The Escape from Dublin

Saint Mary's University

Sunday 7th of December
This last weekend we took a trip to Galway as part of our stay here. We left on Friday at about 3 or so in the afternoon. It was about a four-hour bus ride, but it was used very well. The actors spent their time memorizing their scenes and monologues, while Gary and I had a nice discussion about Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee. Eventually, we made it to the bus station in Galway, and walked to the hostel, which was another Barnacles.

The hostel was on a street with a lot of different restaurants and souvenir shops. Not to mention the official origin of the Claddagh Ring right at the end of the street. Once we got our stuff to our rooms, we went across the street to get some dinner. It was a nice little restaurant with good meal deals. They also had a good breakfast menu so I made plans to return the next morning. After this we headed back to the hostel to get settled in or sleep since most of us were a bit worn out from the bus ride.

The next morning was a collection of interesting things. I got up a little early and wandered around for a while by myself before meeting people for breakfast at about 10 or so in the morning. Apparently, everyone else wanted to go to a bakery or something rather than sit down for breakfast so it was only Gary and I. Still I had my official Full Irish Breakfast. Good thing I did too because of the pork recall soon after. Since we were unaware of the location of anyone else, Gary and I wandered around a little and visited the open market near a church.

We later found Curtis back near the hostel and set off on a mission to find the perfect Claddagh ring. This occupied our time for most of the afternoon but we did take a break from this to stop in a bookstore to purchase the latest Harry Potter book, The Tales of Beetle the Bard. We met the rest of the group for lunch at a fish and chips place and went off again. We wandered till later that night when we went to a small pub for a relaxing evening.

The next day we had to checkout of the hostel but we left our luggage there and walked around some more. There were several things that a few of us had seen but not purchased, so we tracked them down again and bought them. We continued to wander taking pictures and collecting trinkets before getting back on the bus at around three o’clock in the afternoon. It was another long bus ride that was used for more memorizing or in most cases sleeping. We got back to Dublin at about seven or so in the evening and then to the hostel. We settled in and got pizza for dinner before getting to bed to begin the second and final week of the workshop.

For Gary’s pictures and stories of Galway see the Blog on the Saint Mary’s Website:
(http://smumn-london.blogspot.com/2008/12/ireland-week-one-dublin-and-galway.html)