Fifth week in Ireland
This week we had the plan to go to Northern Ireland, but due to my visa condition and the Brexit crisis, I was not able to go on this trip. I stayed in Spiddal over the weekend. It was pretty fun, on Monday we had our Irish history class at the King’s head. Our teacher Jackie went over the history of the King’s Head with us. It was interesting to know that this building was originally granted to the executor in reward of beheading the King’s head which is where the bar got its name from. Inside of the building remained its historical look, for the most part, we could see the marriage stone that dated back to the 16th century. Actually, The King’s Head was the first bar that I went to Galway. I think it was a great choice that I made, and it was so fascinating to see the rich history behind the bar, and great thanks to the bar owner to keep the bar authentic for us to be able to see the legacy.
We also had a debate over Cromwell’s reputation in The King’s Head. Cromwell is an interesting and controversial character. He was voted as the top 10 greatest Briton in 2003, but his reputation in Ireland was horrible due to the Cromwellian war in Ireland. During the war, Cromwell mercilessly killed all civilians after the siege. My team was on the side to defense Cromwell, it was a tough side to be on, even though, he was for sure a talented person. During his ruling in England, he helped to develop the path to democracy, and he was undefended as a military general. We had some really good arguments, but we ended up losing the debate.
After class we all stayed in Galway until 5 PM. I walked around the city for a little bit. The weather was so nice out, it was mostly sunny and it rained for a little bit afterwards. I went to Xi’an street food restaurant for lunch, it was amazing. I totally love that place, and it tasted so authentic. I did a little shopping and found a second-hand bookstore. It was a pretty little lovely store, I bought a book called Wuthering Heights.
On Thursday, everyone left early in the morning. It was actually pretty nice to have a chance to stay lone in the house for a bit. I was used to live by myself, so living three other people is tiring for me sometimes. (I like all my roommates, but I just like to stay alone sometimes) I just relaxed the whole day, and by the evening I went to the seafood restaurant that was near by with the French girl Leia. The food there was amazing, and it was by the sea, so it had beautiful view. Everything was like prefect, although, the food was a bit pricey. We had couple drinks after dinner and have a movie night at my house.
On Friday, I went to Galway to get some grocery. I had lunch at a bar called the Cellar Bar. It was a great place, the food was cheap and the portion was huge. I ordered chicken wings and it came with like 20 some wings. I was shocked.
I walked around a little and to my surprise, I found a Chinese grocery store. I was so happy to get some food from back home. The weather was so great today, so after I went back to Spiddal, I decided to go watch the sea for a bit. Whenever I am staring the sea, it just brings me peace and the view is breathtakingly stunning.
The next day, Leia and I decided to go to Galway. We had dinner at Eyre square in Costa. Afterward, we went to a bar and had a few drinks there. We had so much fun when we went talking by the bar, the bartender made me a free strawberry daiquiri with no alcohol for me. It was funny because we were sitting by the bar and I had a Guinness that isn’t finished. The bartender was making a smoothie looking drink, so I just asked what it was. He was like oh it strawberry daiquiri. I was like can I order one. He was semi-joking said I can’t if I didn’t finish my Guinness. I was like okay, then 5 minutes after he just poured me a glass to have me try. After I finished, I thanked him and in a while, he asked me if I like it and made me another one for free. It was a great time. Afterward, we went to a club and had fun there as well.
There are so many things going on this week, National University of Ireland Galway found its first Coronavirus case. Italy announced that they are going to shut the whole country down in April. UNK cancelled study abroad program to Czech Republic this week, and we got notification that we might get sent home if the virus went bad in Ireland.
Flora in Europe 