"When you think you can't you'll find you can can! Everyone can can can! You can can can too!"

         So Paris was a whirlwind of insanity. Our hostel was kinda far outside the city itself by train in a place called Chelles, then the place itself was supposed to be a 5 min walk from the station. Yeah, total bull. We did get lost, but even so it was over 10, at least. We kept trying to ask for directions and geez we failed pretty hard…wish I knew more French!! But we knew it was next to a McDonald’s, so we just kept asking where that was with hand gestures. FINALLY like almost an hour later we made it, after exploring most of the town haha. And this was the first place where we had no internet at all, so we had to use the McDonald’s next door…we basically looked like fatasses cause we were there all the time. That night Rafa and I went to see Stornoway in the Bastille area of Paris, and HOLY S*&T BLEW ME AWAY. I love all their songs, but it was just soooooo much better in person. First time I’ve ever truly enjoyed an entire concert, to be honest. Their lead singer has an incredible voice, and he sang a song just him and his guitar (which he’s also amazing at) that wasn’t on the cd which made me swoon. LOVE IT. I def wished they would just keep playing…I didn’t care if they’d repeat songs. There were these really annoying British girls singing, which is okay if you’re at a loud concert, but these guys did a lot of unplugged numbers and I did not pay to listen to their ugly out of tune faces screech. Ugh. But even that didn’t ruin it…I’m an even more devoted fan now. And, HINT HINT, you should go listen to them too on YouTube. RIGHT NOW. GO.

Brit came the day after we got there but kinda late, so we decided it wasn’t worth it economically to go into the city. We did explore a bit and find a grocery store AND this amazing little bar right next to our place. We kinda just dropped in and no one spoke any English so we relied on Brit’s semi-workable skills haha. But we did get wine, and then he brought us this delicious lemon sangria which was one of the best drinks I’ve ever had. And, of course, we asked if he had any food so he brought out some sort of pastry thing (flan, maybe?) which we devoured. All in all, we got a glass of wine each, a pitcher of sangria, flan, beans stuffed with something awesome, and olives for 30 euro total. Dude, it was almost like a meal.

         The next day we were so ready to go…which was good cause there was lots of walking involved. First we headed to Versailles, along with 431849130 other people. I left my Nalgene at the train station, thus beginning a long series of me losing things and basically ending with me being at my wit’s end, but that's another story. I did find it when we got back, though. But since we were students we got in free…always a good thing. I’d been there before yeeeeeeeeeears ago with the fam, but I def kinda forgot how elaborately gaudily decorative it is. I mean, there’s gold freaking everywhere! I’ve decided my house one day will have certain things in common with Versailles, like tapestries and perhaps a throne, but I don’t think I could sleep with all that crap everywhere. I mean, one little light and the entire room glooooooooows!

         Brit and I opted to pay the 6 euro to walk around the gardens especially because there was some sort of musical fountain show going on all day and we were intrigued. Rafa and Ronnie headed into the city to wander for a while. But omg the gardens were magnificent…that’s another thing I would love to copy from Versailles. It was even better because the fountains came on as we were there, and classical music was playing the whole time. I underestimated how large they were, though, because it took us a good 1.5 hours to get from one end to another, though that did include some picture time. And we wanted to see Marie Antoinette’s estate as well but a) our tickets weren’t good for it and b) we would never have left that place if we’d gone lol. Brit and I were at Versailles for over 6 hours, mostly in the gardens, but it was so worth it. There are all these subdivisions of gardens with different themes, and also marble statues EVERYWHERE. There were a bunch of people with picnics, which made me wish we’d thought ahead haha.

         We met the others at the Eiffel Tower, where Brit and Rafa climbed to the first floor. I opted out cause oh god my feet hurt so badly. On the other hand, I had the best hot dog of my life…cause I was so effing hungry. I seriously have to eat pretty regularly otherwise I get grumpy and tired…college has ruined me. In high school I could go all day without eating. Now I need to eat like clockwork. Oy. But we wandered a little more, and I tried to solve my money crisis. Oh, I haven’t talked about that yet? Yeah, so I went to withdraw money and it told me Chase wouldn’t let me. Not cool…I had NOTHING left in my wallet and the help line numbers apparently ‘didn’t exist.’ So I did what every adult-like person would do—call their mother. OBVS. I did get it sorted out, but luckily Brit had cash moneyz to lend to me otherwise I’d have been stuck in Chelles. Walked a little more, sat, walked, and sat again. Then went home. Apparently I worked my legs too hard cause oy shin splints came and I had the urge to hack my legs off at the knees. Nbd, cause Rafa had her pain go bye bye pills and god I felt great! (Calm down, guys, it was just really strong Ibuprofen.)

         Our last day there I really wanted to do the walking tour that we missed the day before, but Brit wanted to do the Louvre as well. I was gonna join her but we had to put our luggage in lockers at the station and get our tickets for the overnight train and by the time we got to the Louvre I would have seen like the entrance and had to leave. Good thing I’d already been there lol. Did you know that if you looked at every piece in there (over 30,000) for 30 sec each, it would take you a week straight without sleep or rest to see everything? Yeah, my new goal is to see the whole Louvre…over like the course of a month. Can’t handle that much museum haha.

         We did the Sandeman’s New Paris tour (like the free Madrid one) and of course it was wonderful (and free!). The oldest bridge still standing in Paris was built by one of the Louis’ and apparently he and his friends got wasted in celebration, and he had their drunken faces carved and placed along the bridge, where they still are. Our guide compared it to putting up Facebook pictures lol. I think the French royalty were the funniest in many respects, though also the craziest. Seriously, a bridge full of drunken faces…epic win. Our guide suggested we go to Montmarte, where the Moulin Rouge is, so with little time remaining we headed there to meet Brit, who finally finished at the Louvre. It was kinda cool, though it was also a little weird cause there were sex shops everywhere, and I def thought we’d wandered into the red light district haha.

Getting to our train was an absolute nightmare, btw. We left too late from Montmarte, and we still had to get our bags, and Rafa and Ronnie needed to get their tickets too. I lost my unlimited metro pass, and then the luggage locker ticket which meant a 20 euro fine AND Brit and I had to fill out paperwork and wait til they checked it was our stuff. Rafa and Ronnie went ahead to pick up tickets, but, as we’ll see, that didn’t go well for them. From the lockers I freaking sprinted down the block to Gare Bercy that we were leaving from in 10 minutes while Brit decided to take the subway. Not a bad plan…except she went the wrong way. The man at the counter wouldn’t give Rafa her ticket with her credit card and she didn’t have her confirmation number written down. 5 minutes til departure. I’d gotten mine with my card earlier so I berated someone to get Rafa the ticket, then I went to find our platform. 3 minutes, and still no Brit. I’m frantically asking in broken French where my train is, and they keep slicing their hands across their throats, like, it’s not here, or at least that's what I got. 1 minute. Well, I finally found someone who spoke English, and they told me that the train was delayed. OH THANK GODDDDD. Just then Rafa and Ronnie run up, and we all breathe again, and also realized just how fast our hearts are beating. About 3 minutes later Brit comes in, like, oh I’m ready! Yeah, if that train had been on time Ronnie and I would’ve had an interesting time alone in Rome…

AND THE SHENANIGANS were just beginning! I was in ‘1^st class’ aka 4 people in 6 bunks instead of full up…so worth the extra 10 euro. But somehow in the hustle and bustle my passport, which was on my bed, disappeared. Yeah, I did not react well. I think this trip has broken me because my new reaction to stress is to cry…that is so not my style. So basically I’m freaking out in a cabin with this adorable family with a little 4 year old French boy who climbs like an monkey. After FOURTY FIVE minutes of tearing apart everything I can get my hands on, we find it under the bottom bunk. I don’t think I can convey the panic I had, though. I mean, I was prepared to get thrown off the train at a random stop (we were in motion already) or arrested or something and I was so not okay with that. Funny story though: the conductor came in to get the passports right after I realized mine was gone, and when he asked I kinda spun around, tears running down my face, and kinda hysterically yelled/asked for more time. Yeah, he took one look and was like, I’ll be at the end of the hall…’ Haha scaring people FTW.

Next morning I wake up and everyone is gone. Nbd, they got off in Florence. That was a cute kid, though…we made faces at each other for like 20 minutes before bed, and Brit was talking to him a bit. He wished me good night in the MOST ADORABLE voice ever, and in French obvs.

Rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, except for me losing (surprise surprise) my two new rings which was really upsetting. Just got those in the Aran Islands, and one was my claddagh ring. So, in total, I lost my water bottle (got it back), my money (Chase let me have it eventually), my subway ticket (gone), luggage locker ticket and thus 20 euro, MY FREAKING PASSPORT, and my beautiful rings. Paris was not quite as good a time as I’d hoped…sadly I don’t think I want to go back for a loooooong time even though most of it was really fun. Just too much stress I can’t handle that again. But I was looking forward to seeing/stalking the Jersey Shore so I tried to forget about my near death experiences from stress-induced heart attacks. I never want life to be that exciting again lol.

Slán go fóill!

Not just the capital of Vermont

         First, let me say that the tram in Montpellier is prbs the coolest public transport I’ve ever taken. It’s above ground, but it’s also painted in insane colors with flowers and stuff all over the side. On the bus we met this random Russian guy who was asking us questions and telling us about his trip through France. At first it was a little sketch, but he was actually really nice. He was pretty funny, making fun of the bus driver for legit taking a 30+ minute break when he told us to be back in 10 haha. Yay for meeting random peoples!

         Our hotel was quite a surprise, actually, though actually it was quite nice. What we expected was a villa, with a pool and bar on the side. Well, the pool was closed, and we couldn’t for the life of us find the bar lol. But we had free Wi-Fi and a bathroom and a nice view of the warehouses haha so all was well. But we did run into a problem—three of us and a two-person bed cause we didn’t want to pay for an extra room haha. Our solution was to have Ronnie curl up at the foot of the bed and Rafa and I would lie in it ‘normally,’ aka with our legs tucked so as to not kick Ronnie in the face. Yeah, that failed miserably. I slept on the ground, which was actually quite comfy, not gonna lie, especially with a blanket under me. Apparently I am meant to sleep on the ground…I could totes be a hobo now!

         There’s not much to do in Montpellier, since it was a little cold for the beach and we were rather far outside the city. Yay relaxation day! We didn’t get into the city until like 5pm with our little picnic, aka breakfast/lunch/dinner. At that point I was ready to sit in the road and eat…SO HUNGRY. But the first park we went to was really really sketchy…we soon realized that Montpellier is a little hood, surprise! I didn’t notice cause I was starving, but apparently everyone was looking at us as we walked in. We did find a nice bigger park right after so nbd, but oh god I devoured our bread and cheese and pate om nom. We also had the brilliant idea to share a 5L jug of wine between the three of us. Yeeeeeeeeah that ended hilariously. Essentially we got rather drunk in the middle of this random park with these French peoples staring at us laughing a bit. It was great craic though…Ronnie ran around afraid of the dogs and birds and we started speaking only in Spanish so the French wouldn’t we were American ahaha. And on the tram home Ronnie made friends with a little kid, playing Peek-a-Boo and saying ‘Bonjour’ like the entire way home. Rafa is such a menace with her feet, stepping on all our flip-flops and breaking Ronnie’s haha. We all fell asleep when we got home like immediately for a bunch of hours, and watched houuuuuuuurs of Modern Family when we finally woke up. Still drunk, we fell asleep—it was much easier for Rafa to fall asleep on the floor that way :P  Our exciting Montpellier experience ended a little too soon, but I was stoked for Paris and to see Brittany!! :D

Slán go fóill!

'Bienvenidos esto es mi sueñoooooooooooooo..."

         Before we start, I just want to let you all know one thing: we are the Cheetah Girls. Now that we have that cleared up, we can talk about BARCELONAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. First of all, we met up with Ronnie!!! AHHHHHH that was probably what we were both looking forward to the most here fo sho. I mean, I need more than just Rafa in my pictures haha. We got there so much earlier than her on Saturday that we decided to wander a bit after resting. We ended meeting up with Primo, who’s studying here this semester, in Plaza Catalunya and he took us down La Rambla to the statue of Cristobál Colón pointing to the Americas. I kinda got flashbacks as we walked, esp down La Rambla, and I think I even remembered where I lived for the first week when I was here! It was funny cause I would randomly remember and kinda go back in time. Overland 2006, ftw! Everything is kinda as I remember it, though I def didn’t know where I was going a lot of the time. But metro stops and random places, I just recognized.

         So we had always heard about the famous Barcelona nightlife, which starts at 1am and doesn’t stop until 7 or later. Luckily we were there on Saturday so the metro ran all night, and Rafa and I just had to go out. Originally Ronnie was gonna come too, but she had a horribly long day traveling and decided to sleep instead. Good choice—I always vote sleep over movement. BUT anyway we were drinking in the common room and this group of French guys invited us over to drink with them, and we talked a bit (they didn’t speak that much English haha). One of them started playing the guitar, which was AWESOME. Guitar=amazing. Later we ended up running into Primo and company in the metro on our way to meet them at the club, which was great cause we didn’t really know where we were going (and neither did they, actually). One of the girls, Belky, asked these Spanish people if we could follow them to the club lol, so we were so set. It was a super fun night! We did stay out til 5, 7 is just a little too much for me. But we danced a bunch, got in for free (my new fav word) cause we knew a promoter (named Michael Jordan, I KID YOU NOT), and random stuff happened. There was a runway show, a DMX biker show, and we met an Olympic tae kwon do dude. Seriously, weirdest slash best club ever. Going to bed was awesome, though, but getting everything in the dark and without waking the entire freaking dorm up was challenging.

         Well, obvs we slept in a bit, aka til 11 which was far too little sleep for my poor tired body. But we had sightseeing to do! We hit like everything, from the Gothic quarter to La Sagrada Familia. I saw where me and the fam stayed way back when, across from the Barcelona Cathedral, and we got amaaaaaaaaazing fruit from this tiny store on a random street while we were lost haha. La Sagrada Familia was SOOOOOOOOOOOO COOL. They finished the entire inside with the giant ceiling and beautiful stained glass windows. Compared to when I was there before it looks so much better; there’s barely any scaffolding and now they actually organized the system of the elevator to the top of the tower. I’m not much for religion, but this is a seriously inspiring church. Like I wish I could just sit in there for hours, that’s how amazing it is. I wish I captured the essence in the pictures, but sadly I don’t think I did it justice…you’ll just have to go see it yourself! Going up the tower was brilliant—we saw the entire city and also a lot of the carvings and building up close. Again, see pictures, but basically we were on the bridge connecting the two towers over the Nativity Façade so we saw the Tree of Life up close…so cool.

         Tired and ready for a break, we went home to drink sangria and watch TV (Modern Family ftw!). Quite relaxing, until Primo texted us telling us we had to be at this club in like an hour if we wanted to get in free. Well, free is everything we want, so we classily grabbed our water bottles for drinks-on-the-go (it’s legal in Spain). Turns out this damn club was like a 25 minute walk from the subway so we missed it anyway…I swear the building (it was on the top floor of a hotel) got further away as we walked. Well after getting there and failing to get in, we turned around and walked like another 40 minutes to Opium, by which point I was tired, my feet hurt, and my desire to dance was severely depressed. And to add to that, we HAD to stay there until 5, since that’s when the metro opened again. FML. Probably one of the worst nights out of my life, including some pretty terrible nights. Ronnie fell asleep on the couch in the club for like 30 minutes, woke up, and fell right back asleep. I napped a bit, and so did most of us. That is NOT a good time.

         Tuesday was our trip to Park Güell, where the Cheetah Girls spent time so we obvs had to go. I forgot how steep a hill it was but we went to the lookout of Las Tres Cruces, the highest part of the part and they anticipated our laziness and put in escalators lol. The view of the city was breathtaking—we could see all the way out to the ocean, to the Sagrada Familia and the hotel we tried to party at as well ahaha. It was sunny and warm and beautiful too so the view was made even better. The park itself is filled with lots of mosaics and columns that look like trees and shady areas (thank god I would’ve burned SO HARD otherwise). We gave into our desire to buy shiny things and got some 1 euro jewelry from the randos there. I vividly remember being there with Overland back in the day, even where we took our group pictures. Speaking of pictures, we did loooooooots of jumping pictures. Rafa was super good at it but Ronnie failed constantly haha. It was just the same face over and over but omg so hilarious I loved it. Like fo serious every time she managed to make it in the air at the right time it was like an insane person :P In anticipation of seeing Brit, we all got friendship bracelets in different colors. To complete the roommate pentagon, we also got Lena one for whenever she escapes from the cold reaches of Russia.

         Leaving Barcelona was saaaaad but also I was kinda ready cause I cannot freaking handle the life and heat here in a hostel. I think it’d be different if I lived here for a long time, but I’m also really glad I went to Ireland. Having to pay to get into clubs is unthinkable; I miss being able to go get a pint (or a few) at a pub and go out without spending like 15 euro to get in. Eff that ish.

Slán go fóill!

'Bakit ka pa nakita, bakit pa nakilala'

         So food poisoning sucks hugely, especially when in a foreign country trying to see the sights. We think we got it from some strawberries that we took on the bus and then carried in the heat to our hostel in Zaragoza. I got hit the worst cause I def ate the most, but Rafa did feel the effects as well. I tried walking around in the morning but boy was I sick, so I went back while Rafa went to explore the old city. We originally thought it was the incredibly large amount of peanut butter that we ate for dinner, but pssht I’ve eaten that much before so the strawberries make more sense. Good thing I like bread, cause that’s what I’ve been eating haha.

         Getting to the hostel was an adventure in itself—we had vague directions, but there were multiple exits from the bus stations so originally we were going the wrong way. Thankfully we turned ourselves around, but not before walking like 15 min in the wrong direction. And it took us another hour to get to the hostel cause we took an extra left which technically did get us there, just in a more roundabout way. I don’t think my back has every hurt that much…it’ll be a miracle if I don’t get scoliosis! We might get an extra carry-on bag (since Rafa has to check her bags now) so we don’t all die.

         Zaragoza is so nice, though! The area that we’re in is not touristy at all, so we stand out a bit, but it’s nice to get cheap food and such (not that we ate much…). There are a crapton of parks around here, most with lots of shade which is great in this insane heat. It gets hottest right around 5-6pm, strange but true. On Friday we explored a little more now that we both were feeling better. Again, late rising, but dude that’s obvs the best part of not having a huge amount to do. We went to the Aljaferia, this huuuuuuuge Moorish palace that was converted into a palace for the Fernando II of Aragon, one of the Reyes Católicos, married to Isabella of Castilla. It has a huge open courtyard with lots of plants and this awesome waterfall-river-thing flowing down the middle. We hung out there for a while, checking out all the rooms. At one point it was a military fort that no one cared about, so it fell into disrepair and was gross and things got destroyed. They’re in the midst of a restoration that started in the 20s, recarving the stone and such to match the original decoration. Even though it’s white stone in reality it used to be painted in bright colors and gold all over. They had a reconstruction of a part in the museum attached and it looked SO COOL. It’s such a shame everyone ignored it for so long cause it could have been almost as awesome as La Alhambra.

         One thing Spain has a lot of are churches/cathedrals. Like, A LOT A LOT. We went to the most famous, La Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Pilar, in the Old Town, after a freaking amazing lunch in the Aljaferia park. I finally satisfied my sorbet craving, when Rafa and I polished off a liter on our own ahahaha. Sadly Ireland does not have sorbet!! AHHHHHHHHHHH. BUT ANYWAY we walked around and it was amazing—the carving was so detailed and the very center had this stone carved canopy thing that stretched all the way to the top. There was supposed to be a tower that we could climb up but it was closed until May bah. We kinda tried to walk around more but got tired and sat in various plazas and drank water and talked. Outside Nuestra Señora there was this awesome drinking water fountain so obvs we had a water fight. Best decision ever, in my opinion. Rafa had a good observation—for a country with droughts all the time, they have a huge number of fountains! Like everywhere you go there’s some sort of water spewing from the ground haha.

         At some point we decided it was too hot and went to get dinner from the supermercado, aka more bread and cheese. Over the 3 days we seriously spent like 10 euro on food, a wonderful thing since that means we can spend more in other, more expensive cities ahhhhhhhh. Our new thing is watching Project Runway, so we saw like 5 episodes on my comp. We also watched a bunch of Spanish TV, including Spanish versions of US shows. Fun fact: ‘Without a Trace’ is ‘Sin Rostro’ in Spanish, which means Without a Face AHAHAHA. Lolz. ‘Charmed’ is ‘Embrujadas,’ which is just super fun to say.

         So overall, Zaragoza was a win, despite the illness and heat, because there were cool things and we got to rest before Barcelona. Good times, dude. Especially cause we said ‘Eff this’ and took a taxi to the bus station on Saturday morning haha.

Slán go fóill!

P.S. I kinda cheated on this title, but it does make sense if you Google it, I promise :)

´Pronto estaré de aquí muy muy lejos...´

        Lemme just say, I love Spain! It is super super warm here and sunny constantly. Awesomeeeeeee. But back to the beginning…

        We spent the night in the Galway bus station watching Project Runway and Doctor Horrible on my comp which already had them on it. We’ve decided these are our staples for when there’s a lot of time to kill and no internetz. Finally got on the bus at 1:15am and immediately passed out, only waking up when we got to the Dublin Airport at 4. I was sooooo tired I really just wished the bus ride would have been longer haha. I slept in the airport too even though it was horrifically uncomfortable…obviously comfort is not an issue on 3 hours of sleep. Slept on the plane, obvs. We took the metro to our stop with all our craploads of stuff, but it was a lot easier and faster than we thought it would be. Our hostel was so nice too! Las Musas was really close to Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor, so after dropping our stuff off we went to finally get food. I think Rafa and I both were delirious with exhaustion, but we couldn’t sleep until 2 when they finished cleaning our room ahhhhhhhhh. Before our nap we were all like ‘Oh we’ll sleep for 2 hours and get up and go sightsee and explore!’ Yeah, bullshit. Our alarms went off and we just kept on sleeping, finally getting up at like 5. Nbd. We went to the Reina Sofia, the modern art museum, to see Guernica. I’d been to Madrid before but really didn’t remember much, so I was definitely seeing everything for the first time like Rafa haha. I had dinner with Paige Wolff that night, who’s studying in Madrid, and she took us to this cute little restaurant near her apartment. It was so fun! I finally had avocado omg delish I was so happy…I missed it cause ah it’s so expensive in Ireland. It was such a high school reunion, especially cause I found out that Kyle Hartman is in Madrid too, Elana Hartman was staying at my hostel when I got back, and I’ll probably meet up with Johanna Katz in Barcelona/Florence. Oh Greeley how you stalk me haha.

        So in Spain you eat dinner at like 10 or later—we saw people out eating at like 11:30 when we were going home. Rafa and I were gonna do the pub crawl that our hostel did but we just didn’t have time for everything. It was okay though cause we really needed sleep haha. But everything is cheap there! Like a full lunch for 2 euro…epic win :D Instead we drank wine and watched ‘Drag Race’ so all in all a great night.

        Next morning at breakfast they had Cola Cao! Aka my favorite drink (powder) ever. I def need to bring some of it back with me aw yeah. We did Sandeman’s Free Walking Tour of Madrid which was 3.5 hours long, free, and AMAZING. Our guide, Matthew, was incredible and knew like everything about the city. Despite the fact I thought my legs were going to collapse by the end, it was a fantastic tour and I loved every minute of it. We saw the entire city too! We went to one of the places he had shown us for chocolate con churros after…there is literally nothing better than dipping fried dough in chocolate. Sandeman’s ran a tapas tour as well for 14 euro so obvs we joined and had a blast. We met a bunch of girls from the States studying in England, a guy who’s an au pair in Frankfurt post-college, a high school grad who’s taking a gap year around Europe, and a bunch of random others who were really nice! The au pair was telling me that it’s a great job—he gets his food, housing, and language lessons paid for because he didn’t speak a word of German when he got there. Also Matthew was pretty cool…he’s from Scotland but went to University in New Zealand, before coming to Spain to give tours and check it out. Epic winnnnn. I tried a bunch of new tapas like Galician octopus, but held off on the pig’s ear. EW GROSS.

        We were gonna do a couple more things, like go to the Prado and see the Egyptian temple, but Rafa got in touch with her cousin Morayma who lives in Madrid so we went to see her instead. We vaguely knew where we were going, but were also kinda guessing lol. But we did get there (after asking several people for directions haha) and she was so nice!! She made us dinner and we were there for like 3 hours, until the metro was about to close. She has a 6 year old son, Nico, who is soooooooooooooo adorable. I, being me, did not chat much, but Rafa and Morayma talked about everything…it was hilarious to listen to. Then her neighbor came in and I got totally lost. I can understand almost everything people say, but seriously this woman talked so fast I just smiled and nodded. I thought I was just becoming dumb, but Rafa said she had some trouble too so I felt better.

        Thought we would get up early and go to the Prado Wednesday morning, but that failed lol. We slept in a bit and checked out, before walking to Plaza Mayor again to get some lunch. Got to the bus station, where the signs said our bus wasn’t to leave until 3pm, while our tickets said 2pm. Rafa the Magnificent asked around and we found the bus, but not before I spilled strawberry juice all over myself. BLAH FAIL. Oh well, at least it blended a bit with my skirt…

Slán go fóill!

'Cause her hair was black and her eyes were blue..."

         Well from now on I'm titling all posts with a song lyric about the city I'm in. YEAH CREATIVITY. You *should* try to guess without cheating by looking at the itinerary, btw.

         EuroTrip has begun! Rafa and I are just about to leave Galway departing for Madrid, and it was an awesome way to start the month. We were supposed to leave early-ish for Galway on Friday by bus, like 9am, but per our usual routine did not get on the bus until 1pm haha. Nbd, cause we probably wouldn’t have done anything anyway since the bus ride kinda killed us. We had to change buses in Limerick, but it def took us almost 2 hours to get there…except Limerick is totally only an hour away. Fml. I slept most of the way, since I’ve started pulling a Rafa and staying up really late the night before I travel so I immediately pass out. We got to our hostel and crashed for a while before going out exploring. We were talking to a random Australian dude (who, side note, is on an Australian style football team here in Galway with lots of other Australians) and mentioned that we were going to a pub to see the Connacht vs Edinburgh rugby match (for the Magner’s League) that night. He told us it would be so much better in person, and told us that we could get tickets AT the stadium, which was a 15 min walk from our hostel. EPIC WIN TO THE MAX. So we went, I was a child and got free things (flag and keychain ftw), Rafa got her long-desired burger, and Connacht won! It was a really good game, 27-23 at the end, and even though it rained and was super cold towards the end we had a great time. The sad thing about Munster is that it’s so big that we can’t get tickets except far in advance. The Connacht tix were 15 euro at the gate, which made me happy beyond belief. And we were right up on the fence right behind the players’ bench talking to them, something that doesn’t usually happen at pro games. I thought the men’s team at UCC was huge—these guys were absolute monsters. There was one 2^nd row who was def 6’7” AND got lifted in the lineout…he was like the height of a small building. There were a lot of primary school ruggers there too, marching around cheering loudly. One little kid was sitting on the wall next to Rafa with his Pringles and Coke, but knocked the Pringles on the ground. Well that didn’t stop him, cause he went and collected them all in the can. He did start eating them too, but kinda chew-spit one out back on the ground, left, came back and continued eating the rest. Lolz.

         Saturday was not, sadly, a rugby day, but it was a day trip to the Aran Islands, for us it was Inismor. We got a student deal for 2 days—Aran Islands and Connemara. The island was awesome and it was a gorgeous day perfect for sightseeing. Rafa and I decided to be frugal and brave and walk to all the places instead of taking a tour bus or renting a bike, and we actually made it like 2 miles UPHILL to the highest point on the island (which was actually off the beaten path and up another freaking hill). There are only about 800 people on the island at any given time, so there is a lot of open land. There are 3 primary schools, 3 churches, and 6 pubs haha. There is an Irish college on the island where mainlanders can come for a summer to learn the language, which is still spoken on the island. The crazy thing about the farmers on Inismor is that the ground is pure limestone—no dirt at all. They basically took seaweed and sand and layered it a couple inches thick to create workable soil, and even then it’s rather sparse. There are cows and horses but no huge herds. No mainlander is allowed to build on the island, only buy a pre-built house, and to build at all you have to prove that you live and work there and will live in the house for at least 10 years, so it’s a pretty small community. Anyway, at the lighthouse we met a tour bus with a family in it, and the driver offered us a ride for a discount, and we def took him up on it. Good thing too, cause we wouldn’t have made it to Dún Aeongus otherwise. It’s a 3000 year old fort on the edge of a 100m cliff, with 2 huuuuuuuge stone walls that originally contained 6700 tonnes of stone and a field of stone pillars called cheveaux de frise. They’re all upright and close together so getting through them is still hard today even though many have worn or been taken away. We went right to the edge, which I got out of my system so when Mom comes to visit I won’t have to look over :P  We saw many many cool things, like the smallest church in the world, but at 5 we were happy to be going home. Slept again, despite the annoying Italian girls behind us who talked THE ENTIRE TIME. Wtf, fools. We ended up watching Project Runway (Season 2) on my comp for a couple hours cause I didn’t have internet (had to pay…ew)…I think we’ll be doing that a lot lol. Did try going out, failed at finding a pub, and ended up at Supermacs to get milkshakes. Random thing: we both checked our accounts and found extra money in them, so we printed out the stub and took it out! So I may, possibly, be 60 euro richer haha. Awesomeeeeee.

         Sunday we got up early to get Rafa a shower cap so she could stop using a plastic bag lol, then headed to our favorite place ever, Spar. Seriously, best supermarket in the world, aka Europe…sadly Cork does not have one :(  Connemara was fun…we went all the way out to Kylemore Abbey, filled with Benedictine nuns. We actually passed Killary and I saw the adventure center we were at haha. Took lots of pictures. A beautiful scenic trip, but not as jam-packed as the Aran Islands. We did stop a couple times by mountains and streams and waterfalls and sheep, though.

         Sadly we had to leave our hostel :(  It was sooooooo nice especially since it was 11 euro a night! We had a good kitchen, tea, and decent bunkbeds, even though we were on the top lol. I will miss you, Salmon Weir Hostel, and recommend you highly on hostelbookers.com haha. Right now we’re sitting in the bus station waiting for our 1:15am bus to Dublin…oh the life of a hobo college student. Next time I’ll update on how our late night bus ride with little sleep went awwwwww yeah.

Slán go fóill!