Since most of my posts so far have been about my travels around Ireland, I decided I should tell you all a little about daily life here at the Park Lodge. It has been pretty dreary here for the past five days, but today we actually saw a little sunshine! Here are some highlights from the past two weeks about what's been going on at the Park Lodge:
A few days after returning from Northern Ireland, our whole group went to a performance of Trad on the Prom at a snazzy hotel in Salthill, Galway. It is a show of a mix of contemporary and traditional Irish music and dance that is performed from May to September every year. We were lucky to catch the last weekend! Some members of the cast are from other touring shows such as Riverdance and Lord of the Dance and many were national champion dancers. The talent was pretty amazing! It was really dressed up and going to a new destination in Galway!
That weekend, my cottagemates and I took our local cab, driven by Rory, to Galway for the weekend market. It's located right by St. Nicholas Cathedral, a famous church near the center of town, so it was easy to find. There were lots of booths set up selling everything from gourmet olives to oysters and fresh veggies to local art. It was pretty busy, but we took our time looking around, and I got a delicious falafel for lunch. Because we have been gone on so many excursions lately, I feel like I haven't really had the time to just explore Galway very much, so I was glad to have the opportunity during our free weekend. After the market, I met up with Aoife, a friend from Rochester who happens to be in her second year of medical school at NUIG. We went to her house and had tea with brown bread and just chatted for hours (how Irish of us!). I spent the night at Nile Lodge (her house) and it was a nice get-away for the weekend. It was so nice to see a familiar face, and we had a great time just catching up on everything! In the morning, we watched the Irish rugby team play Italy in the rugby world cup. It was a pretty exciting match, and Ireland won 36-6! Then it was time to head back and meet up with my group in Galway for mass and shopping before another week.
On Wednesday of last week, Kelly and Meghan (two of my cottagemates) and I took a walk up to Rory's (our friendly cab driver) house for tea. We weren't exactly sure where we were going (the directions we got from our other friends were a little vague!) but eventually we made it! When we arrived, we commented on the horse that was in his yard (not his horse, it just uses his field, apparently) so Rory cut up some apples and we got to feed it. Then I was happy to get my dog fix and take Rory's dog Cain on a walk around the little loop near his house. It had been a little rainy and cloudy, but it cleared up enough for us to have a nice walk. When we got back, Rory had plates set out with more cookies and cake than I want to admit to eating and a delicious cup of tea for each of us. My brother Will and Rory were good friends last year during his time here, so it is really fun for me to get to know him and see all the things I have heard so much about.
We had another totally free weekend this week, and it was a nice surprise to wake up to a beautiful sunny day on Friday! I actually wore shorts and a t-shirt for most of it! Our friendly bartender John Paul opened the bar at the Park Lodge for us that night, and it is alway fun when the group gets together. I feel so lucky with how well everyone gets along, and everyone definitely brings something fun to the group. Being in Ireland, we knew the wonderful weather would not last, and it rained all day long on Saturday. It didn't dampen our spirits, though, and a group of us went into Galway to watch a Galway United soccer game. Galway is in last place in the league, but we played the second to last place team, so it ended up being a pretty good match-up, although we did lose 1-2 in the end. One bright side was that Kelly and I were lucky enough to score the last two Galway United t-shirts at the merchandise stand!
Sunday morning was another typical trip to Galway for mass and grocery shopping. It is nice that there is a bus provided for our whole group on those days so we don't have to figure out transportation ourselves. We came back an hour earlier than usual this week, however, because we had our first in a series of cooking classes with Geraldine, John Paul's sister who is the cook for the Park Lodge. There will be four classes total and two representatives from each cottage attend the class, learn how to make the meal and bring it back for the cottage to share! Sarah and I went this week, and we made traditional Irish brown bread, lasagna, roasted veggies and, of course, potatoes. The class ended up being four hours long, so Kelly, Meghan and Michelle were all very excited when we arrived back to Cottage 6 with our homemade feast. Sharing the delicious meal with great friends was a perfect end to the rainy weekend!
Aww this sounds so quaint and lovely :) Can we have a traditional Irish meal when we get back??
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