first days in galway!

I have been here two nights now? It's a little difficult to remember, and it's barely the first couple days heh. But however long I've been here (I'm too tired to count), it's been fun and packed. When I first arrived, I took a nice walk around the town which is pretty small, but apparently the fifth biggest in Ireland, and as our tour guide told us, the California of Ireland. Later, I met up with some of the people from my program, and we went out to a pub together to hang out. (Had my first Guinness in Ireland! :P)

The next day was spent reading our course pack, visiting a small market, running through the POURING rain, and a HUGE dinner at a great restaurant with the whole group and our professor. We also went out to some pubs and heard some amazing groups playing live music! :D (Yes, we are also studying here)

This morning, we met up early to go on a walking tour of Galway with a really cute old lady. Then, after a couple hours of lunch and relaxing, we headed to the Irish Centre for Human Rights, where we'll be based for the next two weeks. We had a couple hours of lecture, then headed to an amazing dinner at Bridge Mills Restaurant, a gorgeous little restaurant with a big water mill on the side (pictures below). After dinner, we went to St. Nicholas Collegiate Church for a fun, traditional Irish music concert.

Now that you're all up to speed, it's almost time for me to go to bed. We have to be up bright (maybe grey?) and early to go to some little town for a 'rocky shore hike', according to our professor (so that we don't wear flip flops for a 'beach hike'). Good morning/afternoon/night from Galway, wherever you may be!

First Guinness!

AH i have missed this

Grey days in Ireland, just like Seattle.  

Galway Cathedral

Classy little white wine with a fancy man on the front

Pesto bread is amazing! (Need to make this at home..)

Fish and champ mash (Mashed potatoes..)

Wild mushroom risotto (I didn't eat both, I split half with someone! - still too much..)

Awesome band at one of the pubs

Galway town wall - part of what's left of it 

our professor split us up into the tribes of Galway. mine is lynch, which was the most powerful and more than 60 of them were mayors. here's one of their castles.  

the house where james joyce's wife grew up

army flag from the 1800s

Irish Centre for Human Rights

Chicken stuffed with spinach and ricotta - yum

Dough balls with garlic sauce and pesto sauce - meh not so great 

water mill at the restaurant 

how CUTE is this restaurant?!

irish traditional music - this fiddle player was apparently on the top of the irish itunes traditional music charts or something like that (Irish accents are sometimes very hard to understand) 

These guys were awesome and a lot of fun

then they all played together for a bit :)