March 25th-March 28th

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." Dr. Seuss

After a long 3.5 hour bus ride, I arrived in Galway. Galway is a cute small port town, which is currently the fastest growing city in Ireland. This is mainly due to its crazy party scene, and the influx of immagrants on work visas. Getting a work visa is as easy as pie, irish pie. The government gives them out like candy within two weeks of filling a form. During my stay in Galway, I have never met so many Canadians and French people.

It was the first time where I did not pre-book a place to stay that night; so I spent part of the day just walking around the city. I eventually chose to stay at a place called Barnacles, where I met, you guessed it, two Canadians from Sudbury, Craig and Candice, who were looking for a job in Galway. I also met a really cultured New Zealander (or Kiwi) called Rob, and a Frenchman trying to learn English named Ben. There were a lot of other people, but I won't start listing names.

Touring the city did not take that long. Before visiting the city museum which highlighted the visit of JFK, I had a bite to eat at this cute house-turned-restaurant that had fancy menu items at a reasonable price (sorry if that sounded like an advertisment). I had gnocchi with lamb meetballs in a plum-tomato sauce. I planned my day for the coming days since there were a lot of day tours around Galway that were offered. Best of all, day tours were really cheap this time of year.

I ended up meeting more people in the hostel kitchen over supper, and we then decided to go out. The hostel was conveniently placed in front of a beautiful pub called The Quays. I was feeling pretty tired around 12am so I eventually decided to leave. Good thing my bed was across the street!

Early the next morning, before going on my day tour to the Cliffs of Moher, I checked into another hostel since there was no more room for me in the hostel that I was staying in. We were a full bus, and I ended up meeting two people that I had met the night before (Galway is such a small town, you always end of bumping into people you know). Iris was a Bavarian girl who was visiting friends and Remi was a Frenchman who was trying to perfect his English in Galway. The Cliffs of Moher were a spectacular piece of landscape worthy of a backdrop for any movie or postcard.

When I got back, I planned on doing something with Iris later, but before I was going to have supper at the hostel and sleep a little. As I was making supper, I met a couple from California, Summer and Lance, an Australian, Kate, and a Canadian from PEI, Catherine. They had all met each other in various hostels and all met up at this one. Talking with all of them seemed so easy because they were all very open people. One thing led to another, and we all decided to have a drink at the hostel and then go out. I was particularly drawn to Catherine, but I did not know why. She seemed like this very outgoing person, especially when she proposed to me that we go hitchhiking tomorrow to anywhere. I liked the idea because it sounded so spontaneous and adventurous.

We went to The Quays for a drink. I was supposed to meet Iris there with the people from the hostel I stayed in last night, but I couldn't find them. We had a really fun time enjoying the live music in the pub. Kate was a little drunk (it did not take her much), but she was such a crazy-fun girl to be around when you want to party. Kate is the type of girl that won't let you be sad or get bored when you go out with her. She always kept the energy high with us by dancing and going up to random strangers and dancing with them just for a laugh. Throughout the night, I could not help but glance at Catherine every now and then. I was still not sure why I felt this intense attraction towards her.

We then decided to leave to go dancing at a club. Summer and Lance went to bed while Kate, Catherine and I went dancing. We went to this place called Club K. This type of place played rock and a little RNB. Again, Kate was her crazy self dancing and talking to complete strangers for a laugh. Catherine and I would just watch at whatever antics she would do next. We stayed until the place closed down. Clubs in Ireland closed anywhere between 2am and 3am.

The next morning, Kate had to leave to Killarney. I planned on meeting her there in a few days since that was a place that I wanted to go. Catherine and I had to change hostels (again), because the current hostel was booked. We ended up going back to where I was the first night, Barnacles. After Kate left, Catherine and I spent the day venturing a little further away from the center of the town. I got to know a lot more about her. Catherine was not in school at the moment, but planned on going into tourism when she got back to PEI. She was a lot like me in the sense that she was a girl that would talk to you about a lot of things and seem very open, however, was always in thought and never really told you everything. She did not always say what she was feeling, but somehow, I felt that I knew exactly what she was thinking at times. Later that day, I found out why we had so much of a connection: we shared the same birthday, the 4th of September.

I spent the afternoon at an internet cafe until supper time. I proposed that we make a crepe night like I did in Paris. We bought all the ingredients to make two gourmet crepe flavours (feta-spinach-mushroom-tomato and chicken-mozzarella-pesto) and a dessert crepe (nutella with banana and pinneaple). It cost us 15 euros. We saw Ben in the kitchen and he decided to partake in our crepe night. Therfore, for 5 euros each, we fiested like royalty!

After supper, there was a big group from Spain singing and drinking in the kitchen. I don't know why, but I thought it was typically Latino. I stayed there drinking with them for a bit, but then joined Rob and thsi BC girl (forgot her name) with Catherine at the Quays (the bar across the hostel). That night, I got to try a beer that is very famous in Galway; it is called the Galway Hooker. Galway Hooker is a traditional sailing boat used in Galway Bay off the west coast of Ireland, but is now also the name of a beer company.

On Sunday, I had planned to go on the Connemara day tour. Connemara one of Ireland's National Parks and I would highly recommend hikes in this park. I got to see beautiful scenery (what Ireland is known for other than beer, clovers and leprechauns). Catherine had went on the Arran Islands tour, and we met up when we both got back. We had to change hostels again so we went to where Catherine stayed her first night at Sleepzone.

At the hostel, we met up with some friends from Alaska that Catherine made in Killarney. We ended up havin supper with them by taking advantage of the 7 Euro meal deal at Tesco's. Tesco is this giant grocery store chain that is taking over Europe. It's a pretty corrupt company similar to Wal-Mart, but when you are on a budget, it's your best friend.

Monday morning was a bit hard because I had to finally say goodbye to Catherine. Even though I went through this type of thing many times during my travels, you can never get used to parting ways with people you get along with so well. And just like that, she went off to Donegal, and I was on my way to Killarney.