know I told them I wasn't OK. I know I was hammered beyond comprehension.
And that’s all folks.
Somehow I ended up in an alleyway. Laying on the ground, not really conscious. Elizabeth & David came back (after frantic phone calls from Garrett) to my rescue. I ended up passed out on the sidewalk next. Elizabeth peed in the alleyway before laying down with me. Apparently I couldn’t breath/knew I was in a bad, bad way and requested an ambulance. Elizabeth tried to count 1,2,3 with me to calm me down but no dice. David called for assistance. Apparently I had already been down for the count for about an hour a this point. John kept referring to me as 'sunshine' and even in my trashed & scattered state I hated it (crappy nickname, seriously).
The next thing I actually do remember is my arm being ripped at by the Garda going ‘Get up or I’m arresting you!’. I ripped my arm back from him and yelled ‘Don’t fucking touch me!’. I was told later that David got in said Garda’s face and told him to not touch me like that and such. Everyone hauled me up and decided to get a taxi.
I remember getting in the taxi and the driver going ‘She’s not going to throw up in here!’ and me going ‘I’m not gonna puke in your fucking cab!’. Yea, oops. We got barely up the hill when I felt it coming on. I grabbed at the handle going ‘Stop, stop, I’m gonna puke!’ and the taxi driver slammed the car to a stop just as I got the door open and stumbled out (I literally just missed falling out of moving car). I ran across the road and to the half stone wall thing and proceeded to puke over it.
Elizabeth joined me, kneeling in front of me (WTF?) and even in my state I told her ‘I’m gonna puke on you down there!’ so she moved her legs a bit. Awesome. Finally Garrett guided me back to the B&B with Elizabeth opening the doors before we got there.
I immediately headed to the bathroom and plopped on the floor. It’s a small bathroom, so my legs were in the shower, while I cradled a trash can (why I did that, I don’t know). Garrett came in after a few minutes of being back and puked in the toilet behind me, while I puked in the trash can.
Garrett & I now refer to these moments of simultaneous vomiting as our “bonding experience”. That’s what being in rough shape after a night out in Galway is like. It was only a matter of time, Ireland.
I passed out in the bathroom around this time I’ll assume. Elizabeth assures me it was hilarious, what with me half in the shower and half out. What can I say, I'm a classy broad. I don’t know for how long I was out but at some point I woke up. I changed my clothes, took out my earrings, and crawled in to bed with Elizabeth.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Woke up to the sounds of someone opening & closing our room door.
…whaaa? …where am I…? Who the eff is in bed with me!?!? Oh...hey, Elizabeth. Garrett. What up guys!
Turns out it was past 11. Gonna guess we were supposed to be long gone by then? Also missed breakfast (but still had to pay for it). Our bad.
I felt eh, all right upon waking up. Definitellllyyyy tired. Recounted some of the night’s tales with everyone. Shared quite a few good laughs and ‘I did WHAT’ moments. Shit. I was apparently quite the sight to behold. Ah, well, can’t go back now.
Started to try & get up and get ready. Um, yea, apparently I was worse off than I thought. Literally had to do one task at a time with breaks of laying back down in between. At one point I crawled on the floor across the room because standing wasn’t an option. I also passed back out on the bed, toothbrush & toothpaste in hand.
That’s where shots of apple whatchamuhcallit will get you. Feck you Huzzar!!!
Around this time I realized my wristlet wallet was missing. My camera was in the room, but my wallet wasn’t. This held my IDs, credit cards, cash, and phone. Shit shit shit!!! After tearing the room apart, it’s not there. Then Elizabeth remembers that after the taxi and after I was over the half-wall getting ill, I was given my wristlet. I asked who the fuck gives the drunk girl her wallet! They said I was asking for it! Still, you do NOT give the drunk girl valuable things to carry whilst drunk! Anyways, Garrett took a walk down there and by some miracle (or sheer effin’ Irish luck) he returns with my wallet, everything intact. That’s my pot o’ gold, right there.
Finally, after more sulking and dragging of my entire body, at 1PM we were off. They wanted food so we went to Supermac's. I pretty much passed out there, being barely conscious laying on my bookbag. I felt like I was going to throw up on multiple occasions, prompting me to find bathrooms very quickly, but it never happened. Elizabeth & Garrett needed to pick up some last minute souvenirs so I decided to seek refuge in McD’s and attempt to eat.
It took me (no joke) one hour to eat 6 chicken nuggets, some fries, and drink a Coke. I literally had to choke down every bite, amidst Elizabeth telling me ‘Eating will help’.
David (from the night before) called Elizabeth and ended up coming down to McD’s to say goodbye. Upon seeing me he declared ‘Jesus, you look rough’. Yea, no shit Sherlock. I didn’t say much but they talked a bit. John (who I found out was actually the skipper of the boat and apparently makes him kinda a big deal) ended up calling him and asked to talk with me on the phone. He too came down, even though we only had a few minutes before we had to head out.
Who felt awkward, hungover, and disgusting? This girl right here. Thankfully they held none of the prior night's actions against me, and even still seemed to like my company after the fact. Good guys. They tried to get us to go share a drink with them but we definitely had mere minutes till the bus. So we had to say our goodbyes and head off. They did however promise to take us out fishing if/when we came back to Galway, so that’s a plus.
Headed off to the bus. Took my motion sickness medicine and said a prayer to every higher being I could think of. Got on and settled. And off we went towards Limerick and eventually Waterford.
But no, the story doesn’t end with a ‘And we rode off in to the sunset and made it back safe & sound’ because this is Ireland dammit and I had a hangover!
Instead, the story continues with after about an hour, me getting sick. Really sick. And did I mention there was a hole in the bag I was vomiting in? Who ended up with her own vom on her legs, seat, and floor? Me. I did.
IT SUCKED.
After expelling the McD’s (yea Elizabeth, eating wasn’t such a good idea!) I probably looked really pathetic. Actually I know I looked really pathetic because I felt really pathetic. Garrett graciously offered his white T-shirt for me to clean up a bit with. I asked Elizabeth to hold up my jacket as a curtain while I changed in to my sweat pants. Put the nasty clothes in one of my bags, sat in the other seat, and tried to not think about it.
Finally arrived at Limerick bus station. Thankfully got off the puke bus. Got a chance to go to the bathroom to just wash my mouth out. Got a couple small snacks and liquids at the store before heading out to our other bus.
Had no trouble on the next bus back. Rested a bit actually. My body was pretty much just worn out to the extreme so it couldn’t even get sick again if it wanted to probably. Got back to Waterford. We were standing around outside the bus getting situated when the nice bus driver offered to take us over to our building instead of us walking. Hallelujah small favors!
Back to Manor Village we went. Took a shower, cleaned the clothes a bit in the sink, and went to bed happy I survived.
All in all, Galway, you were an experience, and definitely a story to be told in mixed company. Thanks for playing along.
Love,
Dana
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