Flour Power

It’s been one month (on Sunday the 15th) and I sure haven’t been bored at all during this time:

• The room I rented was pink so I had to spend a weekend painting it red;
• I’ve been to quite a few of pubs, including one of those typical Irish pubs and one great concert in a pub;
• My Guinness counter is growing steady and is now at 30, which is just under 1 pint per day;
• I keep finding funny, weird and cool stuff around and taking pictures;
• I also keep spotting girls in short skirts but I’m lacking on the taking pictures part, and I apologise for that…
• It’s always nice to walk around the main street and listening to some great street performer.

And since it’s been a while since my last Galway report, here are some random stuff that the most bored of you may find somewhat funny:

• I still haven’t had any road accident (or some kind of scare, for that matter), even though they drive on the wrong side of the road and there are no zebra crossings. I guess they compensate it by being extra careful and driving extra slow all the time;
• There seem to be less short skirts when the temperature gets better, which doesn’t make any sense and kind of makes me sad because the weather has been quite reasonable in the last few days;
• I’m starting to be able to figure out how to tell a good Guinness from a not-so-good one. And I have been informed of where are the best places to have it;
• Whenever I look sleepy at work (which is always), everyone asks me if I went out last night, but not in a way to imply that’s reprehensible. On the contrary, they ask it with a smile, as if approving it

And that about sums it up for this first month. It’s been loads of fun, despite all the cooking, cleaning and washing. It will be even better when friends start coming over to visit. Right?

Yesterday was the end of my first week here in Galway, and I think a brief summary is in order. I’ll jump to the fun part in a moment because I don’t want to bore you with the work details. I just want to mention that I’ve been very well received by my boss and all the co-workers, and that the work is running smoothly.

Now for the fun part, some numbers:

• 10+ street musicians, including: a saxophone player, a guy playing acoustic guitar under a shop’s door frame, a guy playing Green Day’s “Basket Case” on an electric guitar (with some kind of portable amplifier), and some blokes with a drumset!
• 6 pints of Guinness (I plan on keeping a counter on these);
• 6 pubs visited;
• 0 zebra crossings spoted;
• 100+ girls with short skirts spoted, even though it’s always about 5ºC and raining most of the time;
• 5 minutes of sun exposure;
• (X – 5) * 0,9 minutes of rain exposure (approximately), where X is the total number of minutes I spent on the street;
• 0 square centimeters of dry asphalt seen;
• 6 Portuguese people met;
• 6 trips to the supermarket (that’s what happens when you don’t have a car to carry everything in one go).

And since I like statistics, I started using Buxfer to register all the money I spend and get reports that will help me understand where all the money is going, because otherwise I may go bankrupt from all the money spent on vegetables and fruit… I’ll post some results of this experiment when I have some more data.

I’m also promising to share some of the hundreds of short skirts with you all, as a special “gift” to those living in countries much warmer than Ireland and still the girls have more clothes on than an Eskimo (yes, Portugal is in that group).

Over and out!

After 2h30m in an airplane to cross more than 1600Km and another 3h40m to cross the 200Km that separate Dublin from Galway (hooray for Irish buses!), I finally arrived at my destination. And what’s the best way to celebrate the fact that I arrived safe besides the fact that these folks drive on the wrong side of the road? With a pint of Guinness, of course.

But only after dinner! Never have a drink on an empty stomach…

Dinner was at the Charcoal Grill, a kebab place that I’ll probably be visiting a lot in the next few months, since it’s one of the few places that stays open until late (perfect for a snack on the way back home). The meal was very nice, but I have the feeling I missed something.

After dinner, the tasting of a proper Guinness, in a proper Irish pub, in Ireland, took place in The Dáil Bar. And I have to say this will be the first of many… Even though it might take a while to get used to the price… €4.20…

That was the first day. Nothing too exciting, because I was a bit tired from the trip. There will be plenty of time to explore Galway’s nightlife in the next few months. I could sense some… let’s say… potential for lots of fun…