You Can See Boston from Here!--Days 19, 20, and 21

 The end of our trip is in sight and the students are sad and inexplicably sleepy. Well, maybe not inexplicably. We suspect that they're now going out every night, which has resulted in complaints about how far they live from the city. It's hard to summon much sympathy. The most I can muster is a lukewarm, "That sounds hard."

Day 19

I'll admit that I'm sorta quietly obsessed with Mellon's, the bodega down the block. The place is hopping from 7:00 a.m. until they close around 3:00 p.m. All day long there is a constant stream of people in and out of there buying coffees, basic supplies (like tea and sugar), flake 99s, and enormous sandwiches. The woman who runs the place is cheerful and chatty and knows everyone by name. I just want to hang out there and have her know my name too.  

Before we left to meet the students on Friday morning, I convinced Tim that the best plan for the day would be to get breakfast at Mellon's and then to head out to the Marino Institute. We walked down and I immediate began studying the breakfast board. I ordered a breakfast sandwich with eggs, spinach, cheese, and some kind of tomato relish on a giant roll with a flat white coffee. Tim ordered a cappuccino and the announced that he was walking down to Lotts for an enormous almond croissant. While he had no regrets re: croissant (so delicious), he did mutter that he didn't understand why he wasn't eating an amazing breakfast sandwich. It was almost otherworldly in its deliciousness. While I'm going to miss many things about living in Dublin, I might miss the food the most. It's been a topic of nearly nonstop discussion--the ease of finding it, the quality, the abundance, the joy it brings us. 

Alas, the sandwich was consumed too quickly to get a photo of it. But here's Tim with a gob full of almond croissant.

After stuffing ourselves, we grabbed a cab to meet the students. Our bus/van this time was maybe even bigger than our last one--each student had two seats to themselves. Alas, there were no tables, so there was less socializing and card playing this time. In fact, before the bus/van even pulled out of Marino, half the students were already asleep. At one point I looked back and I couldn't see any heads, just a sea of legs and arms sprawling into the aisles and propped up on other seats. We literally had to rouse them for a bathroom break. It soon became clear that most of them had gone out the night before and, well, students.

We arrived in Galway around 12:30 and Tim got the students checked into their hostel. Then we were dropped off at our hotel and where we rested for a bit before joining the students for a tour of Galway. Our meeting point was at O'Connell's, which according to our tour guide was the site for an Ed Sheeran video. The students collectively gasped and then began taking 1,000,000 photos. 

Watching students mill about with fantasies of Ed Sheeran rolling around in their heads.

Group photo at O'Connell's.

The students have decided that this is a classic dad pose.

Vintage gin poster at O'Connell's.

O'Connell's recently got a new storefront and the tour guide was telling us about the process of painting the new sign. 

Our tour guide, Brian, showed us around Galway and we got brief lectures on JFK and how he saved Ireland, the history of the word lynch, where we could hear traditional music, and where to find good craic in the city. We also got rained on for the first time in three weeks.

Chat at the JFK memorial in Eyre Square. We were told that there was a good possibility that one of us was going to get bird shit on them during the tour. I think we all emerged un-shat-upon.

Aidan with Oscar Wilde.

Site of the first lynching? 

Our tour guide with the students. The streets of Galway were almost unbearably busy while we were there. Tim pointed out that it's like an even larger and more obnoxious Temple Bar. 

Students on a bridge over the River Corrib just before the rain.

Wild valerian growing on the banks of the River Corrib.

Our tour wrapped up at the Galway City Museum and then the students were set free to explore Galway on their own. Meanwhile, Tim and I went back to our hotel to rest for a little before grabbing dinner at the Brasserie on the Corner. Dinner was great, especially because it had been a long day and we were exhausted. The students have Saturday as a free day and we're catching a ferry by our hotel for Inis Mór! 

Day 20

Several times on this trip we've booked a "thing" and then been told that we needed to print a voucher/ticket "or else." So, each time we've gone through the trouble of trying to find a printer or someone willing to print something for us and invariably it hasn't mattered if we had something printed or not. This trip was no exception. We had to print a voucher, then find the Aran Island Ferry office and exchange the voucher for tickets. When we got to the office, our tickets were waiting for us and the worker barely looked at the voucher that I quietly tucked back into my backpack. Surely in this digital age there's a better way? Regardless, we found our way to an office, to a line, and finally to the boat. 

The ferry is much larger than it looks in this picture. I would guess that it seats around 300 people. 

View of swans from the ferry window before we left the harbor. 

We were one of the first rounds of folks to get on the ferry, so we had our choice of seats. There are two levels on the ferry--below with the cafe and bathrooms, or above with better views and access to the railings. We chose to sit above in case there was anything good to look at. Two of our student were going to join us on the trip, so we decided to save them a couple of seats with us. This turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. I was asked about 30 times if I was saving "those seats." I say I was asked because most of the time Tim was off wandering around leaving me to defend three seats in a prime location. Eventually the people behind us gave me a bag to put on one of the seats and I put my bag on another seat. This left one seat not clearly defended, so the inquiries persisted. About 10 minutes before the ferry's departure and 20 minutes after they should have arrived, the students showed up and I could relax.

The ride to Inis Mór is about an hour and half. It was cloudy and rainy in the morning, so there wasn't much to look at. Neither Tim nor I had many expectations or ambitions for the day other than to buy a few sweaters at the Aran Sweater Market. As we began to file off the ferry, I began to wonder if even a square inch of Inis Mór would be unoccupied by a human--hoards of people pushed and shoved their way to the pier. Closing my eyes I could hear at least six or seven languages being spoken. Once on the pier, people gathered in lingering and confused clumps--maybe looking for tours? Maybe looking for people left behind? Tour hawkers stood by their vans and shouted destinations, prices, and otherwise tried to lure people into taking various sorts of trips around the island. It was chaos. In a fit of frustration, I made a dash for any open space ahead of me. I left Tim and our students behind, only looking behind me once I cleared the crowds. Eventually they joined me--we said goodbye to the students and Tim and I went in search of vittles. We ended up at The Bar, one of only a small handful of places that serves food. The place was pretty full when we arrived, but by the time we'd had lunch and pints, it was pretty empty. In fact, it seemed as if every person on the ferry, except for us, was absorbed into Inis Mór. We basically had the place to ourselves. We wandered around for a bit, bought some sweaters to send home, and generally absorbed the silence. With about two hours before we had to be back on the ferry, we decided to follow the shoreline for as far as we could. Tim hoped to find some ruins, I hoped to avoid people. In the end, we both got what we wanted.

Along our walk we encountered more cows and seaweed than tourists. We were almost instantly surrounded by bucolic scenes of cattle in fields with stone fence boarders and old men ambling by on bicycles. On the way back to town we saw a whole wedding party walking to a reception. Most of them were speaking Irish. 

Our lunch destination, The Bar.

The view from the pier in town.

Sweater Market.

Jenny the Donkey.

I used my "good camera" for most of our walk, but here are some views from our little adventure.

My hair got bigger and bigger over the course of our walk--humidity, plus wind, plus the power of the ocean.

Tim in search of ruins.

We had enormous flake 99s as a reward for our hard work.

The ferry was departing at 3:30 and we were all told to be at the ferry by 3:00. We showed up a few minutes after 3:00 and the line was enormous. It was as if somebody had squeezed Inis Mór like a sponge and everyone that had been absorbed was suddenly expelled upon the pier. We quickly gave up on the idea of "good seats" and instead cornered a ferry worker and asked which side of the ferry would have the best view of the Cliffs of Moher on the way back to Galway. We secured our spots along the railing and waited to see if our students, Jamie and Aidan, would make it the ferry on time. Fifteen minutes before departure they pull up in one of the aforementioned tour vans and popped out. Then they quickly moved to another van that was parked nearby. We observe that Jamie looks anxious and Aidan is doing some sort of negotiating--I see one credit card come out, then another. It's 8 minutes before the ferry is set to leave. With 5 minutes to spare, they make it on the ferry with a harrowing story about Euros (or a lack thereof), old men, bluetooth issues, and delays beyond their control. This is the real education you get from a study abroad experience. Safely on the ferry, we head back to Galway and the views along the way are spectacular. 

Jamie living her best life on the ferry. Aidan is a blur behind her blonde hair.

Tim fighting for his spot on the railing. A guy with good smelling hair tried to wedge his way in, but Tim was resolute! 

View of a shipwreck on Inis Meáin. If you're a fan of Father Ted, there's a shot of this wreck in the intro to every episode.

View of the Cliffs of Moher from the Ferry.

More views of the Cliffs. What you can't see is that the water is filled with small purplish translucent jelly fish that floated past the ferry in huge blooms.

The weather was obliging and made for incredible photos. 

Once we landed back in Galway, Jamie and Aidan vanished and went wherever students go. Tim and I, absolutely wrecked, went in search of something to eat in our hotel rooms. We ended up at a pop up with only a window and a bell. At this point we would have eaten anything if it meant we could collapse in our beds.

The entirety of the restaurant.

Tim waiting for his dinner.

On our walk home we decided that Galway, at least the busy and touristy parts close to the city center, isn't our speed. Imagine a drunken sea of hen parties, sunburned tourists, and bros of every stripe and color moving in and out of pubs with the faint sound of street buskers in the distance. However, we loved our Aran Island adventure and are already talking about taking a plane next time so that we try visiting maybe two of the islands in one day.

Day 21

I'm sad that I didn't take any photos of the gorgeous breakfast at The Harbour. Tim and I really tied on the feedbag and were loathe to leave it behind us. We're hoping we can stay there again in the future. 

Rather predictably, the students went out last night and were very slow moving this morning. The bus/van pulled up and there they were--standing on the sidewalk, some of them still in their pajamas. They pouring onto the bus/van and immediate fell asleep. At one point, Tim and I weren't even sure if they were having a good time. It turns out that they were having such a good time that they needed to sleep the good time off. It took a couple of hours, but we arrived at the Cliffs of Moher and were greeted with perfect and stunning views. As the students were rolled off the van/bus the driver said, "If you look closely, you can see Boston from here! There's nothing between you and New York City!" He's kind of right.

The Cliffs of Moher from the top.

Selfie with the Cliffs of Moher.

Cows grazing at the Cliffs of Moher with a dramatic sky. 

After the Cliffs it was another two hours to the Barak Obama Travel Plaza. We made sure this stop was added to the trip because it's hard to imagine any rest stop in the U.S. being dedicated to someone who wasn't American and it's kitschy AF. There's a little museum loosely dedicated to the Obamas (O'bamas) upstairs and there used to be some great souvenirs for sale. Alas, we didn't find any this time. But we did finally eat at SuperMac's (an Irish fast food chain) and had a chance to stretch our legs before heading back to the Marino Institute. 

Mr. Tayto at the Barack Obama Travel Plaza.

Timmy with his Supermac's.

Our driver, John, dropped us off at the Marino Institute and seconds later every student had evaporated without a goodbye or a backward glance. Tim and I have several theories about this, but they're best shared over a pint. 

Tomorrow begins our last week in Dublin. I'll confess to feeling sad about leaving--Dublin has become one of my cities and we've fallen in love with our Ringsend neighborhood. But I'm also relieved to be heading home to home, husband, and cats.  The next blog, likely the last one, will be full of "one lasts" and reflections on a month in Dublin.