Where does Rick want us to have dinner?

I've gone an unprecedentedly long time between blogs, but with good reason. Last week through Thursday was uneventful. I went to classes. I did homework. I cooked poorly. Just because all this is happening in Dublin doesn't make it any more exciting.
However, Friday I headed out to Galway on the west coast. I love that in Ireland the west coast is about a 2 hour train ride away from the east coast. Galway is beautiful--very windy and therefore very cold this time of year, but very lovely as well--a lot more low-key and, well, Irish than Dublin. Reba's Rick Steves book on Ireland was our constant companion on this trip (hence the title of this post). He knows his stuff, that Rick. Friday we basically wandered around town and went to a pub Friday night with live traditional music. From the town:




Reba and Johanna checking out the River Corrib:


The Spanish Arch, which dates back to 1584:


Swans at the mouth of the Corrib:


These swans had attitudes. We were a little scared to walk past them:


What country are we in again?


The Atlantic this time; a very cold and windy Galway Bay:


The Cathedral of St. Nicholas up the Corrib:


Taking the rose window to literal extremes:


Inside the cathedral; it wasn't this creepy in real life, but I love how this turned out:


In our hostel. The entire floor space is visible in this picture. Basically there was only room for one person to stand up at a time. Johanna seems to be having trouble accepting this:


Shepherd's pie for dinner. Like everything, this was better than it looks here. Note all the potato options:


Getting friendly with Oscar Wilde:


Saturday we took one of those super-touristy all-day bus tours; we got down into County Clare and saw a great deal of the countryside and the Burren, a sedimentary limestone plateau (see, I was paying attention to our tour guide!). We also stopped and took a tour at Ailwee Cave; I won't include pictures from that (not that I didn't try to take them); it would be pointless. Oh look, a rock! Oh look, a dark passage! Just trust me that it was pretty cool. Also, I know that pictures from bus windows never turn out, but I couldn't stop myself, nor can I stop myself from sharing some of them here:











Sheep on the rocks by the Atlantic:


Poulnabrone Portal Tomb:


The town of Lisdoonvarna has a matchmaking festival every September. Apparently people come from all over the world, and there are matchmakers who hook people up with dance partners for the weekend. It goes on for 5 weeks, so I guess they have a few chances to get it right. Here we have the Matchmaker Bar. Note the sign on top:


The highlight of the tour was the Cliffs of Moher. Usually you'll see people creeping up to the edge of the cliff, but it was so windy the day we were there that nobody was trying it. I was grateful for that. The wind was tossing up sea spray and foam; it looked like it was snowing at times. Despite the cold and wind, it was absolutely gorgeous.
With Reba and Meghan:






Then Saturday night we pubbed again (I don't live this way normally--I can't afford too--but on vacation I feel you should live it up). We found this cute lodge-type-place with live music--an interesting variety of traditional Irish, Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan, among others.
It was actually sunny for the majority of yesterday, but of course we had to spend the whole afternoon on the train. Last night we went out to celebrate my friend Maura's 21st birthday. We had Baby Guinnessess--shots of Kahlua with Baileys on top that look like little pints of Guinness. I didn't know it was possible for a shot to actually be cute:


That's about all I've got. No plans to travel the next couple of weekends (but who knows; I wasn't exactly planning to go to Galway either; it was extremely last-minute).
I can't believe I've been here almost 3 weeks. That's almost a quarter of the time I have here. I can't think about it or I'll get panicked. Ridiculous.
Hope everyone's safe and well, and that all you Minnesotans survived/are surviving the cold snap (is it still going on? I don't even know). I can't say I'm sorry to have missed that one.