Irish Adventure Number 2

I finally made it to see Allison (one of my best friends from high school) in Galway. She wanted me to meet her boyfriend, Paul. When I got here on Saturday, Paul was drinking in the backyard with one of his friends. This turned out to set the tone of the evening as more and more of Paul’s friends came over to drink with us in true Irish style. All of them brought huge cases of beer. It made me feel right at home.

At one point, Allison said, “I’m surrounded by boys… I just can’t seem to get away from them.” At this very moment, three more boys knocked on the door, bringing the number of males in the house up to 12 compared to just 3 girls (me, Allison, and her roommate Carly), so I was inclined to believe her. They were all very nice though, and quite willing to sing Disney songs with me once they got drunk enough, so we got along swimmingly.

Later in the night, we all went out to a pub and danced to Irish songs. Paul and his friends kept buying me drinks, which was very nice of them. I would barely start one when a new one was placed in front of me. Instead of drinking a lot, it actually accomplished the opposite. I got so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of alcohol in front of me that I don’t believe I actually drank the equivalent of a full drink, it was more like one tiny sip of each accompanied by a “thanks.” I think this made them think I didn’t like whatever they had given me, which would cause them to buy me yet another drink. I suppose a better approach would have been, “Meghan, what would you like to drink?” But why ask someone what they want when you can just buy them loads and loads of drinks in complete and utter uncertainty?

Allison and I have spent the last few days going around all the sites in Galway, and today we went to visit a castle. It had a little village set up around it, so it was quite intense. Someone took farmhouses from all parts of Ireland from the early 19^th century and rebuilt them all over the estate, so one from Galway and one from Kerry and one from Shannon would be all next to each other. I don’t know who took the time to do this, but I hope they were well paid for it.

For dinner, Allison and I reserved spots for the medieval banquet that you can eat inside the castle. We had honeyed mead and meat in the banquet hall, just like in Beowulf, so I felt like I was living the literature major’s dream. We also got sung to by a little, old Irish man. I was just excited to have gotten to eat a banquet in a real castle, and will probably brag about this for the rest of my life to all those who haven’t been fortunate to relive Beowulf.

Tomorrow we’re just going to hang out around Galway, and then leave for Prague early in the morning on Thursday. We’re meeting up with Théo there, and are both extremely excited. We’ve already planned on going on a Haunted Prague tour, as Prague is supposed to be one of the most haunted cities in all of Europe. I’m prepared to not be able to sleep for the rest of my time there after taking the tour.

No worries, I’ll detail all the reasons Prague is haunted in my next entry. Well, providing I actually get back to Paris alright. I’ve already had to call the Prague airlines I’m using several times as they first put my name down as “Mr. Meghan” on the ticket and then “Mrs. Meghan.” I should have just left the first one on the ticket and seen if they asked me about how the sex change had gone.

I'd definitely have something to write about then.