Easter Weekend Holiday: Part 1

What an amazing Easter Weekend!!!  Myself and another intern (and Duck) Allie spent four days exploring Galway and all the major areas around the city in what can only be described as one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  I will start at the beginning

We caught a train for only one Euro from Heuston station in Dublin at 7:30 in the morning and arrived in Galway at about 10 am.  We dropped off our bags at Sleepzone hostel and then set out to explore the city for the day.  After a quick brunch/lunch at a local bakery we bought a ticket for a hop-on/ hop-off bus that showed us all around Galway.  The tour guide was an old man with a great sense of craic (irish humor/fun), and it was obvious that he had been doing this for quite awhile now.  After that we continued exploring on foot, wandering into several little shops, including a French bakery with amazing croissants and macaroons.  For dinner we found a nice Italian restaurant in the city center called Il Folletto, where I got Gnocchi in a pesto sauce that was to die for.  It would have been better with a nice glass of dry white wine to cut through the richness, but it was Good Friday so no one was selling alcohol.  Or so I thought, until Allie and I wandered down to the water front to a great restaurant called Ard Bia for dessert and surprisingly a glass of wine.  We got a lemon posset (which is a “custard” with a consistency somewhere between normal crème brulee and yogurt) with a mixed berry compote and sugar biscuits.  This dessert was so good that I want to live in it.  It was like a taste of summer and was perfectly balanced in every way.  It was the perfect dessert.  Our hostel was nice, but beds were not built for my height so I had to sleep either diagonally or on my side.  Also, I would recommend to anyone thinking about staying in a hostel to bring shades and ear plugs to help sleep through people waking up in the morning.

For the next three days, we explored the surrounding areas by purchasing a giant tour package through the Galway tour company, which also provided us with living accommodations in another hostel called Barnacles, located in the heart of the city.  Day one was The Burren/Cliffs of Moher.  Our bus left at 10 am and was quite full.  Our tour guide was pretty good, but I have a hard time remembering anything particular about him, so I guess pretty forgettable.  Leaving Galway was very scenic, very green.  Then we approached the Burren, climbing a barren hill that is emblematic of the area.  Upon entering the area I was amazed between the stark dichotomies of the landscape.  Luscious green pastures dotted with rocks quickly merged into completely barren yet stunning hills.  Cows are everywhere, which is fairly surprising given the amount of grass cows need and how rugged the area is.  We drove though the area, stopping a few times for picture opportunities and at significant landmarks, but usually for only 15 minutes.  We stopped for lunch in Doolin, an area renowned for its traditional music scene.  Allie and I had picked up amazing sandwiches in Galway before we left and enjoyed our lunch on a stone wall overlooking the ocean and the side of the Cliffs of Moher.  There was a wire fence close to our feet that I thought was benign but later learned was eclectic when it lightly jolted me (don’t worry, it was only a shock).     I would say that we had it much better than everyone else on the tours, who were paying a lot more at the pub were the bus stopped.  We then proceeded to the Cliffs of Moher, climbing a large mountain and gazing upon the incredibly gorgeous area we just had visited.  We arrived at the Cliffs where our tour guide told us we had 1 ½ hours.  After a slight upward walk I gazed upon the awe-some sight that is the Cliffs of Moher and when combined with the crystal blue skies and radiant sun, I thought I was in heaven.  It was hard to believe that this was all real and it took quite a while for it all to sink in.  With a limited it me frame we walked on the grass path to the right, rather than the paved one and proceeded to take everything in.  I even poked my head over the edge (crawling to the edge on my belly of course) to get a quick view and it was spectacular.  I still can’t believe how lucky I am to be here right now and to see this amazing country.