Sunday, January 10, 2010

Sláinte!

Apparently going to the South Pacific, Down Under and Down Under Down Under wasn't enough to quench my thirst for experiences abroad. After a mere 20 days in the States, I boarded yet another plane, this time heading over the Atlantic Ocean. After my flights earlier this year, this one should have felt reasonably short. Just 5 hours!

However due to a late arrival, rain, fog and god knows what else, I was somehow able to watch half of the movie The Hangover before we even took off. I didn't sleep a wink on the plane but instead stayed awake with one of the UMass drum majors, Jon Swengler. Great conversation was had, many starbursts were eaten and I ended up with not only a new accessory for that random button hole that serves no other purpose on my pea coat, but also a fantastic new friend. Needless to say that it was a long travel day. Luckily, we had a 3 hour bus ride from the Dublin airport to our hotels in Galway; giving us plenty of time to sleep. After checking in and settling in a bit, all of the Delaware bandos boarded our coach buses and drove to the UMass hotel, where the entire band got out our instruments and rehearsed in an underground parking garage. Wow. I thought I missed band? I realised how much I missed it after that rehearsal. There's just something about making music with hundreds of other people that I really love. After rehearsal, we had a delicious dinner at our hotel (beef stew & bailey's cheesecake...does it get any better?!) and began making plans for the night. A group of eight of us hit the town, wandering around Galway until we found a suitable pub. Pub 1: full of elderly people. We stuck out like sore thumbs. However, clearly a classic example of an Irish pub. Pub 2: louder & a younger crowd. We had a blast here, including watching some guy pass out from either too much Guinness or too much whiskey. Or for combining too much of the two. This night was an absolutely incredible first night in Ireland and it was tough for any subsequent night to even come close!

Waking up early? Not my favourite thing to do. However, when you're greeted by a fantastic Irish breakfast, you feel much better about it. We then loaded our coach buses and headed out to the Burren. * A note about our bus driver. Eunan, or Smithy, was an absolute wealth of information about Ireland. He talked literally non-stop from Dublin to Galway and back again. His sense of humour was incredible and he had great delivery of all of his punch lines. Also, his voice was really soothing and it was quite easy to fall asleep while listening. One girl even said that her dreams had begun to be narrated by Eunan. In short, fantastic driver/tour guide. * The Burren is an area in the northwest part of County Clare that is known for its rocky terrain. Stone walls stripe the countryside and it was eerily familiar to the terrain of New Zealand. Our destination for the day were the Cliffs of Moher. These stunning cliffs rise from between 120 and 214 metres above the sea and offer magnificent views of the Galway Sea. This was an absolutely beautiful location to visit and the drive there was just as spectacular.




That evening, we went to the Latin Quarter of Galway where several pubs hosted us for "dinner" and drinks. I had fantastic luck in that I was able to find everyone I wanted to that night. After a bit of bar hopping and some late night snacking, we returned to the hotel in order to get at least a little bit of sleep before our first performance.

Our first performance in Ireland consisted of a cramped parade through the streets of Galway and a street concert for the Lord Mayor all the while being pelted with rain, sleet and snow. The most comfortable parade? Definitely not. But still, we were performing in Ireland! Yet another reminder of how much I missed this group. The rest of the day was spent exploring Galway with the altos and then heading to Munroe's for a night of Irish food, music and dancing.

Our second day of touring brought us to Kylemore Abbey. This Abbey is a former castle that was built in the mid-1800s and became an Abbey in 1920. This absolutely beautiful building sits lakeside in County Galway. It was a disgustingly cold and wet day but we managed to make the trek lakeside to both the Abbey and the neighboring church. This building now operates as an all girls boarding school. These are some lucky high schoolers.




That night, some of us trekked over to the UMass hotel to enjoy a different setting for dinner and drinks. They definitely had the nicer hotel in Galway. Worth the taxi fare there and back for a great dinner and birthday cake for Andrew's brother, Michael. It was a low key night, although the extremely intoxicated 16-year-olds from Dublin kept us entertained for a good portion of the night. This was the perfect way to close out our time in Galway.

In case anyone didn't notice...I fail at keeping things short, or getting them done in time.

More about Ireland, specifically Dublin, asap.

Until then,

Liam

2 comments:

  1. Where's the rest of the trip? I mean you've been back in the states for 8 days now. I think that's plenty of time to write a full entry. I did it. :P

    ANYWHOOOO, if this is just Galway, I can't WAIT to read about Dublin!!! :D

    P.S. Our bus driver sang to us everyday. Just sayin...

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  2. um.. the high schoolers go to school at Hogwarts. Man Ireland looks beautiful!

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