La Vie Boheme

Saturday was spent being a hippy by day and partier by night...

I walked into the city centre of Galway and had lunch at an 'organic food' place called Food 4 Thought. Good food. Slow service. Interesting mix of people. Slightly overpriced. (But, then, again, I feel like most of the food here is.) Afterwards, I walked around a bit.. and had (fair trade) coffee at Amnesty International's Galway store.. I sat there for most of the afternoon and read a book.. It was really relaxing, and the coffee price was not bad... so I give it a B+/borderline A. ;)

Later on the afternoon, I met up with some people from my lab at the Spud House for (more) coffee (and smoothies).. this place serves really good potatoes (as the name might imply).. I had a grand berry smoothie.. Headed back to the flat after that and bummed around for an hour or two..

Then I headed over with Hilton, Edel, and the rest of the GMIT gang to one of their flats, where the partying ensued.. at 7pm.. After about four hours of the drink and no less than four playings of Germany's Texas Lightning, we took a cab to Central Park (known locally as CP's). Now, the queue was out the door and along the street.. and the cover was 10eu (plus 1.50eu coat check).. so I was expecting something incredible.. Alas, the only things truly incredible about CP's were the drink prices - close to 5eu for a pint of Heino (or as my Galwegian friends refer to it, 'piss water'). Granted, CP's was a nice place.. but I was hoping to dance or something -- but most everyone stands around a bar area and drinks.. so I was relegated to a back area with some friends drinking a cheaper bottle of Bulmer's.. good company, bad prices, mediocre location. An odd mix of music, too -- everything from U2 (somewhat expected), to the usual Euro dance smash hits, to Weezer, to the Beyonce. I think they played a bit of Kanye as well, but no hardcore booty music ;)

At half past 2, CP's closed down. And the lights came on, much to the dismay of the over-inebriated crowd, who looked even more ridiculous in their Uggz, short mini-skirts (and slightly longer shirts.. someone call Cake!), and spray-on tans ;) I saw no fewer than five drunken skirmeshes break out, while the Garda turned a blind eye and let the CP bouncers handle everything (hey.. I can't really blame the Garda.. a huge mob of blitzed 20-somethings and only two cops). Amidst a large amount of stumbling, yelling, and singing, half of Galway converged on SuperMac's near Eyre square to satisfy their drunken muchie cravings..

By the time all was through, it was about half past three.. and we all parted.. I walked home.. and what do I see? That's right.. light started forming at the horizon -- the sun was getting ready to come up at quarter to four. Insane (but brilliant)!

Sunday was uneventful.. and the aerial (read: outdoor television antenna) was blown off the roof of my flat the other day, so the two channels of TV (RTE1 & RTE2) that we did have are not visible anymore. Ahh.. class. ;)

Good times all around... possibly heading to a Road Rally in Letterkenny this weekend.. more details to follow...

Cheers! -J