Northern Tour
That's pretty much all the major stuff that we saw. The rest was fields and such. The rest of the tour was really about the people.
No GAP year's this time, everyone was mid to late twenties bar Barrie and Katrina (but she was as good a time as any of us!). God he made us laugh. He was lovely but we swear he had the soul of a Japanese tourist inside him. He'd go out with his camera and scramble off the beaten path, he'd go in the opposite direction of everyone else and we'd spend ten minutes waiting for him to come back to the bus from taking pictures.
Joe was alright as a bus driver but not fun the way that Phil was. He also got distracted chasing skirt although we didn't give Angela too much flack for it when she stopped sleeping in her own bed. The 6 Dayers were moved to Don's bus today to get a lift back to Dublin while Joe took the ten dayers on and he was laughing about it as much as the rest of us. Joe had convinced him to bunk in with Phil last night so that Joe could 'have the room to himself' and didn't Don play him up for it.
Mind you, Adam did plenty of bed hopping himself. I swear you could tell the moment you met him that he'd already kissed the Blarney stone! Our first night together he manages to tease and cajole his way into Kristen's bed and they argued like three year olds in a sandspit 'Your knees in my back!', 'That's not my knee', 'insult', 'Feck Kristin, give me some pillow' etc..... In the end we were shouting down comments like 'Kristen, you have to shag him so he'll shut up and the rest of us can get some sleep', 'Do one for the team K!'. However, she had a boyfriend and Adam was gentleman enough to keep it to flirting for the trip although I imagine they both have different stories about who was coming on to who the most. Next night he was sleeping with Rachel and they were pretty cosy for the rest of the trip while Kristen looked daggers at her.
There were a few others being chased and a few running away. The gossip and the complaints, 'He's so hot why doesn't he want me?', 'Why the hell won't she leave me alone?', continued all week.
The others were just disappointed that we managed to find sleazy older men or little seventeen year olds but no appropriate Irish snapper for them to catch.
A lot of the group were set for drinking, pubs and dancing every night. The first night was pizza and punch. Joe made it in these huge tubs; gallons and gallons of the stuff. It tasted of juice and lemonade and you could sort of taste the sparkling white wine and multiple bottles of white spirits in it. It was deadly. Joe was coming round while we sat in front of a roaring fire so we'd skull back the glass, he'd refill it and then he'd be back again... Most of the group ventured out into the night and then drank a couple of bottles of schnapps upon their return. Some of managed to be suitably ill in the privacy of the hotel and felt much better by morning; others were still sick as dogs and Nicole was proud that she was the first (and only so far) to keep stopping the bus to spew into the roadside bushes. It was impressive and she got much sympathy and good natured groans and cheers from the spectators on the bus.
Belfast was good. I went to the movies for the first time in months (and it was cheaper than home even with the exchange as it was their specials night!), got lost, finally got back to the hostel and then went to the bar with the others. We dance till close and it was great.
Westport was good though the pub we went to sucked. We had these huge female only and male only dorms. Dale was the story for that night as he managed to drunkenly sleep walk, piss in two different parts of the room, try and climb into someone else's bed & finally find his way back to his own. He had no memory whatsoever of all this but Adam had been awake for the whole thing.... Poor hostel staff.
We did a huge group cook-in there for dinner and breakfast. Oh, it was so good. No cereal or white toast for breakfast. Real toast, eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, baked beans... it was heaven.
Galway, the equivalent of Dunedin (the student capital), was our final night altogether. There's a pub on the square that does fantastic huge plates of food and has curly fries. Some went off to bet on the dogs and most of the girls headed back to shower and do makeup. A few drinks and much dancing around the mirror we headed out. The King's Head was good, it was packed but we still got a table, the music was thumping so that you could feel it right through you.... But the guys were apparently sleazy, too old and a few of them were shaking up beer bottles and spraying the crowd. Jess got hit on, had her back soaked in beer and was generally not happy. We were only there an hour though before we had to go meet the others.
The bar was dead. Forty minutes later they still hadn't shown up. We'd got stamped by some girls down in the shopping district so we headed up into Cube.
It didn't open till 11pm and we were in at 11.30 so fair enough it was dead. But the top floor stayed dead and the second floor could have been busier. It was filled with seventeen year olds and first year uni students. It was, as Jess put it, like the Loaded Hog on a quiet Wednesday night complete with slappers in hipster white pants. The dance floor was a depressed circle with banisters above it that the guys were leaning on like vultures. It was a meat market and the music was standard clubbing music but the girls were gutted there was noone there to pull and the age group was definitely a lot younger than us.
So everyone was furious at Joe for recommending the place & for not showing up with the others (turned out he was at a pub only meters away but he had other objectives that night). Out into the night we went and to add insult to injury Maccers was closed and the guys at the kebab store completely ignored us yet served the drunk locals who came in after us.
We got home at an early 2am or thereabouts and Barry was still up reading in the lounge (so we went to bed before him!), then Katrina started snoring soooo loudly and so badly. We went to wake her up just before Jess walked in and in the end we had to laugh at how bad the night had been and kept Dale awake talking etc...
Galway was pretty in the sunshine. The park's finally open after a couple of years of renovations and on the fiest Friday of semester it was packed with students sunning thmselves. The harbour had a flock of wild swans - 90+ I counted! The cathedral was so beautiful.
No GAP year's this time, everyone was mid to late twenties bar Barrie and Katrina (but she was as good a time as any of us!). God he made us laugh. He was lovely but we swear he had the soul of a Japanese tourist inside him. He'd go out with his camera and scramble off the beaten path, he'd go in the opposite direction of everyone else and we'd spend ten minutes waiting for him to come back to the bus from taking pictures.
Joe was alright as a bus driver but not fun the way that Phil was. He also got distracted chasing skirt although we didn't give Angela too much flack for it when she stopped sleeping in her own bed. The 6 Dayers were moved to Don's bus today to get a lift back to Dublin while Joe took the ten dayers on and he was laughing about it as much as the rest of us. Joe had convinced him to bunk in with Phil last night so that Joe could 'have the room to himself' and didn't Don play him up for it.
Mind you, Adam did plenty of bed hopping himself. I swear you could tell the moment you met him that he'd already kissed the Blarney stone! Our first night together he manages to tease and cajole his way into Kristen's bed and they argued like three year olds in a sandspit 'Your knees in my back!', 'That's not my knee', 'insult', 'Feck Kristin, give me some pillow' etc..... In the end we were shouting down comments like 'Kristen, you have to shag him so he'll shut up and the rest of us can get some sleep', 'Do one for the team K!'. However, she had a boyfriend and Adam was gentleman enough to keep it to flirting for the trip although I imagine they both have different stories about who was coming on to who the most. Next night he was sleeping with Rachel and they were pretty cosy for the rest of the trip while Kristen looked daggers at her.
There were a few others being chased and a few running away. The gossip and the complaints, 'He's so hot why doesn't he want me?', 'Why the hell won't she leave me alone?', continued all week.
The others were just disappointed that we managed to find sleazy older men or little seventeen year olds but no appropriate Irish snapper for them to catch.
A lot of the group were set for drinking, pubs and dancing every night. The first night was pizza and punch. Joe made it in these huge tubs; gallons and gallons of the stuff. It tasted of juice and lemonade and you could sort of taste the sparkling white wine and multiple bottles of white spirits in it. It was deadly. Joe was coming round while we sat in front of a roaring fire so we'd skull back the glass, he'd refill it and then he'd be back again... Most of the group ventured out into the night and then drank a couple of bottles of schnapps upon their return. Some of managed to be suitably ill in the privacy of the hotel and felt much better by morning; others were still sick as dogs and Nicole was proud that she was the first (and only so far) to keep stopping the bus to spew into the roadside bushes. It was impressive and she got much sympathy and good natured groans and cheers from the spectators on the bus.
Belfast was good. I went to the movies for the first time in months (and it was cheaper than home even with the exchange as it was their specials night!), got lost, finally got back to the hostel and then went to the bar with the others. We dance till close and it was great.
Westport was good though the pub we went to sucked. We had these huge female only and male only dorms. Dale was the story for that night as he managed to drunkenly sleep walk, piss in two different parts of the room, try and climb into someone else's bed & finally find his way back to his own. He had no memory whatsoever of all this but Adam had been awake for the whole thing.... Poor hostel staff.
We did a huge group cook-in there for dinner and breakfast. Oh, it was so good. No cereal or white toast for breakfast. Real toast, eggs, bacon, sausages, mushrooms, baked beans... it was heaven.
Galway, the equivalent of Dunedin (the student capital), was our final night altogether. There's a pub on the square that does fantastic huge plates of food and has curly fries. Some went off to bet on the dogs and most of the girls headed back to shower and do makeup. A few drinks and much dancing around the mirror we headed out. The King's Head was good, it was packed but we still got a table, the music was thumping so that you could feel it right through you.... But the guys were apparently sleazy, too old and a few of them were shaking up beer bottles and spraying the crowd. Jess got hit on, had her back soaked in beer and was generally not happy. We were only there an hour though before we had to go meet the others.
The bar was dead. Forty minutes later they still hadn't shown up. We'd got stamped by some girls down in the shopping district so we headed up into Cube.
It didn't open till 11pm and we were in at 11.30 so fair enough it was dead. But the top floor stayed dead and the second floor could have been busier. It was filled with seventeen year olds and first year uni students. It was, as Jess put it, like the Loaded Hog on a quiet Wednesday night complete with slappers in hipster white pants. The dance floor was a depressed circle with banisters above it that the guys were leaning on like vultures. It was a meat market and the music was standard clubbing music but the girls were gutted there was noone there to pull and the age group was definitely a lot younger than us.
So everyone was furious at Joe for recommending the place & for not showing up with the others (turned out he was at a pub only meters away but he had other objectives that night). Out into the night we went and to add insult to injury Maccers was closed and the guys at the kebab store completely ignored us yet served the drunk locals who came in after us.
We got home at an early 2am or thereabouts and Barry was still up reading in the lounge (so we went to bed before him!), then Katrina started snoring soooo loudly and so badly. We went to wake her up just before Jess walked in and in the end we had to laugh at how bad the night had been and kept Dale awake talking etc...
Galway was pretty in the sunshine. The park's finally open after a couple of years of renovations and on the fiest Friday of semester it was packed with students sunning thmselves. The harbour had a flock of wild swans - 90+ I counted! The cathedral was so beautiful.
posted by Nixie! at 5:37 am
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