Afterwards, Tina and I went shopping, explored the Medeaival quarters (complete with castles and we were yelled at for coming in during mass...my bad!), visited Trinity College campus and lusting for student ID cards, and finished the night at a local pub. Can you guess which part was the best of the whole day? Yes, all parts were indeed magical, but the local irish PUB won the award for being the most entertaining by far. What do you imagine a pub in Ireland to look like? What kinda atmostphere? Multiply that experience you just had in your head times ten! THAT is what happened in that bar that night. First night in country and we were not left disappointed...or thirsty. But before you judge, we drank responsibly of course. My personal highlights: 1. Meeting some new French friends named Sebastian and Ano. Who ended up planning our following day's roadtrip to Galway in a drunken slur. And for some reason...we ended up waking up the next morning and still following every part of the drunken advice. It was glorious. 2. I found Tina planking on the bar and dancing to a cover of Mumford and Sons in front of a packed room of people of whom were throwing their glasses in the air and clapping to the beat. I don't even have to make stuff up for this blog to be interesting...Tina "wow-ed" the crowd with her Riverdance moves and flopped ponytail. I stood behind her with a proud smile and a videocamera. 3. The last highlight for me was Tina winning the heart one French boy who put it best when he looked at me and Tina while the banjo music was pounding throughout the room and said in his best English, "Teeenah like experiences..." I almost cried with laughter. i didn't even need to know for what reason he would say that or even what he meant. Foreign people talk funny. ;) We had one magical night and our first day in Dublin, Ireland was set up right. I knew this was the start to something beautiful...and nuts.
TOD: Yes, night number one was indeed a success. It was everything you could wish for out of the Irish and pubs. We loved every second of it. The next morning we woke up early, not an easy thing to do after a night of pub shenanigans. We were on our way to Galway, Ireland by way of a car we rented. Since we opted for the most economical package possible we had a very small European car. As we drove off the lot we were high on adrenalin and the thought of the possiblities that awaited us. Since the car was a manual Jaci did all the driving. Jaci has grown up her whole life driving shift. One of the many qualities I've come to admire. She did wonderfully. However, we did run into one snag. The problem? We didn't know how to reverse the car. Yep, u-turns became our best friend. My job was to navigate. Let's just say I tried.
Once we got to Galway we went to a pub with wifi. Its not like a regular pub...its a cool pub. Somehow we got in because seemingly you needed to be recieving your social security check to be there. The room was filled with 50+ yr old men and there we sat. Googling our way to try find a place to sleep in an unfamilair Gaelic town bording the Atlantic.
Later we returned to the car but I could tell Jaci was searching for something. The key. Panic took over as I was thinking about the worse case scenerio saying "this could either make or break me." And it was true. I definitely would have lost my mind if we were stranded in Galway in the blowing rain without a place to stay. I began to rip open her backpack. Key found. Eventually we did ask a local about our reverse situation and he kindly showed us with a simple trick as easy as lifting and pulling and we were back in business. We drove for what seemed to be hours in circles on the hunt for our accomadation. Tension was building and the sun was setting. Finally, Jaci parked the car in a 30 minute zone while I went to explore in the rain. Hostel was found and we could end the anxiety.
JMcS: If I may interject, it was a long day. Tina's navigating responsibilities were put on probation after a series of missed exits and map confusion. She had the best of intensions, but we needed to get to our destination and so while I proceeded to drive on the left side of the road learn a new system of driving (roundabouts, sheep/cows crossing, etc.) in the rain across an unfamilair country, I also became "the navigator" with a lap of maps and reading road signs. Tina got a new job...and one she was great at. She handled the cd player.
The "not being able to reverse" was an added stress to us because at times I forgot to drive on the left side of the road and secondly, we couldn't park anywhere. We would never be able to leave unless Tina would push me out in the rain. That would be a site, so we eventually asked a pedestrian how to reverse our space machine and he stuck his hand through the window and shifted for me. Lesson learned. Thank you for not highjacking us, Sir. We were just two girls with no clue what we were doing...and I was relishing in it.
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