Across the country in a Day......

So, we took a 3 hour bus tour across the country of Ireland, from Dublin to Galway. Now for those of you who have seen P.S. I love you, Galway is mentioned. He writes one of his letters to her with "My Galway Girl" on the envelope, and the song he sings to her in the bar the first day they met is called "The Galway Girl". Coincidently enough, we heard this song while we were there.....I almost cried. However, the movie was not shot here, but Becca saw where it was filmed, so ask her about it......

Anyway, the drive was gorgeous! I am really glad that we took the time to go to Galway, not only because Galway itself was incredible, but because it was so great to see the "country"-side of Ireland. Otherwise, I would have just seen Dublin and that wouldnt correctly represent the country. As we drove to Galway, we saw lots of green pastures and sheep. I was so sad that I left Ireland without hugging a sheep......

We stayed in the Galway City Hostel, and shared our room with about 8 other people! It was much colder in Galway, probably because we were closer to the coast. As soon as we got there, we met up with an Italian girl from Tuscania. She had just moved to Galway seeking a job, so it was great to see her again. We went out to lunch in a local cafe, and I ordered the "shepherd's pie". I was expecting a pot-pie thing, but it turned out to be potatoes and gravy over liquidy meat......turns out I actually liked it......

Then we met up with an Irish girl, and went to a nearby pub featuring live music. For the rest of the evening we just hung out around the town and had some sweet fellowship! One pub that we visited had a cranky bartender, who kept yelling at us for moving the chairs in order to fit around the table.....of all the things to get upset about......

Random info: Rich absolutely HATES the song "I Kissed a Girl" (I do as well, especially cause I know the whole chorus), but Italy and Ireland like it. We met a group of guys singing it in a pub, girls singing it on the plane, and even more girls singing it behind us on a sidewalk. Whenever it came on or people started to sing, we would all immediately look at him awaiting for his disapproval. In addition during our trip, any time we saw a statue or picture on the wall, Rich would try to mimic it! Some of the pics turned out really good! This is one of my favorites......

The next day in Galway, we took another bus tour, but this one took us around the outskirts of Galway and to the cliffs of Moher. We were in the area where the movie "The Quiet Man" with John Wayne was filmed. The tour was also really cool! The cliffs were absolutely gorgeous and reminded me of Cinque Terre. The tourist site here was a building built into the hill and looked like Teletubby land.....apparently the locals were really upset when it was built.

I learned from the tour that most of the pasture land in this area had been completely covered with rocks. A long time ago, it was covered by the ocean. When the water level fell, the people removed all the rock by hand and carried it up to the top of the large hills. But the land then had to be leveled out by carrying sand from the shore to the foot of the hills. But even then, the land could not be used for farming; instead, it can only be used as pastures for livestock.

We found a mall in Galway and got really excited. I have yet to see one in Italy. Ireland felt so homey after 2 months in Italy. I really think I could live there! While I love Italy, it was so nice to speak English and read signs in English. I could even eavesdrop on the conversations of others! All Irish people that I met were incredibly friendly and nice! Although some of the natives had an extremely thick accent. The cab driver that drove me to the movie theater was even a little hard to understand at times. Even the Australian guys were difficult to understand. Sometimes I would just nod my head and smile, hoping they would think I understood.

I found a sign that listed the nicknames for the last name Ryan: Banjo and Lippo. For those of you who dont know, my great-grandmother's maiden name (pretty sure this is right) was Ryan and I believe it was her father who came directly from Ireland to the U.S.

After 2 relaxing days in Galway, we took the bus back to Dublin so we could catch our flight the next day to Valencia, Spain. Our last night in Ireland was spent eating Chinese food and sleeping in a crazy hostel! Our dinner even tasted like the crappy, American chinese food that I love! The hostel was nice, but it felt like a maze trying to get to our room. We had to go up and down, and open all these doors, take secret passages, do lots of backtracking, just to find our room: 5C! It was so ridiculous, that we decided to make a video of it. Katie and Rich narrated the walk to our room in their Sean Connery accents......priceless! Perhaps one of my favorite parts of the trip was the outrageous pillow-talk topics. Between the 6 of us, we would get off on some ridiculous tangents. There were a lot of times I was laughing so hard I wanted to cry and pee my pants.....

Leaving Ireland was quite sad......but Spain was awaiting :)