Flour Power

Yeah, I know it’s been a while since my last post. And it has been even longer since I did any proper post about the life here in Galway. I think the last ones were during the Volvo Ocean Race. But don’t you think that nothing has happened since then! It’s just that… well, instead of being lame and saying I didn’t have time to post, I’ll do a quick summary of what has been happening.

So, in reverse chronological order:

This last week was the “back to work” week. To start off nicely, I had a great 16-hour trip back to Galway (including a 7-hour wait at Madrid airport) which left me completely messed up for the rest of the week. And getting back to work after 1 week out also meant extra stuff to do and not even a bit of time to wander around the interwebs. Aw, c’mon, don’t give me that look. Everyone surfs around the Internet while at work…

The week before that was spent in Portugal. The 6-month INOV Contacto internship had ended and I so I took 1 week off to go back to my home country. Plans had been made to spend most of the time visiting friends and that’s what I did. Going to the beach and finally get some proper sunlight was also part of the plan, but with all the other stuff happening there wasn’t a whole lot of time for that. And there was also the not so nice part of taking care of paperwork. Anyway, it was a great week, and I wish I could have stayed longer.

Two weeks before leaving I had a friend coming over to visit. And as a good host I showed him the best that Galway has to offer. That means a lot of pubs. That also means going out from Monday to Friday (he left on Saturday). During that week we also visited Dublin, and more importantly, I finally went to the Guinness Storehouse. I got to see how the stuff is made, tasted the best pint in the world (right at the brewery, you can’t get any better than that!), and learned how to pour a pint of Guinness correctly. Also had a chance to show him that tag rugby is a lot of fun and not to be mocked with. All in all, I think I convinced him to come back one of these days, and that means it was a great week (the best bit was definitely the Irish breakfast…).

And going all the way back to June, 3 friends came to visit, during the last weekend of the Volvo Ocean Race. Listened to some concerts that were happening outside while confortably sitting down in the living room, watched the Portuguese national soccer team pulling one of those last-minute goals against Albania for the World Cup Qualifiers, and went out to enjoy the Galway nightlife and one of the most important aspects of Irish culture – the pubs.

And now that this has been taken care of, blogging will resume it’s natural rhythm.

Stay tuned!

And that was very disappointing…

So I ordered a Guinness instead

After going to The King’s Head two days in a row, yesterday I decided to go somewhere else for a change. After all, the idea is getting to know as many pubs as possible, and not going to the same ones every time.

The destination of choice was Coyotes, a place I had been curious about since I passed in front of it a few weeks ago and liked what I saw at the door. And Wednesday the drinks are cheaper – only €3.5! A bargain, I say!

Upon arrival we (two of my housemates decided to come with) were greeted with a queue – they were asking for everyone’s ID. This didn’t sound very good, because it probably meant that the crowd inside would be very young… so young that they really needed to check everyone trying to enter, to make sure no under-18s would be able to slip inside unnoticed. And my suspicions were right. We were probably the oldest people there (apart from the staff), and I felt like I was someone’s older brother, there to keep an eye on my sibling. And to make matters even worse, the music was terrible! So after one Guinness (in a plastic cup!!), we headed off to the next stop – The Living Room.

The Living Room is a pub with a small dance floor, that becomes somewhat nightclub-ish later at night. It’s a good alternative to the “pure” nightclubs, and the crowd is usually on my age range. The problem yesterday was that, apparently, it isn’t very nightclub-ish on Wednesdays, and since the gals insisted on getting some dancing done, we immediately left to our final, and longest, stop of the evening.

Which was Róisin Dubh. I had already been there a few times, and knew that at around 11pm (after the live performance of the day), a DJ goes on stage and the concert area turns into a dance floor. Yesterday was no exception, and after some time I was jumping around like crazy. The music there is not the mainstream stuff you find in nightclubs. It’s more of a rock genre, and yesterday’s playlist included Pixies, Franz Ferdinand, Beirut, Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Gomez, Nirvana and Blur. Great stuff! When I got home at 3am (yes, I had to get up at 7am to go to work…) my ears were still buzzing…

This episode helps proving that here in Galway there’s no such thing as only going out on the weekend. There’s plenty of animation every single day of the week (I didn’t even mention the queues to the nightclubs, but maybe that was Rag Week’s fault). The only problem is that I have to sleep every once in a while, and having to wake up every morning to go to work doesn’t help…

Just in case you want to use the “no comprendo” escuse, they have it in a few more languages.

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?