Ireland

I'm starting this post at the moment in Galway, where I'm doing CS right now. It's rainy and we couldn't go to see the town, but we had a nice time yesterday.
So. To start from the very beginning.

Planning my trip was so damn complicated this time. I am travelling with a companion, which means that I had to take his wishes into account during my trip. When we were planning our accommodation, we couldn't find a place to stay until 2 days before taking off. I was already ready to sleep in the coach station and my companion wasn't exactly happy about it. So we had a big fight two days before our trip even started. But... We managed to find a place and everything went well..

So. On Thursday morning I packed my stuff so that I could drive with my bicycle to Winscombe straight after work. I got there in time and left my bike to Pam's place (a friend of mine). Then I headed to the airport by bus and went through all the gates and went on the plane to Dublin. The flight was quick and landing was rough. Nothing too bad, but just a bit bumpy.
I met my travelling companion in Dublin airport because he came with a different flight. We took a coach to city central. Over there I wanted to have the first pint of Guinness so we went to one pub which had lovely local music and stayed there for a little while. After the Guinness we decided to go to our hosts' place. My companion (lets name him A) had an app downloaded into his iPhone which was supposed to be GPS. But it didn't work very well so we ended up in the wrong places and got to our CS place pretty late. We stayed at one couple's place and they thought we were also a couple so we had to sleep in the same bed quite tight next to each other. Well.... We managed to do it and then the following day after a little chat with our host, we took off to see the city. We went to some park which had nice war memorials and statues. I really loved the park. It was green and a bit wild and the statues were also green because of the acid rains. After the park we went to National History museum and Natural History Museums and then had a brief look into Trinity College. It was very big and I quite liked it. While walking around on the grounds of the college you could feel the power of education. After the Trinity College we had a look into local tourism information centre to find out our the bus stop from where we were supposed to go to Galway the following day. We also walked past the Dublin Castle and then went into a mexican food restaurant where we had some burritos and then had a look into the Dublin Castle. Unfortunately to get into it, we would have had to pay the admission fee, so we didn't go inside. But.... After the Dublin Castle we went to a shopping centre and bought stuff for the cooking in the evening. I found Estonian Kiss Cider from one shops! Although it was pear cider, I bought it, because Estonian cider is a lot nicer than the local one. After we got all the stuff for the supper, we went back to our host's place where A had a little bit of sleep, because he was shattered and I just chatted to our host. It was a nice talk, mostly about traditional food, because she was from Spain and her mate was from Poland. So we talked a lot about our cuisines. Then A got up and started making Indian food which was really delicious. Ah, yeah, from that day I could tell that never trust GPS- the usual map on the paper is a lot better. I was the map reader on that day and we didn't get lost on that day. So yeah.... Paper maps rule! In the evening we went to sleep a bit earlier than the previous day because we had to take off early in the morning.

Now I'm back at home and will continue this post.

So... On Saturday we had an early morning because our coach to Galway took off from the central of Dublin at 7am. The bus journey was approximately 2,5hrs long and I tried to sleep during it. A slept during most of the trip. When we got to Galway we had a small guided tour in the city. From the very first moment I got to Galway, I fell in love with the place. It's so beautiful over there. I definetely want to live there for couple of months. In Galway we saw the local market, St. Nicholas' Church, Jane Eyre Square and the local mall. In the church we discovered that there is a memorial on the wall for Jane Eyre and Richard. Those names were also the same in the book, although the book was about different things, supposedly. Well, you can never know if it is a damn lovely coincidence or the names in the book are based on those people. Galway is a little city, with the population of about 80 000. It is an university city, so there are loads of students. I also found out that they have a small Estonian community over there- about 200 Estonians. Didn't spot any of them during my stay in there, though... In Galway there is also a shopping mall which has the ancient city wall inside it. The people who wanted to build the mall, wanted to take the wall down but the locals didn't allow this to happen, so the shopping centre was built around it. Fascinating. I loved it anyway.... After a little tour in Galway we got on the bus and started our tour to Burren and The Cliffs of Moher. Well, what can I say? The pictures I took won't describe the place even the tiniest bit. It was unbelievable! So beautiful! Rocks everywhere and big hills covered in rocks. Sea (or actually ocean), seaweed, stones, tiny old churches, limestone fences. And the Cliffs of Moher... Well, they were just too beautiful to be true. They were huge, 200 m high and 8km long altogether. We also saw some tombs and a leprechaun head coming out from a stone wall. I absolutely enjoyed our tour around in the area. I was just looking out of the bus window when we were driving, all the time with my mouth wide open. And the weather was on our side- it was sunny and warm, not too hot, not too windy. Absolutely brilliant! I definetely want to live in the place. In the evening when we got back to Galway we met our host and discovered he's hosting 8 other CS. We had a quick meal in the city and then walked to his place which wasn't too far away from the central. And then we talked there and some of our host's friends came over. We drank a bit wine and waited for the other CS to get back to the host's place. There were 3 french-canadian guys, 4 american girls and 1 british guy. We talked, listened to music and drank some wine and beer and then me, A and our host and his friends went to a local pub. By the evening of my second day with A, I was completely irritated by him and just wanted to escape from him. He was such a lady, complaining and being very sensitive over everything I did and tried to pick a fight with me all the time. He insulted me all the time and was so egoistic and never listened to anyone. Worst character ever I have met. Seriously. He was such a bitch that I had to be a bitch also and it made me feel so bad because I had to behave the way I usually don't do. Anyway, in the evening he tried to meet different ladies and one started to get glued to him so he wanted me and our host to get rid of her. Obviously we didn't deal with his mess and instead of helping him, we left the pub and went back to host's home. When we told A that we're not gonna help him, he was just trying to create mess with me, trying to glue someone to me, but it didn't work out. He also told me that I am his friend and supposed to help him when he's in trouble. In my opinion he wasn't in trouble and I was in no way going to clear up his mess. Especially after the attitude he had developed towards me.

On Sunday morning we slept quite late and had a very lazy day. We cooked hummus and onion-leek soup and bread and just ate, talked, relaxed, listened to some music. And most of the CS's had a nap during the day. I didn't and talked to the people who stayed up and just spent a little bit of time in the internet. The british guy was studying in Germany with the American girls and he sang in a choir and studied archaeolody and history. We had a nice time chatting over choir music. In the evening we went for a walk with some of the people when they got up and went to the bay to see the ocean. As the day was quite rainy, we didn't see very far and got a bit wet, but I didn't mind. It was a nice walk out. We stayed out for about 2hrs. Then we got back to the house and went away again to go to petrol station with the purpose of getting something to drink. But it was closed... And besides that... You can't get any alcohol from Irish shops after 10 in the evening. I had already forgotten we had the same rule in Estonia. Anyway... We went back to the house where the american girls were dancing like crazy and later that night we played some Mafia card game that A lead and I was once the murderer in the game and won the game. It was quite hard to maintain my secrecy about being a murderer, but I managed to do it. The game required a lot of attention and thinking and my brain was on fire for some hours. I really loved it. And besides, I got to use my psychology skills which seemed to work our well, because all my assumptions turned out to be right in most cases. After playing the game for a while we went to sleep because everybody were tired, despite the fact that we had had a lazy day.

On Monday morning we didn't get up as early as we planned to. Me and A were thinking about going to the Guinness factory in Dublin on that day but as we were too tired, we slept couple of more hours and explored a bit more of Galway. We had some arguments during those couple of hours we had a look around in the city and finally decided to go to Dublin with different buses. So we both headed our own way. I explored a bit more of Galway and decided I will go and live there in the future.
I went to Dublin with local coach and almost felt like a local person. I love the fact that when I travel around my way, I don't feel like a tourist very much. It's nice to see the places from the point of view of a local person. Anyway, my coach to Dublin went straight to the airport and over there it took a while to get through the security and then I had a little bit of time to wander around. I got myself an Irish whistle and made a promise to go back to Galway in the future. And then I took off from Dublin. I slept during most of the flight and when I got off the plane in Bristol it was so fast that 5mins later I was on the bus towards Winscombe where my bicycle was waiting for me. I got home tired and knackered and had a big argument with A in the internet. I have really never met a person more rude and with such complicated and egoistic personality as was his. He was also completely narrow-minded and seemed to find some satisfaction in trying to piss me off. Because he started all the time all over again about the fact that I was ready to sacrifice my comfort to drinking and having fun- if we hadn't found a couch to stay in Galway I would have just gone to a local pub and then to bus station to sleep there for couple of hours. Nothing dangerous about it, but the guy though I'm crazy and went on and on about this. I mean- I was on a budget and wanted to enjoy my trip as much as possible. And staying in the coach station wouldn't have been that bad.
But well, he was a lady-like man who wanted to spend money on expensive hostels. And he didn't understand I was on a budget. That much....

But. Besides my crap travelling companion I had an amazing time in Ireland, fell in love with the country and met loads of amazing and interesting people.
I will definetely live there for a little while. Or travel around there for at least a month. It's a promise.
Fingers crossed.