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| From the bus- Pretty lights in Dublin! |
Ok, so here it is folks… the last part of my journey to Galway!
Once the plane arrived in Dublin, things began to run smoothly…FINALLY. Actually this was the most pain free leg of the journey. After getting off the plane, Marie and I walked to Immigration where I had to state my reason for entering Ireland and then prove that the university had ACTUALLY asked me to come. So I presented to the Immigration officer my passport and letter of invitation from NUIG, and he gave me his “stamp of approval” (Haha..I’m proud of that pun).
After getting through Immigration I waited a total of 7 minutes for both of my bags to come out from the baggage claim and I hurried through the doors into the cold Irish night air. I got a tad bit confused when attempting to find the bus that would take me from Dublin airport to Galway, so I nervously went back into the baggage claim area and found an information desk to ask for help (Man I hate doing that! Especially here. I’ve never been so conscious of my American voice…I sound like such a tourist!). The woman behind the desk was very sweet and she directed me to where I should go for the Coach Park (the “Bus Parking Lot”…the Irish make everything sound cooler by the way.. I mean a Coach Park sounds way cooler than a Parking Lot, and a shopping cart is called a trolley here!) Once I found the Coach Park my bus was sitting right there with a big sign so I hopped on and paid my €15. I sat down in a seat on the bus, and a few more passengers loaded on after me. The bus seemed pretty empty when we left the airport and headed into Dublin City.
The lights as we drove past in Dublin were incredible! The city was a gorgeous mix of old stonework and modern architecture. A plain and seemingly simple stone footbridge would be only paces away from a modern suspension bridge with what looked to be a glass bottom! We made one stop in Dublin where the rest of the passengers got on, and boy did the bus fill up! It suddenly got very noisy for 20 minutes, as people answered their “mobiles” and chatted with one another. The woman in front of me was particularly busy on her mobile, calling at least 5 different people to arrange to meet them at the pub to get a “good hot one” because she had a cold. Yup, she wanted to get a hot whiskey to cure her cold…never heard of that as a cure of the common cold!
After the chattering calmed down, I conked out! The bus ride from Dublin airport to Galway city center is about 3 hours, so everyone pretty much passed out. When I woke up we were about half an hour from Galway. Of course it was pitch black while I was on the bus, so I couldn’t see any of the supposedly beautiful surrounding countryside. Although I did see a few very cute lit manger scenes in front of what seemed to be lonely little farm houses. Suddenly it was pouring outside, and I do not mean the kind of “pouring” that USC students freak out about. I mean POURING! The bus was shaking with the extreme power of the whistling wind encircling the bus. It was almost impossible to see in front of the bus, and the bus driver was forced to slow down. At that point I was thinking oh great… I’m going to have to find my way to my hotel in the rain, but it ended up being just fine. Right as we pulled into Galway City Center the rain stopped! As we collected our bags from the bottom of the bus, I began to steady myself for the next part of the journey, finding my hotel (I was supposed to check-in to my apartment complex that day, but because of the many delays I would’ve had to wait for the security guard to let me in and I wouldn’t have had my keys, so I opted to stay in a hotel for my first night in Galway). However, just as I found a taxi and told him that I wanted to go to the Park House Hotel, I looked up, and BAM! The Park House Hotel’s backdoor literally faced the bus station that I was at! One point for Cait! So, I took my bags out of the cab and trudged across the street into my hotel.
If any of you are thinking about visiting Galway (which obviously you all should be…I mean come visit me!), the Park House Hotel is beautiful. It was one of the more affordable choices in the city, and the staff was incredibly friendly. I felt really bad for the one porter on duty the night that I checked in, because he had to keep coming to my room. He brought my bags up, came up and fixed my phone, brought me a dinner menu, brought my dinner when it was ready, and picked up the dishes when I was done. Anyways, when I reached my hotel room I was too jazzed to go to sleep! I mean c’mon! I’d been traveling for basically 21 hours at that point, and I did not want to go to sleep! So I put on my jacket and went out to explore Galway. Now it was 9pm at that point, and I’m not an idiot, so I know not to walk out alone at night as a young woman (I DO go to school in South Central LA). So I didn’t go too far from my hotel, just around a couple of streets and into a cute little park. Then I went back to my room and ordered room service for dinner, enjoying “fresh Galway salmon” for dinner, and spoke to my dad on the phone before arranging for an early morning wake up call at 9am and heading off to bed.
Now, this leaves me in Galway. I’ll let you know about my first couple of days in the city soon!
Once the plane arrived in Dublin, things began to run smoothly…FINALLY. Actually this was the most pain free leg of the journey. After getting off the plane, Marie and I walked to Immigration where I had to state my reason for entering Ireland and then prove that the university had ACTUALLY asked me to come. So I presented to the Immigration officer my passport and letter of invitation from NUIG, and he gave me his “stamp of approval” (Haha..I’m proud of that pun).
After getting through Immigration I waited a total of 7 minutes for both of my bags to come out from the baggage claim and I hurried through the doors into the cold Irish night air. I got a tad bit confused when attempting to find the bus that would take me from Dublin airport to Galway, so I nervously went back into the baggage claim area and found an information desk to ask for help (Man I hate doing that! Especially here. I’ve never been so conscious of my American voice…I sound like such a tourist!). The woman behind the desk was very sweet and she directed me to where I should go for the Coach Park (the “Bus Parking Lot”…the Irish make everything sound cooler by the way.. I mean a Coach Park sounds way cooler than a Parking Lot, and a shopping cart is called a trolley here!) Once I found the Coach Park my bus was sitting right there with a big sign so I hopped on and paid my €15. I sat down in a seat on the bus, and a few more passengers loaded on after me. The bus seemed pretty empty when we left the airport and headed into Dublin City.
The lights as we drove past in Dublin were incredible! The city was a gorgeous mix of old stonework and modern architecture. A plain and seemingly simple stone footbridge would be only paces away from a modern suspension bridge with what looked to be a glass bottom! We made one stop in Dublin where the rest of the passengers got on, and boy did the bus fill up! It suddenly got very noisy for 20 minutes, as people answered their “mobiles” and chatted with one another. The woman in front of me was particularly busy on her mobile, calling at least 5 different people to arrange to meet them at the pub to get a “good hot one” because she had a cold. Yup, she wanted to get a hot whiskey to cure her cold…never heard of that as a cure of the common cold!
After the chattering calmed down, I conked out! The bus ride from Dublin airport to Galway city center is about 3 hours, so everyone pretty much passed out. When I woke up we were about half an hour from Galway. Of course it was pitch black while I was on the bus, so I couldn’t see any of the supposedly beautiful surrounding countryside. Although I did see a few very cute lit manger scenes in front of what seemed to be lonely little farm houses. Suddenly it was pouring outside, and I do not mean the kind of “pouring” that USC students freak out about. I mean POURING! The bus was shaking with the extreme power of the whistling wind encircling the bus. It was almost impossible to see in front of the bus, and the bus driver was forced to slow down. At that point I was thinking oh great… I’m going to have to find my way to my hotel in the rain, but it ended up being just fine. Right as we pulled into Galway City Center the rain stopped! As we collected our bags from the bottom of the bus, I began to steady myself for the next part of the journey, finding my hotel (I was supposed to check-in to my apartment complex that day, but because of the many delays I would’ve had to wait for the security guard to let me in and I wouldn’t have had my keys, so I opted to stay in a hotel for my first night in Galway). However, just as I found a taxi and told him that I wanted to go to the Park House Hotel, I looked up, and BAM! The Park House Hotel’s backdoor literally faced the bus station that I was at! One point for Cait! So, I took my bags out of the cab and trudged across the street into my hotel.
If any of you are thinking about visiting Galway (which obviously you all should be…I mean come visit me!), the Park House Hotel is beautiful. It was one of the more affordable choices in the city, and the staff was incredibly friendly. I felt really bad for the one porter on duty the night that I checked in, because he had to keep coming to my room. He brought my bags up, came up and fixed my phone, brought me a dinner menu, brought my dinner when it was ready, and picked up the dishes when I was done. Anyways, when I reached my hotel room I was too jazzed to go to sleep! I mean c’mon! I’d been traveling for basically 21 hours at that point, and I did not want to go to sleep! So I put on my jacket and went out to explore Galway. Now it was 9pm at that point, and I’m not an idiot, so I know not to walk out alone at night as a young woman (I DO go to school in South Central LA). So I didn’t go too far from my hotel, just around a couple of streets and into a cute little park. Then I went back to my room and ordered room service for dinner, enjoying “fresh Galway salmon” for dinner, and spoke to my dad on the phone before arranging for an early morning wake up call at 9am and heading off to bed.
Now, this leaves me in Galway. I’ll let you know about my first couple of days in the city soon!
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