There's more to Ireland than just Limerick!

Day 19 
10 - 2 - 2019

After a long week of college, lectures and basketball I decided to take it a little bit easy this weekend! So no parties, no pubs and no pints! Taking some time to clean up my room, get some stuff for school done and since it's sunday I decide to get on the bus to the city centre for my weekly grocery shoppings!

I get home around 14.00 pm and I pick up my phone to call with the homefront. After all, it's always nice to know what's going on back home. And even though I normally don't get homesick all that much, videocalling with Saïda is quite a bit harder than I anticipated on before I left. But thanks to 21st century technology we can at least keep each other posted with whatever is going on!

I hang up the phone and notice I got a message from Z asking if I wanna come over to hang out for a bit. I have nothing planned for the rest of the day anyway so I put on my shoes and coat and head over to Z.

Apparently Z didn't only wanted to hang out, because the second I walk in the door he asks me if I want to join him in going to Galway the next day. I'm a little bit overwhelmed by his proposition, but I am definitely interested. He explains to me that starting tomorrow it's RAG week in Galway. I've heard of this RAG week thing before but so far I had no idea what it contains.
So I ask him what RAG week is but Z doesn't appear to be a reliable source in being able to explain to me what it involves. He only tells me that it's a perfect opportunity for us to head over to Galway and have a good time going from pub to pub.

According to the Irish Times the concept of RAG (Raise and Give) Week in Ireland can be traced back as far as the 1950s. Originally, The idea of RAG week was that students took time out of their studies and sought to raise money for the poorer members of society during this week. However, nowadays RAG week has developed into the perfect excuse for students to have a week off of college and party all day and night.

But since I've only been in Limerick so far, I am more than interested to join Zaief in going to Galway. So we sit down and start to discuss our game plan which basically came down to this: "we are going to head over to Galway, and we will see whatever happens". Z tells me he has a friend over in Galway where we can sleep for the night and that's basically all we needed to figure out. 

Apparently the Irish don't do a lot of planning most of the times when it comes to going out. Something for me to get used to but in all honesty I kind of like this approach. So I head home and start packing my stuff for the next day.
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Day 20. 
11- 2 - 2019

Despite the fact that at this point I would like to see a little bit more of the country and that I secretly don't want to go to Galway just to go pub-hopping, I'm still excited that I'm finally going somewhere else than Limerick. After all, I will be here for 5 months so I'm guessing that there will be plenty of opportunities for me to go to Galway again and go sightseeing. And who knows, maybe the hangover tomorrow morning isn't going to be all that bad and then I'll still be able to see why everyone I spoke to in Limerick is so hyped about Galway.

But first, I have to get myself ready. I take a shower, freshen myself up and head over to Zaief. Something that needs to be mentioned about Zaief is that he is an aspiring barber who has great ambitions to one day open up his own shop. And on my way over, which is just a 5 minute walk to Thomond park, I remember a promise from Z that he is willing to cut my hair for free as a belated birthday present. Now, I have to admit, whilst sitting down I feel nervous... but Zaief shows me a few pictures of his work and I trust my good friend so I give him the green light and he starts working his magic. One hour later, and I look as fresh as ever. We're ready for Galway now, let's hope Galway is ready for us now.

Just when we're about to leave Z's house to catch our train, he gets a phone call from Adnan saying that he is going to Galway as well. And as I've already mentioned, the Irish don't really do planning. So last minute we decide that instead of going to Galway with the two of us and stay at Zaief his friend's place, we are going with 4 (Zaief, Adnan, Damien, and I), by car and we'll stay in a cheap apartment close to the city centre. Honestly, I don't mind. After all, the more the merrier right?

It's 18.30 and after a quick meal at McDonald's and about an hour drive to Galway we arrive at our apartment. And for 16 quid each, we have an absolute killer of an apartment. Kitchen, a huge living room, second floor with a bathroom big enough for a family of four and 2 bedrooms with two beds each. It doesn't take us long to settle down and we start having fun immediately. 
I won't go into too much details about the rest of the evening, because 1). it doesn't really add value to this travel log... and 2). that would make this travel log a bit too long.

But what I will tell you is that this RAG week thing I've talked about is absolutely a crazy concept. When people say that it's an excuse for students to drink, I would say that that's an understatement. I'm talking about a 30 minute queue for every club or pub, literally hundreds of people (not solely students) wandering around on the streets completely wasted, of which some of them aren't scared to get into a fight and in order to even get into a club you would have to pay between 10 and 15 euros at the door. Well now, I definitely like to drink a few pints and party a bit... But RAG week isn't really my cup of tea.
It's not that I didn't have a good night out, I definitely did, but all of it is just a little bit too much for me.

So at around half past one in the morning I'm (finally) standing in the club with Zaief, but I've had enough. I ask him for the key to the apartment and tell him that I am going home already and that when he gets home he should just call me to let him in.

For my dutch friends reading this. 
The party scene is a little bit different here compared to back home (especially in Groningen). 
Where back home most people won't go into town at around 00.00 or sometimes even between 01.00 and 02.00, the folks here in Ireland usually start (pre-)drinking at 19.00 and head into town between 21.30 - 23.00. 
So the evening often comes to an end at around two or three here, instead of 7 am in the morning back home.

Despite the fact that tonight was a bit chaotic at times, I still had a fun night. I close my eyes and fall asleep feeling satisfied about my time in Ireland so far. Never would I have expected to have such good friends so quick already, nor have such good times with them in such a short amount of time of knowing them.
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Day 21. 
12- 2 - 2019

My alarm goes off at 09.30 and it goes without saying that neither me nor Zaief is really keen on getting out of bed. However, trying to get Zaief out of bed is pretty much next to impossible so I imagine it would be better to let him sleep for another hour. Adnan and Damien already woke me up at 08.00 and told me they were heading out into town, doing god knows what. I head downstairs and see that the apartment is an absolute mess... So I make myself a cup of coffee and start cleaning everything since I don't want to risk losing our 200 euro deposit.

Zaief and I leave the apartment at 11.00 and meet up with old friends of his to have breakfast in the city centre. We sit down in a small café and I order my first ever real Irish breakfast and a large cup of coffee. A full Irish breakfast is the traditional cooked breakfast of Ireland. All full Irish breakfasts include some or all of the following: Bacon, sausages, baked beans, eggs, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, and perhaps some cooked leftover potatoes made into a hash or a bubble and squeak (mostly fried left-over vegetables). There will also be toast, butter, marmalade, and lots of tea to drink (or in my case lots of coffee). For those wondering what the difference between a full Irish breakfast and a full British one is, hear me out. The inclusion of black or white pudding is often what distinguishes the Irish breakfast from the British one. Next to that, the bread served will also often be Irish soda bread to differentiate it from a full British breakfast.

Right after finishing the breakfast I get a text from Robert Jordan (small Rob). He is one of my mates from the local basketball team, who also happened to have celebrated RAG week last night here in Galway. Apperently he saw us walking through the city centre and asks if we have any plans for the rest of the day. I tell him he should meet us at the café so we can discuss our plans for the remainder of the day. After 10 minutes we meet up and small Rob suggests that we head over to a random pub, go have a few pints and take the last train home. All of us think that's a great idea but we first have to go to one of the girl's (Zaief's friends) campus in order for them to freshen up a little bit before we can hit the pub(s).

After walking through Galway for give or take 20 minutes we arrive at the Campus. What we didn't think of before coming here was that, because of RAG week, students who live on Campus aren't allowed to take in any guests. However, that doesn't prevent us from trying. So first, Rob, Amanda and I try to get it... But we failed. So Rob and I decide to head back to the campus river side and wait for the rest of the group, just in case that they will get in. After a while we start to wonder why everyone is taking so long, so we decide to walk back to the Campus entrance hoping we would meet everyone. We see Amanda walking towards us and she asks if we know where Zaief is. I tell her that we thought he was with them but apparently he wandered of by himself with his phone-battery being dead.

After an hour and a half long search rescue my phone rings. Z finally found a phone charger and managed to give us a call. Instead of meeting us at the river side he decided to head into the city centre hoping he would meet us there...
Not what I thought my day would be like, but at least we can get back into town now and head into the pub. We find Zaief in a shopping mall and he tells me he is planning on going with Amanda to meet up with some more old friends. My legs feel pretty tired so I kind of want to hit the pub now and sit down for a Pint. So we split up, Z & Amanda wander off into town, and Rob and I head into the closest pub called The Skeff. After 5 hours we all meet up again and we decide to call it quits. We walk towards the train station and are finally on our way back to Limerick. 

Galway was wild and chaotic but I definitely enjoyed it. As the train leaves I stare out the window and start contemplating. As expected I haven't seen all that much of Galway these last 2 days. But nonetheless, the atmosphere was amazing and I'm undeniably coming back to see more.