Galwegians!

It was my roommate's birthday on Monday, so I took her to Galway as a mini-celebration. I didn't tell her where we were going until the night before we left (and then it was only because the random and crazy snowfall across Ireland sortof changed the packing list and I didn't want her to end up cold).

It was a fun weekend. We got in Friday and dropped our stuff at the hostel (Kinlay House Hostel... I totally recommend it if you're looking for a nice place to stay and can't afford a hotel) and headed out for food. We ate a crap load at Fat Freddy's, mostly because we hadn't eaten all day then went to find some drinks. Martine's is a lovely cafe/wine bar that had the feel of the local, classy watering hole. The woman serving wine seemed to know every person (save the two of us) that walked in the door.

We bounced from there to a trad session at Taaffe's that was quite the fun time. I'm not going to lie, I managed to get a little tipsy while we waited for the two boys to arrive, and we kept busy buy making bets on who would get there first and what you call someone from Galway. We had a nice list going before Mark settled it for us... Turns out, someone from Galway is a Galwegian. Who knew? After Taaffe's (which I also recommend for a weekend visit) we hit up Tigh Neachtain's, then called it a night.

On Saturday, we braved the weather and took a tour of the Burren, stopping in Doolin for lunch (of course) and the main point of which was to see the Cliffs of Moher. Thankfully, the weather held long enough for us to bum around in the ridiculous wind and get a few silly photos before a downpour sent us into the Hobbits-meet-Teletubbies burrow of a tourist centre for cocoa. We moved on to the Ailwee caves for a little venture underground. Overall, it was a good tour, the weather didn't damper our spirits, but it did dampen my clothes.

We went to the Skeff for dinner and met out for drinks again at Tigh Neachtain's, but perhaps a little too much fresh air during the day had tired us out a bit and we called it an early night. Sunday was coffee and a newspaper and then some chill wandering around the city before catching the train back to Dublin (it was Superbowl Sunday and I did want to watch the game). And so I don't neglect it, my roomie saw a lot of baby sheep (or lambs for those who want to be technical).

I have to say I was a little bummed with the result of the Superbowl, but Tom Brady is still gorgeous and brilliant, and I'd totally have his babies :) The game ran from 11pm-3:15am here and I stayed up to watch all of it. It was a rough way to start lectures off on less than 3 hours sleep, and perhaps ill-advised to go to basketball practice that night, but hey, I'm still kicking.

Here's to another week of lectures: Diabetes, Hyperthyroidism, and DKA.

Sláinte agus táinte.
~LLL