The "study" week programme (27.-30.10.)

Here I am, once again! :-P

I'm back from the west of Ireland and finally back on my laptop in order to write the next orga post. And, no, this is not because I  like orga posts especially (although I cannot say I despise them, that's true ^^). The reason for this post is that nobody would like to read a gigantic post about my almost 4 days trip to the other side of the country. In fact, I guess, nobody would read it.
That is why I'm going to split the trip up into short (ahem, relatively) posts. So, this is the summary of the week:
At Maynooth University, the last week in October is called study week or reading week. The name kind of gives it away: the purpose of that week is to use the free time to catch up with the readings for your studies and to write your essays or whatever. That's the official version. In theory. Reality goes like this: most international students happily use this one week without lectures to travel around Ireland (or around Europe, if you're from overseas). Our Erasmus people group decided to go to Galway, because it's on the other end of Ireland.

Proof of my statement above.

Okay, Ireland also has other ends, but Galway has the advantage that you can do day trips to some points of interest from there. We couldn't even go to all the interesting places within reach. And that's not because we hadn't had enough orga meetings (we met definitely more than once to organize this trip), but because there are too many places and there was too little time...
Anyway, ain't nobody got time for that blah blah here, especially not me, since I realised today that my first essay is due in ten days. I'll try to keep going with this blog, but no promises, I don't want to fail all of my courses...
Therefore, here's the summary of what was going on from Monday to Thursday:

Monday, 27th

• going to Galway by bus. Car would have been definitely faster - even if the timetable (exactly 3 hours, haha) would have been correct. Trying not to get killed by falling umbrellas etc.
• taking pictures out of the bus as soon as there was a bit of water to be seen:

• finding the way to the hostel after discussion who the "teacher" / "mother" of this group is. Complaining about how far it is (5 min if you know where you're going) and why we didn't book the hostel next to the station (probably because it was more expensive than ours).
• checking in at the Sleepzone Hostel. Takes some time with a group of 13 people (+ 2 joining later). Finding out what the differences between mixed dorms and female dorms are: the 9 bed female dorm where I slept had a hair straightener (but no hair dryer) included, and the walls were painted in pink...

You might catch a glimpse of the colour here...

• being to lazy to do anything but hanging around in the kitchen drinking tea (which was free).
• exploring a bit of the city, especially the next Lidl.
• occupying lots of space in the kitchen again - dinner for 15 people takes space & time. And "volunteers" for the washing-up...
• occupying benches in the kitchen for a bit longer in order to play games. Or trying to occupy the bathroom - which can be tricky in a 9 bed female dorm. Luckily the public bathroom of the third floor was just opposite of our room.

Tuesday, 28th

• getting up too early after a night of not really much sleep. Someone considered it the worst night since coming to Ireland.
• trying to find the bus stop of the shuttle bus to the ferry to Inishmor (Aran Islands). Not unproblematic and not very nice (it was raining...), but successful.
• spending the day on the island mentioned above. This is going to be a separate post.
• feeling totally wasted afterwards. Therefore not going to the pub as a big group, but splitting up: pub vs. frozen pizza from Lidl (which was very good!) in the hostel.

Wednesday, 29th

• deciding against the Cliffs of Moher and for Connemara National Park. First, some people wanted to do their own trip to the Cliffs, but in the end, we just booked a bus tour altogether.
• getting picked up at the hostel - that's service! :-D
• annoying people in the bus with singing Let It Go, before tour started.
• finally doing the tour (another separate post).
• cooking in the crowded hostel kitchen, disgusting views (the sink...) included.
• last evening, therefore: playing a drinking game. I was only watching and disappeared eventually with some other non-players into the night of Galway:



Ireland: water everywhere...

Thursday, 30th

• already splitting up in the morning: the first people where already taking the bus home, when the rest was having breakfast.
• having fun with our key cards, which stopped working before check-out time...
• splitting up again: visiting the NUIG vs. shopping etc.
• meeting up again for the Free Walking Tour of Galway (for pictures of the whole day, wait for the separate post).
• shopping (we found Penneys, but the Hogwarts sweater I wanted was only available in tiny sizes :-/), eating, maybe pub-crawling?
• unlike the majority of our travel group: not taking the 4:30 bus, instead eating fish & chips and trying to find the seaside.
• finally taking the bus at 6:30. Of course, we didn't arrive in Maynooth at 9:30, but who would have expected differently? :-P