Six hours of walking - So worth it!

Oh my goodness! What a whirlwind of a week. Classes started last week, which wasn't anything too stressful. I spent last weekend making up my schedule (or "timetable" as it's called here) and found all my classes without a problem. My professors seem very intelligent but in a bunch of different ways. My American History prof is very hispanic and adds a pronounced "e" at the end of each word. It makes him somewhat hard to understand, but i like his enthusiasm. My Irish history prof seems too intelligent to be able to follow a singe train of thought. He starts saying something then stops to give context, and then jumps to something else... At the end of the first lecture i finally understood what he mentioned at the beginning of the class. Oh well =) My celtic myth lecturer it from Britain though I'm not sure which part. He comes into the classroom smelling like stale tobacco which adds an oddly comforting aroma to the classroom. He's the type of intellectual who really thinks before he speaks, often stopping to organize his thoughts before he shares them with us. 

Camped out, waiting to register for seminars

On Friday morning me and four other Cobbers spent three hours waiting in line to sign up for our seminar courses. The Irish students are required to take one seminar each semester and there are usually three spots saved for visiting students. So we were told to get there at least two hours early to make sure we got a spot. We arrive at 8:15 (registration started at 11...) and we were probably fiftieth in line. It was ridiculous! But we all got either our first or second choice, so it was worth it. After finishing our first full week of college in Ireland, we were feeling pretty good.

Lookout/diving board at Galway Bay

This morning, I woke up to sunshine peaking through the curtains! Which was wonderful because we had planned to walk down to the bay today. By the time I showered and ate breakfast though, the inevitable cloud cover rolled in, but it was still fairly warm outside. We began our walking adventure with a stop at Galway Bay, and although I'm sure it's more beautiful in the sunlight, it was breathtaking. We walked on the beach and walked onto the lookout that doubles as a diving board when the tide is high. I found a little golden shell on the beach among the seaweed and water-streaked sand. There were barnacles attached to the steps leading down to the sand that would be covered by the high tide eventually. 

I got a hazelnut cappuccino. It was
so good!

When we were sufficiently chilled from the wind coming off the water, we set off toward Salthill to find a coffee shop. We stopped at a place called Mocha Beans, and I had the best cup of coffee I've had since arriving in Ireland. It warmed my very soul, it was so good! We spent a good forty-five minutes in the cafe warming up and drinking our coffees. 

After we warmed up a bit, we continued our walk to Galway City. We didn't think it would be that long of a walk but it took us a good forty minutes to get there. We followed the bay and came in by the Spanish Arch at the end of town. We walked around by the old docks and went into the Galway Museum. My favorite part was a small exhibit on Jack Yeats, WB Yeats' younger brother, who was an artist. He used such a variety of mediums, and each of his subjects/landscapes were so precise and detailed. One of the biography blurbs said that he never painted anything he hadn't personally seen, so it was super interesting to see each of the paintings or drawings and know that it was a real scene captured by Yeats' art. It was fascinating.

Near the old docks in Galway

 By the end of the museum tour we were quite hungry. We spent about fifteen minutes walking up and down shop street trying to find this one restaurant we wanted to eat at, but finally we settled for an Italian restaurant which was arguably the best decision we made all day (second only to our coffee stop). We ordered three small pizzas for the five of us and ate all of it. It was delicious =) To top off an amazing day, we stopped at a candy store on our way home. We were literally like kids in there, so excited about chocolates and gummy candies sprinkled with sugar, little surprise bags for two euro. We each had a sweet treat for the walk home. Now I'm home, exhausted, but quite content with how the day turned out.