We arrived in Galway on the bus around 4:00pm and easily found our way to the Barnacles Hostel. It is right in town--great location. We were in a mixed dorm with 12 people--whew!
We wandered around a bit and stopped to get a bagel (which they don't eat in France!!) for a late lunch. In a bookstore we found another Elizabeth Chadwick book that we hadn't read...so we had to buy that. We checked out a music store, but Maria didn't end up finding any piano accordion books that she wanted. However they do have tons of cool books with Irish songs that were really fun to look through.
We went to a grocery store and decided to make ourselves "Mexican cheese melt" for dinner in the hostel (which had a kitchen). Delicious! It was so nice getting to do more cooking!
After dinner we rested a bit before getting in contact with Sam Jordan--a girl who we met at a service group (Circle K) retreat in Oregon in October. She is studying in Galway this term, so we'd talked to her about meeting up.
We went out to a pub nearby ("The Front Door") and found a comfortable corner to chat. Sam got a pint of guinness, Maria got a glass of guinness, and I ordered a nice big glass of water. The bartender was pretty sarcastic with me about that. However, I did take a few sips of Maria's beer--not horrible, but definitely not something I'd want to drink much of! Ah well...
We stayed out until around 11:30pm, then retired to our room.
On Saturday we woke up in time to eat the free breakfast at the hostel--white bread with jam. Not the greatest birthday breakfast, but it was free. I received a message from my family...a lovely rendition of the song, "Happy Birthday!"
Sam met us outside the hostel and we walked back to her apartment (she lives with one American girl and one Irish girl) to leave our backpacks there and take showers. She had kindly offered to let us stay at her place that night.
We walked back into town (20 mins) and looked around for a hair salon that gave deals on haircuts for students. I had been thinking about cutting off my hair for a while and I decided that my 20th birthday would be as good a time as ever... Unfortunately all the deals were for Mon-Fri, so it would have cost me around 40€, which is insane! We gave up on that idea and headed to the farmer's market. There was a bagel stand there, so (of course) we caved and bought another one. It was excellent. Then we took a nice walk to the Galway Bay. It was a beautiful day--warm, sunny. Definitely not typical Irish weather! My freckles have at least doubled on this vacation! We met up with two of Sam's friends and bought ice cream cones, then ate them while sitting down by the water.
Sam, Maria, and I played a bit in the sand/water, then sat on the rocks and people-watched while our feet dried off. Then we headed back to her house (via the supermarket to get ingredients for egg-salad sandwiches for dinner).
Since it was my birthday, I got to talk on the phone with both my family and Maria's family! :)
We hung out with Sam and her roommate and watched a few episodes of "The Simpsons."
Around 8:00pm we were hanging out and I suddenly decided that I wanted to just cut my hair off. I told Maria to just use Sam's scissors and cut off about 14 inches (so I could take it back to the US and donate it). It was so freaky when I was holding my hair in my hands--I couldn't believe that I had actually cut it off! Sam evened out the cut and my hair is now just past my shoulders! Crazy!!
Around 9pm was when all Sam's friends started showing up...there were 3 Irish students and 8 of us American students. They decided it would be a marvelous time to play a drinking game... neither Maria nor I have ever played one. We made sure to take small sips and add lots of orange soda to our drinks whenever no one was looking...so we didn't have to get drunk, but we could still play. It was quite an experience--pretty funny, actually.
After we finished the game, Sam's Irish roommate got her guitar out and sang some cool Irish songs. They surprised me by singing "Happy Birthday!"
Around 11:30pm we all headed to a dance club downtown, which cost 10€ to get into! They all continued drinking like crazy...it's amazing how much they drink!
Apparently there is an Irish tradition that on your 21st birthday you get 21 kisses at the pub...so they decided that they should just say it was my 21st. They dragged me around the club and asked guys to give me a birthday kiss (on the cheek). I ended up getting 20 kisses (much more appropriate considering it was only my 20th), including 2 kisses on the lips...
We made it home at 3:00am--exhausted, but happy!
-Natalie
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