a lazy couple of days in Galway

The epic-ness of our adventures have finally caught up with us! Claire is sleepy, and my sinuses have decided to hate me, but thanks to coffee and sudafed (respectively), we have not let that interfere with our fun. I may, however, completely lose my voice before we get back to the states!

Last night we had a delicious dinner of chocolaty crepes (we had had a late lunch), and then headed to a pub that was playing "trad"-traditional Irish music. We met some nice Professors from Hofstra University and their students and enjoyed chatting with them about all sorts of things for a couple of hours. We then returned to the hostel, at which point I, voiceless and tired, fell right into bed (while Claire updated you with lots of picture).

This morning I decided that I wasn't going to live to see the end of our Irish adventures if I didn't do something about my sinuses, and Claire had some misfortune with instant coffee at breakfast, so we started our morning with a trip to the pharmacy (there's one like every 100 feet in Galway- I don't know why or what you could possibly need that many pharmacies for) and the coffee shop. We wandered down to the river and sat for a bit (where Claire had more misfortunes with coffee- this time involving spilling...she was sort of having a rough start), and we watched the HUGE number of swans that live in the river parade around. Once my advil had kicked in and Claire had finished her coffee, we made our way into the Galway museum. It's a cool history museum and I learned a lot of Irish history! Did you know that Hitler once asked Galway to move their annual horse races so that he would be able to attend? Ireland responded by setting tank traps and spikes all around Galway and not moving their races ;-). Claire and I worked on figuring out when Ireland was fighting with Britain and when they were fighting against Britain, and we learned how much the Irish really loved JFK. We also saw lots of traditional boats and some very interesting political cartoons and old army advertisements.

We then checked out a cathedral built in the 1960's that manages to be just a beautiful as the ones built in the 1800's- the stained glass was amazing! We also found a great used-book shop, where I bought a lovely picture book about a horse made of sand, a book of silly children's poems, and a beatifully illustrated book of traditional leprechaun stories. I think the leprechaun stories will serve me well when St Patrick's day rolls around this year! And it was all only 10EUR! Claire bought some books too (sci fi and irish history), and we got into a conversation with one of the locals about country music in the states, and how the weather has been unseasonably nice recently (we apparently should not expect the same weather if we come back next year, but we contended that we must have brought the nice weather with us)!

We then grabbed lunch at a Chinese food restaurant after Claire declared that if she ate one more sandwich she would kill herself, and briefly headed back to the hostel to drop off our new books. The weather this afternoon has been dreary and drizzly (of course, I wore sunscreen today, so naturally it's raining), so-like true Galway locals- we've spent most of our afternoon popping in and out of stores and stopping at multiple cafes for a pot of tea and to read for a bit. It's been very relaxing. We also stopped by a very old church where Columbus supposedly prayed before setting sail. We're planning to go back to the church tonight for a concert of traditional music by a British girls' choir. I also think we may try and find dinner tonight that is not just chocolaty crepes ;-), and we'll probably end the evening with a drink at a pub (of course).

We have just three more full days in Ireland (sad, but we must eventually get back to work, and we're both broke enough as is), but they should be three great days! Tomorrow we're off to the Cliffs of Moher- the top tourist attraction in Ireland, and we're spending the night at the one really nice hotel of our adventure where we are supposedly getting a great dinner and breakfast!

Hugs to everyone,
Emily