פֿאַרעפֿנטלעכט: 03.07.2021
Hi dear ones.
Today a absolutely uneventful blog. Our trip to Galway. But first, let's start with the backstory...
Our original plan was actually to rent a car in Dublin to cruise around Ireland. Easier said than done. Since none of us is 25 and none of us has had their driver's license for 4 years (I only have 2 months left), we unfortunately couldn't rent a car. So we had to come up with something else. Hannah came up with the idea to rent bikes and ride along the west coast. So we rented bikes. Celine and Julian weren't really up for it, so they stayed in Dublin. A little bit of a shame in my opinion. Oh well.
Now we just had to get to Galway, which turned out to be more complicated than we thought. The bus connections here in Ireland are absolutely terrible and if you only know the buses from Dublin, you are completely overwhelmed at first. The only buses that travel through the country are those of Bus Éireann. However, since we also had two bikes with us and these buses are not really well-equipped for bikes, Hannah and I had to take two different buses. Annoying. But no big deal.
On the day of our departure, we had to leave the apartment where we had spent the last months much earlier than planned. So we spent the last hours in Phoenix Park, lying in the tall grass on our rain jackets and catching up on our tan deficit. After that, we went to the train station. When we arrived at the train station, I was immediately approached by a creepy guy who annoyed the hell out of me over time. 100 times "No" and half yelling later, he finally left me alone. I love it. 😒 Apparently, 1/3 of all Irish people live in Dublin because as soon as you're a few kilometers out of Dublin, you see... nothing. Nothing... except meadows, forests, and underbrush... oh yes, and every few kilometers a single house. Nearly 4 hours later, I arrived in Galway.
I found a spot there to wait for Hannah. I immediately found the small park in the city center and the pretty little houses around it. What immediately caught my attention... young people everywhere. Obviously, Galway is the city of young people. I hadn't even been in Galway for 10 minutes when I was approached again, which I tried to ignore. After Hannah arrived, we went to the apartment where we wanted to stay for the next few days. The apartment belongs to a guy we found through Couch Surfing. He obviously doesn't come from here himself, as his English was about as bad as ours. The apartment itself is part of a beautiful residential area, which you enter through a street lined with beautiful metal gates. At first, we weren't even sure if we were in the right place. We only had a brief small talk with the guy, as it was already very late and we were very tired. So we quickly went to bed and fell asleep.
For the next day, sightseeing in Galway was planned. But that will be in the next post, otherwise this will be too long.
See you later
Slán