eurotrip

travel day (15.12.05)

in preparation of our trip, i decided to pull an all-nighter. i'm a night owl so given that our supershuttle van was coming at around 4:45am, i decided just to stay up for it. what's the point of sleeping for three or four hours and then having to wake up in the cold?

that night, we played poker at jack's house for a couple of hours. i didn't do so well having lost in all the games we played.

i went home afterwards and watched tv and played xbox for several hours. woke deidra up around 3am for her to get ready. by around 5am, the van driver called and we grabbed our bags and took a ride to the airport.

surprisingly, at 5:40am, the american airlines terminal was packed. we had to wait in a line that stretched out into the sidewalk. we were a bit worried that we would miss the flight to boston because they were going to stop taking baggage at 7:30am, and around 7:15am we were still waiting in line.

this other couple behind us, who was also going to boston, decided to talk to the supervisor. so me and the other guy went up to the counter, but the workers (who were pretty rude) told us there's nothing that they can do for us and that we should just continue to wait in line.

somehow, they actually bumped us to the front of the line and to make a long story short (going through security and running down to the very last gate of the terminal san shoes), we got on the plane... but barely.

throughout the flight, i was sleeping on and off. hours later, we landed in logan airport in boston. since we had several hours to kill, we walked around the airport. terminal c at logan had food places, bookstores, and other various shops. so deidra spent about 20 minutes sitting at one of those vibrating chairs at brookstone and afterwards, we had lunch/dinner at burger king. i wanted to get a bowl of clam chowder, but given that i'll be on a plane in a couple of hours, i decided against it.

one thing i want to mention here is that people always ask/tell me to take a lactaid pill before i eat anything dairy. here's the thing... lactaid pills are hit and miss with me. sometimes they work and then sometimes they don't. for example, everytime i go to maggiano's at the grove, i get sick. even after popping two or three pills. is the risk worth the reward? not on a 5 plus hour plane ride it isn't.

got on the plane and slept some more. they were showing two movies, one of which was the ice princess. needless to say, i wasn't paying much attention. we were schedule to arrive in shannon airport at around 7:40am. i kept looking out the window waiting to see daylight, but it was pretty much pitched dark when we landed.

after going through customs, we went and exchanged some traveler's checks for euros so we can get a pair of bus tickets (bus eireann) to galway. this picture is of deidra and i waiting outside of the airport for the bus.

after a two hour bus ride through the irish country-side, we got into the galway bus station. i have to say, i was a bit anxious about finding that hostel we were staying at even though i had the directions with me. the problem is that in ireland, and pretty much at all the countries we went to, it doesn't have obvious street signs. they are either mounted on the sides of buildings or nowhere at all.

from their bus station, we walked to the nearest hotel and asked for the king's head pub. after getting directions for that, we passed by an O2 store, and i ended up getting a sim card for my phone so i can make calls in europe. upon finding the king's head pub, i asked another person where the barnacle quay (pronounced: key) st. house was located.

finally, we got there, but too early to check in. so we left our bags at the hostel, and went to get some food. we walked around the streets wondering what's a good place to eat. along the way, we exchanged some traveler's checks for euros. let's just say the dollar is pretty freaking weak. for US$100, we got back around E$84.

after walking around for an hour, we settled on eating at a hotel restaurant. i had the carved leg of lamb and deidra had the turkey. decent food and more importantly, it was warm.

since it was still too early to check in, we continued to walk about the town. after an hour, we went back to the hostel and got our room. let's just say, it was pretty small and crampy. but at least there was a bed and we both took a little nap that afternoon.

at around 6pm, we woke up and decided to look for a place to eat dinner. night at galway is really nice, especially at christmas.

after walking for an hour or so, we decided to get dinner at paddy's pub. unfortunately, they had stopped serving food, so i ended up getting a pint of guinness. people say that a pint tastes better in ireland than in the states. i'm not a guinness drinker nor am i a beer connoisseur so i didn't really taste the difference. however, it was special just having a beer in an irish pub in ireland.

finishing the pint, we walked back to the main thoroughfare (pictured above) and ended up eating at a fast food joint called, supermacs. they were giving out scratch 'em tickets and i won a santa hat... which surprisingly fitted my fat head.

after dinner, we walked around some more, and turned in early because we had a long day planned for tomorrow with the o'neachtain tour to the burrens and the cliff of moher.

posted by your arse @ 12:06 PM