Three best friends departed from the Atlanta International Terminal at 6:30 to get to Dublin, Ireland. Seven hours, one pasta dinner, three movies, and a freezing banana later, we arrived in Dublin at 7:30 in the morning. “This is the DAY THAT NEVER ENDS!” After going through customs, braving the torrential winds (in shorts), and following some unclear signs to a bus that says city on it, we finally got where we needed to be. Thank the Lord that the buses in Ireland have Wi-Fi. We found out where we were going and where to put our luggage for the day. We got off the bus, stop in at Burger King, get coffee, change into warmer clothes, and set off for this “internet café” that is going to hold our luggage. We arrive only 20 minutes before it opened and decided to waste time in the visitor’s center as well as plan on our morning in Dublin. Once we checked our bags in and got settled, we decided to stroll around and look at the many statues and architecture on our way to brunch at Kylemore. The deal that they were promoting was breakfast all day, 4 breakfast items for 5.95 euros. We thought that was a great deal until we saw the options and couldn’t pick four that looked appetizing. We settled with subpar French toast and Eggs. Determined to have a good morning in Dublin, we set off for Trinity College. We looked at all the cute shops, admired the architecture of the Bank of Ireland, took pictures at the river, and eventually stroll around the beautiful Trinity College. We decided that when we return to Dublin, we will definitely be taking the walking tour for 10 euros. We strolled some more, got our luggage, and boarded the direct bus to Galway. We almost missed the bus, but Kelsey had a keen eye and they kindly waited on us. We arrived in Galway and took a short taxi ride to our apartments, Gort na Coiriba, where our swipe keys for room 110 were waiting with our names on them. Soon after we checked out our room, our roommate entered. Her name is Beth and she is from San Diego; she attends a small university in California. She informed us about the people from the program that she has met and gave us the low down about downtown Galway.
We unpacked in our room. There is plenty of space with a desk, shelves, a dresser and a twin bed. We have huge windows and plenty of rom. After unpacking and decompressing, we headed to get some groceries and officially start our life in Galway. The rooms and the whole apartment were the perfect size for our stay here and all three of us were placed on the same floor sharing a bathroom which worked out great! Our 5th roommate arrived and is named Kilani (its Hawaiian); she is from Michigan. The whole room as well as the other CEA students decided to go out to dinner and drinks. We went to “The Kings Head”, which is a bar/restaurant that features live music starting at 9:30. We walked in a group of roughly 20 but split up when we got to the bar. Kelsey, Alex, Kilani, and I met and bonded with a couple from Wisconsin named Abby and Jake. We all tried Guinness and hated it, but the vegetable soup was absolutely delicious and very reasonably priced (5 euros). Alex had the Chocolate Coffee Cheesecake for dessert and said that she could eat it for the rest of her life. During our meal, we had two guitar players named Zillion serenade us with American music. The songs were beautiful and the singer was fantastic. We thought that it was hilarious that they wore an American flag shirt and a Chevy shirt. After a quick stop in the “Walmart” or in Ireland, Tesco, we headed to bed after a VERY LONG DOUBLE FEATURE DAY!
