When the Aran Islands Ferries shuttle bus deposited us back in Galway, it was still raining cats and dogs, and we still didn't have a place to stay, and it was still the cursed Bank Holiday Weekend, and everything was still booked up.
We tried the Kinlay House Hostel once again, just because it was there. The guy told us they were booked up and he had just called around "all the other hostels" for people a few hours earlier and everyone else was booked up too. He told us the Galway Backpackers might have a couple beds if we hurry, but I had heard some bad things about that place, so I wasn't in a hurry to pay 25 euros a night to stay there. We went searching for few places whose addresses I had written down. One didn't exist (or we weren't able to find it anyway), and the others were booked. As we were walking back to Eyre Square, thinking of either breaking down and paying for that bad hostel or maybe taking a bus somewhere else, Gio spotted a small sign in the window of a house. Or actually two small signs, that said "B&B" and "Guests." Besides those signs, there was no indication that this house was a place to stay--it was all dark, nothing that would really indicate it was a business or anything besides a (not particularly welcoming) private residence. However, we were getting a bit desperate at this point, so we decided to ask. We passed through the gate (and the sacks of garbage put out in the yard), hesitated for a moment, then Gio rang the doorbell. A few minutes later a lady came to the door and we asked if she had room for 4 people, what the prices were, etc. "We're very poor." Gio said, to which she responded "I'm not too rich myself." But she offered us two rooms with two beds each room for 25 euros each, which we figured was probably the best we would get in Galway that weekend. Or at least the few extra euros would be worth it for the time we saved not walking all around Galway with our luggage looking for hostels. She also made sure we knew that it was "Just a B--there's no breakfast included." Which was really okay by us because breakfast was the least of our worries at that point.
So we settled in--the place was a pretty typical looking budget european B&B with too many clashing patterns--on the bedspreads, on the carpet, on the wallpaper, and pretty lumpy but still acceptably comfortable beds. The whole thing seemed a little bit strange, and the random and somewhat scary Christmas trinkets and dolls all around the house were a little bit creepy, I'm not gonna lie. But we tried not to think about it (except Gio, who was enjoying making up stories and creeping us and himself out--getting ready for Halloween I guess), and instead headed to Monroe's Pizza Cabin/Pub for the Pizza we had all been waiting for. Monroe's, along with all the other pubs in Galway, was packed to the brim, and it was pretty impossible to find a place to sit or even stand. But we managed to snag some seats eventually and holed up for a long time as we ate our delicious pizza and Gio ordered Coors Light of all things for those who were drinking beer (which was everyone except me--really must learn to like beer some day. I don't think it's gonna happen though).
Afterwards we walked around Galway, which doesn't take long. It had stopped raining but was still freezing cold, and we sort of wanted to go to a place with live traditional Irish music, but the places we tried were so packed that we didn't stay there long (one of them I think we made some friends, but who knows what they said to us or if our replies had anything to do with what they actually asked--or if they could even hear what we said--it was funny though, very friendly people). Eventually we just gave up and went back to the B&B to sleep. But first I had to have a very stressful shower with this shower temperature box thing that I've only seen in Ireland--basically it was the most annoying thing in the world because it's not just that the temperature was cold, but it fluctuated from freezing cold to scalding hot every two seconds the entire time. However I was already committed (already wet with shampoo in my hair), so I had to endure the torture until I emerged freezing cold yet with burnt skin...not exactly relaxing, but oh well, at least I had a bed to sleep in.
The next morning we got up and walked around a bit looking for a good place to have breakfast, and settled on a Bagel Cafe at the request of our New Yorker. Since it was my birthday we went big and all got bagel sandwiches, cappuccinos or mochas, and a big chocolate and I think custard muffin that we all shared as my "Birthday Muffin." Happy Birthday to me. It was very good though. At a little street market I bought a wool hat with ear flaps and dingly bobbers because I wanted to get through the trip and still have ears. Since I had yet to get my first paycheck I was cringing at every euro spent, but I figured, it's your birthday, live a little, keep your ears. Plus it was only 10 euros and I've wanted a dingly bobber hat for a long time. Best purchase I made all...well In any case I don't know if I would have survived the crazy weather without it.
We walked around Galway a little bit more, then headed to the bus station, where we found out that it was already too late to make it to the Dingle Peninsula that day (even though it was only just past 11 am). We didn't really know what else to do, although I had a lot of other ideas, but we decided to get on the bus to Dublin and decide our next stop on the way. 5 hours later we decided to part ways, since the girls were leaving on the 30th and wanted to spend a lot of time in Dublin before then, but Gio and I were there until the 5th and already had many Dublin days scheduled for later on, since we were both flying out of Dublin. Gio and I had decided to put our bus pass day to use and move on to somewhere else--in this case, Cashel, a town in the South on the way to Cork. So we walked the girls to the first hostel we could find, then we all went to a Spar grocery store to get some supplies, walked back to the bus station, said our goodbyes, and Gio and I boarded yet another bus for another 3 hour bus ride. Wooohooo. We could have just gone straight down from Galway in the first place for a 4 hour rather than 8 hour trip, mais bon...we were "making good use of our bus passes" by crisscrossing the country several times. Yeah that's it, getting our money's worth.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment