Irish Times

For my long weekend at the end of February (which feels like ages ago now!),  I planned a trip to visit Caitlin on the west coast of Ireland.  Caitlin is going to art school in a town called Ballyvaughan which is about an hour outside of Galway.  I decided to take an over night bus their because it was far cheaper than any other option, and if you hadn't guessed, i'm on a budget!  The bus left London and drove to Galway over the course of about 16 hours.  How does a bus drive over water you ask? Well, being a dumb American (or maybe it's just me and you all knew this) the bus get's on a ferry to cross the water.  Not knowing this, I was skeptical to book a bus to Ireland since I know this is water between here and there.  I called the company and asked them how it works :)  So, the bus drives up through England and Wales, which is the majority of the length of the trip. Then the bus drives on to a ferry, everyone gets off on the ferry and stays on it for the four hour ride, on the way there the ferry was in the middle of the night so I took a nice four our nap one one of the benches in the lounge area.  After the ferry we go through customs, which is basically one person checking our bags and passports.  The the bus drove to Dublin which was under an hour.  After that I switched buses and took a bus to Galway which took about three hours.  I slept for a bunch of it because I was still tired but I got my first glimpse of Dublin and the Irish countryside which was beautiful.  It sounds pretty bad but I slept most of the way and it was overnight so when I got there it was morning and I was in Ireland!
When I got to Galway I was supposed to meet Caitlin in the train station I walked into the coffee shop where we were supposed to meet and there she was!! It was so exciting to see her.  We both freaked out and ran to hug eachother it was pretty cute.  It was also so surreal to see one of my closest friends from clark halfway across the world in Ireland! After not seeing any Clarkies besides the people on my program for two months!  We spent the day walking around Galway and exploring the town.  It was a cute town with Irish people all over and lots of cute stores.  Although I've gotten used to the English accent for the most part, the Irish accent was very different and exciting to hear.  We walked around the university there which was fun because I hadn't really been on a real college campus since I've been here, it reminded me of Clark.  Mainly we just window shopped and saw the pretty scenery.

Pretty streets in Galway

pretty river in Galway

Sculpture of the seven sails in downtown Galway

Park in the center of Galway

downtown Galway

By the end of Friday I was exhausted especially after no real night of sleep since Wednesday.  We got on the bus and took about an hour ride to get to Caitlin's town.  We arrived and walked ten minutes to her house.  This places is REALLY in the country, we walked along the road but had to step to the sides every time a car came by and there were no lights on the road so we were walking in the dark!

The next day we decided to take a walk around the countryside.  We also went to visit Caitlin's studio which I was really excited about.  The school is a ten minute walk in the other direction of the town, again we walked on the side of the road but since it was day time we saw the cows and horses and sheep in the fields on the way! It was such a nice escape to be in the countryside.  It felt like such a retreat from the busy life of the city, everything was relaxed and such a slower pace than London.  I've always said that I want to be in the city but man, I could get used to this.  We got to Caitlin's school, which is next to a castle and and look around at all of the studios.  It was really cool seeing Caitlin's studio and the work she is doing (which is SO cool), it was also really inspiring to see all of the work everyone else there was doing and made me excited for getting my art on next year. After seeing the studios we climbed the castle next door which had a beautiful view!

Beautiful scenery on the way to Caitlin's school

Caitlin's school (left) and castle (right), but actually just Hogwarts

Me and Caitlin at the castle

Gorgeous view from the top of the castle

feeding the horsie!!

Afterward we went on a walk to the faerie forts.  What are faeirie forts you ask?  Well, they are areas where people built and used to live in many many years ago but they are also said to have faeries inhabitin them.  On the walk we saw some creepy cows, but when we got to the faeirie forts it was beautiful, I can't describe the feeling of it so I'll post a photo so you can see for yourself.  That night we went to the pub in town.  We got dinner and dessert and hung out with some more of Caitlin's friends.

faerie fort

scary cows..

In the morning it was time to go home :(  We hung around the house for a few hours and spent a little more time with everyone before it was time to head to the bus and go home. It was sad to go home but such a nice weekend to see Caitlin and her life in Ireland!

Me and Caitlin!