Curious George Must Die

This past weekend I visited my friend Maura, who is studying abroad in Galway, Ireland. The ride there itself was an adventure- 15 hour bus ride. Started at 6:00pm on Thursday at Victoria coach station in London. The coach first stopped at a random rest stop in I'm Not Sure Where, England where I had an overpriced burger at Burgerking that was DELICIOUS! Probably because I haven't had a burger since being in the U.S. and was craving it desperatly. Sometime around 1:00 in the morning the bus got onto a ferry at Holyhead (sp?) where we crossed the sea to get to Ireland. The ferry was awesome, basically a cruise ship with restaurant, bar, lounges, cabins (if you paid for them), and movies playing. Was on the boat for 4 hours. Here is a pic of the bar and lounge:

I found a booth so I could lay down and catch a few hours of sleep. Easier said then done because the only bench left was next to a kid's room where they had the cartoon "Curious George" playing on a loop, even though it was 2am and no kids were in there. When you haven't slept all night and you only have 3 hours to actually lay down the last thing you want to hear is all about that damn monkey's shenanigans. I fell asleep after awhile dreaming about how curious George might be to see the bottom of the Atlantic...We got back on the bus, I switched to another bus in Dublin and by 10:30am on Friday I was in Galway! Explored the city with Maura for a bit during the day and had pizza at a cute little resturant in the city center. Took a much needed nap then that night checked out Taffes, which was a pub where they had a band playing Irish music, which was really good. Good time all around and I learned that Irishmen basically as a population are ridiculously good-looking, plus throw in the accents... but anyways raging hormones aside and on to Saturday!

Street in Galway

Saturday we did a day tour of Connemara and Galway Bay. The tour (and I'm quoting from the brochure since I don't remember all the stops) took us along the coast, across the bay the Burren Hills and we were supposed to be able to see the Aran islands but it was raining, which was fine because everything was still very pretty. Went to a deserted famine village, through the "rugged Connemara landscape described by many Irish writers as the real emerald of Ireland." At Maam Cross we saw the replica of the cabin from John Wayne's movie the Quiet Man. Got another burger from a random vendor at a market which was SO GOOD! Went all through the valley, which was beautiful. Saw Killary Fjord, which is Ireland's only Fjord. The main attraction was Kylemore Abbey and Gardens. The Abbey used to be a castle that a man named Mitchell Henry built for his wife. Long romantic story short: Mitchell and Margaret go on honeymoon in Ireland, Margaret falls in love with the area, Mitchell says "Margie Marge my dear, I shall buy these 15,000 acres this instant and build you a fantastic fairytale castle because that is how a man shows a woman he loves her" (taking liberties with dialogue), said castle is built, 9 kids are born, Margaret goes on holiday in Egypt where she gets dysentery and dies at age 45, Mitchell brings her body back and builds Mausoleum on the grounds, Neo-Gothic Church (pic below) is built in her memory in 1877. Oh and somewhere in all that the castle gets some lovely nuns who make it an abbey.

Famous Victorian Gardens on the grounds

View of the castle/abbey

So because it was raining all day my shoes were soaked when we got back to Maura's. I decided to lean them against the fireplace which turned out to be a very bad idea, as shown below. The whole kitchen filled with smoke and the fire alarm went off. These happened to be the only shoes I had with me but luckily there was a mall across the street where I got some nice replacement shoes for around $15. Could have been worse and now I can laugh about it so all is well :)

Saturday night saw more of the pub scene in Galway, which was a blast. Went back to Taffes, which was packed then the King's Head and some other pub whose name I can't remember. All in all had a great! Skipped the Guiness because I don't like beer, which apparently is blasphemy according to one of the Irish guys in the pub. Slept late on Sunday since we were out late Saturday then explored more of Galway before my bus left at 3:30pm. Listened to a random Irish band on the street for awhile that was really good and they played a cover of my current new favorite song "Little Lion Man" which was stuck in my head for the whole bus ride back. The ride back was a little less exciting because I was getting in at 8:30am and had to work that same day and was pretty much a zombie on Monday, but all in all totally worth it!