Galway and the Aran Islands

This weekend brought me and my new KU friends to Galway, a lovely seaside town on the W coast of Ireland. Seeing as Limerick, where I'm staying, is nick-named stab city, Galway gives the travelor a much better impression of Ireland.
This weekend was the Arts Festival, an apparantly very big event that draws crowds from around the world, so the city was packed but thankfully there was a cancellation at one of the hostels Laurel and Adrienne were staying so I got a bed. The room I was in was filled with half naked boys, but it was alright. They were traveling from Florida I think, probably around 21 years old, out to find themselves or some BS, one played the dijery-doo (spelling?) that Austrailian instrument, and had dreads, needless to say my room smelled really fantastic!
Galway is a real cute town, full of pubs that serve "traditional irish food" which isn't all that authentic looking in my opinion. I had a salad for the first time since leaving the states, a caprese salad, and it was quite tastey.
All the pubs in Galway are out of a Harry Potter movie, they look quite small and not all that impressive, and then when you're inside it is transformed into this beautiful wooden masterpiece with multiple floors, multiple bars, lots of little rooms, beautiful.
We started the evening/afternoon out at Buster Browns, a restaurant and bar where our stay at barnacles hostel got us a free guiness. Then we went to this other bar, the name of which escapes me, but I had to go in because outside was a group of men singing, with irish accents, all wearing jersey's with what I think was their nick-name on the back. I guess stag and hen (bachelor and bachellorette) parties are big in Galway. Here were some of the names: Bananaman (my favorite), the monster, the clausterphobic, the muff mechanic...
We just had a beer then went and met the rest of the group at the other hostel, where we played cards and socialized with the other world travelors for a bit. A few drinks of jameson and we all had new nick-names as well!
Then we went out to the Kings Head, a bar where they were supposed to have live music. It was another very cool bar, multiple levels, and by FAR the nicest bathrooms I have seen in Ireland, and there were a lot of them, which I am always a fan of. We had a fantastic time. The band was just a cover band, sang all american songs, we all sang around and took way too many pictures. We got a seat right by the stage. Tommy, one of the KU students, fell in love with the singer, Nicola, a fiesty blond with a pretty good voice and a leopard print bra, how lovely. We also saw annie lennox - not really, but there was this lady with a shaved head who adrienne originally tagged as sinead O'conner, but we later changed to annie lennox.
After that I forced everyone to eat crepes from this late night crepe place and we went back to the hostel. The next day I awoke early so I could take a bus, to take a ferry, to the Aran Islands. They are 3 islands off the coast of Ireland and they are beautiful - google them or look at my pictures. There are lots of old (like 2500 BC old) fortresses and temples there. I rented a bike and biked all around the island, in the rain, taking pictures along the way, it was great, the most 'irish' thing I have done so far. It was also nice to get out on my own. I loved/love hanging out with my new KU friends, but I also liked the idea of striking out alone, listening to my ipod, biking on an ancient island, staring off into the water and pondering life's mysteries, thinking very deep thoughts. After this experience the writing of keats, and other irish poets, makes a lot of sense, I could see how it could be a hard bleak life.
Anyway, even in flip flops and jeans (two of the WORST things to wear biking in the rain) the bike trip went well. There are hardly any cars there, only the mini tour buses and the horse drawn carraiges, so very safe.
Then I boated back to the mainland and met up with the KU kids and we went out to the pubs. Galway was playing Cork in a hurling/whirling, I forget the name, match so the bars were FULL. Galway won and there were many a happy irishman. We watched the match in a very irish bar, meaning actual irish people hung out there, which I have found is not that common in the big cities. After the match was a GREAT band that sang traditional irish music, mom would have absolutely LOVED it. We sat next to this older couple who turned out to be from Vancouver WA, and have a very attractive son, who was with them, who lives in San Diego currently and is pondering law school. I told him to think long and hard about that one, and then decide not to go! He was very nice though, and nice of him to travel with his parents.
After that we went to Coyotes, a real shitty tourist bar, but the singer from the first night works there so we wanted to say hi. After that it was off to bed.
This morning we walked out to the beach, in the rain of course, since it has to rain at least once a day here, especially when I don't have my coat and am wearing sandals. I bought a shirt at the bar we went to the previous night, and then we took the bus back to Limerick. I took a shower and a much needed nap and it is now 11pm my time and I haven't done any reading, crap, but at least it is pass/fail for me, so I am not too worried about it.
Hope everyone is doing well in Seattle, and that someone PLEASE watered my plant.
I will keep you updated on all the Irish happenings as they come to pass, love ya all!
PS - when I get back I want the BIGGEST salad in the world (Kate), they don't really do salad - well - in Ireland - shocker I know