Week 8: Ireland Festivities

Welcome back! I can’t believe I’m writing this at the halfway point of my time abroad. It doesn’t feel possible! I’m pretty adjusted to my life here by now, but there are minute things I miss from home, like dryers, window screens, iced coffee, and microwaves. But I love my schedule here and have embraced the slower Italian lifestyle with open arms :)

The first couple days this week were spent in recovery from the long week of hosting our friends. I essentially just cleaned, did my laundry, planned a trip for the future, watched One Day, got dinner with my aunt and uncle, and relaxed. The only event of importance that happened was the Great Mosquito Infestation of 2024. Basically, due to the lack of window screens and high rain levels, mosquitos have been swarming our apartment, eradicating me from my room one night and forcing me to sleep on the couch because I could hear them buzzing in my ears. We’ve been waking up with TONS of bites and they feel a little bit more itchy and look wayyy redder than American skeeter bites. We’ve had a strict rule of keeping the windows closed from then on out.

Thanks Joseph for pulling over for this view!

On Thursday Lauren, Maggie and I set out for Galway, Ireland! After flying into Dublin and then taking a 2.5 hour bus, we arrived in Galway around 9 PM on March 14. It blew my mind that we were able to get from one side of the country to the next in such a short time… We drive longer than that to get to up-north Wisconsin! The first thing we did after checking in to our hostel was obviously go eat. We got some burgers and went to bed fairly early to prepare for the next day. We woke up pretty early on Friday with the intention of heading out to visit the Cliffs of Moher. While eating breakfast at the hostel, we were chatting about life at USC and our plans for senior year. Suddenly, the girl sitting next to us, who was also staying in our room, turned to us and asked if we go to USC. She then told us that she graduated from USC in 2020! I can’t believe that we are across the world, in a small country, and yet we still meet someone that shares such a big part of our lives. We obviously shared stories back and forth and reminisced on her time there. She even graduated from SJMC (my school)! After breakfast, which was some homemade oatmeal and extremely dry banana bread, we debated about the best way to get to the cliffs. Taking the bus was a 2.5-3 hour ride each way, which after our long travel day on Thursday, we weren’t the most enthusiastic about spending the majority of our day on the bus, also considering we only really had 48 hours to enjoy before flying home. So, as the impatient 20 year old mind would suggest, we decided to take a taxi there. We deemed that the price split between the 3 of us was worth it for the shortened drive of only 1.5 hours, planning on then bussing back. Well, the driver pulled up and excitedly jumped out of his car exclaiming, “I’m so excited to take you all, I haven’t been to the cliffs yet this season!” That’s how we knew we were in for a journey; he was digging for binoculars in his trunk. Joseph was a sweet Irish man, telling us all about his wife and kids. For the first 15 minutes of the drive I just couldn’t get over the fact that he was driving on the “wrong” side of the street and was steering from the right side of the car…

The Cliffs of Moher!

Joseph turned what we thought would be a quick drive into a whole roadtrip, insisting on pulling over several times to enjoy the view and snap pictures of us. He LOVED telling us about the history of Ireland, the sheep and cows that we passed, and Irish culture. He even taught us some slang, such as “whalloped” (extremely drunk) and “craic” (a lot of fun). The countryside itself was extremely lush and green, separated by mini stone walls that were used to portion off land. Every bit of the land is owned by someone! The famine was also brought up many, many times. Joseph insisted that we stop at a chocolate factory on the way up, so we got some mochas while he waited in the car. On our walk back to the car, he rolled down the window and told us to turn around and walk around the corner to visit the chocolate factory to see where it’s produced. Listening to our trusty guide, we went and admittedly tried some of the best chocolate I’ve ever had. The saleswoman made sure to point out their fresh and simple ingredients, unlike America’s chocolate with “a list of ingredients that you can’t even pronounce” (her words, but she’s not quite wrong). Back on the road, we were in full roadtrip mode. The middle cupholder was pulled down, filled with coffee cups and water bottles, music was playing, and windows were rolled down. When we finally arrived at the cliffs (a full 2.5 hours later), Joseph hit us with the “on the way back we can go along the coast.” So there went our plan to take the bus back…

Lauren and I :)

Seeing the Cliffs of Moher was INSANE. Yet another moment of surrealism (I tend to have a lot of those), I was in complete awe of the natural wonder in front of me. The cliffs were even bigger and prettier than I imagined. There’s a hiking trail to walk along the edge and see the cliffs from all different angles. We were blessed with such a sunny and blue-skied day that my nature side could’ve spent several hours there hiking around the national park and enjoying the cliffs. Before arriving, we were nervous that it would be rainy and windy, taking away from the view and experience, but it couldn’t have been more perfect. There was even an Irish woman playing a fiddle, amplifying the ambiance even more. After we were done walking around, taking pictures, and enjoying the view, we walked back to the car where Joseph was indeed waiting for us.

The ride back was slightly rougher than the way there, becoming overheated in the backseat and car sick because Joseph kept trying to show off by speeding down these insanely narrow roads. At one point I finally caved and cracked open the window so that I could breathe, and he closed the window on my fingers, losing him some points. After I yelped, he said that he couldn’t hear me from the back with the window open. When I say this man was talkative, I mean there wasn’t one moment of silence the entire drive. The coast of Ireland was absolutely gorgeous; I especially loved admiring all of the fluffy cows on the side of the road. There were no highways, just narrow roads winding throughout the countryside. I think all 3 of us were just about done during the last 30 minutes because Joseph started getting into American politics and we were all so tired… Shoutout Maggie for staying engaged in the front seat while I dosed off in the back.

Downtown Galway

When we FINALLY arrived back in Galway, feeling a little bit of pain from the payment we had to cough up to Joseph, we headed to get some fish and chips. McDonagh’s was recommended to us by Joseph and it did not disappoint. Due to Galway being right on the water, the fish was super fresh. We all chowed down some baked cod and french fries, ravenous after our roadtrip. The next couple hours were spent wandering around Galway, exploring the shops and picking out claddagh rings and St. Patrick’s Day gear. My ring has the emerald birthstone of course, while Lauren’s has a matching one with the April diamond. Galway is such a cute town, with lots of street performers and authentic shops. It wasn’t too busy, which was super nice and made it easy to feel immersed in their culture. Friday night was finished out with our own bar crawl, where we bounced from pub to bar to bar to club, and so on and so forth. All 3 of us ended up wearing scarfs out, leading to referring to ourselves as “the scarfettes”? I’m pretty sure that was the Guinness talking… Speaking of which, I tried my first Guinness! Unexpectedly, I kind of liked it. Beer has been growing on me, but I didn’t think I was ready for the dark beer. However, a nice bartender noticed that we weren’t blown away at first and threw some blackberry syrup in there for us to make it actually tasty. I think it was clear we were rookies when Lauren and I exclaimed that we “split the G” after perfectly sipping the beer to split the Guinness logo on the glass, not realizing you are supposed to do that in one chug. Everyone in Galway was incredibly friendly, making it super easy to make friends and hang out with a bunch of people throughout the night. The night carried on with many antics, such as meeting the Irish bartender Tomas, who made us some weird fruit-punch drink and showed us a trick that involved shooting a rubber band across the pub? Other highlights included being pulled into an Irish dance circle, being served gin and tonics in huge glass chalices, everyone thinking Maggie and I were Scandinavian, being called “wankers” by the locals, several Irish men trying to explain Gaelic football to us, and many more memories.

One of the many in Skeffs

We woke up on Saturday and stumbled to brunch, unfortunately running into stereotypical Ireland weather: cold, rainy, and windy. I had a frittata for breakfast as we laughed for hours about the previous night. The big event of the day on Saturday was the Ireland v. Scotland rugby game. We got ready in our matching Ireland gear (rugby shirts we got from the kid’s section at a gift shop) and head out for a pub around 3 PM to stake out ground and watch the game. All of the pubs were PACKED with people ready to watch the game, causing us to have to stand for the first hour at our favorite pub from the previous night: The Skeff, which has been there since the 17th century but was made into a bar in 1850. Once we got our seats, the night started rolling. This time I actually split the G, winning us all free pints of Guinness. Our matching shirts were quite the hit and we cheered on “the boys in green” as they successfully beat Scotland. Skeffs was the place to be and it was extremely lively with both locals and visitors, once again making it super easy to make new friends. We danced to the live band, talked and laughed literally the entire night with our new friends, occasionally losing each other in the chaos of the night. I managed to fully convince an Irish person that I was both Irish and played rugby… that’s how good I became at the accent… Even though Tomas called us “a disgrace” when we asked for blackberry syrup in our Guinness, I had some of the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life. The only let down was not hearing “Rattlin Bog” or “Tell Me Ma” while I was in Ireland, despite how many times I asked the bartenders. We stayed out until the city closed down, relishing in our last night in Galway. We visited one other bar that night, Coyotes, but ended up returning to Skeff, where our hearts lead us. I did indeed become locked out of my hostel room due to forgetting my key when I went to brush my teeth, resulting in my internal debate about sleeping in the hallway. I did manage to pound on the door loud enough to not wake up Maggie or Lauren, but rather our random German roommate that let me back in the room. I profusely apologized and shamefully climbed up into my top bunk.

One thing I really noticed was that Galway wasn’t that decked out in St. Patrick’s Day festivities. They had some decor, but the weekend wasn’t centered around that theme the way I expected it to be. They pretty much only celebrate St. Patrick’s on the actual 17th, but unfortunately we had to fly home and didn’t get to see the parade. A local explained to me that the holiday isn’t that much different in Galway from other weekend nights, just a lot of drinking and friends with some extra green thrown in there!

I mean come on!

It’s safe to say that we all were extremely sad to leave Ireland. This trip was one of my all-time favorite weekends and we haven’t stopped talking about it since we left. If you’re thinking about visiting Ireland and desire an authentic experience, Galway is the perfect place to go! We weren’t cut out for the craziness of Dublin and preferred the smaller feel with more locals than visitors. It was also extremely nice to be back in an English-speaking country, I felt very welcomed right away and my confidence with speaking to strangers was restored. I can’t wait to return one day and create even more memories :)

**I regrettably do not have any pictures from Saturday, as like I said, we were parked at the pub from 3 PM to 3 AM…