Ireland Vol. 3: The Macarena, The Great Galway Adventure, and Moher!

7/17/22

You know you’re truly assimilating to Irish culture when, while discussing weekend plans with a coworker, you tell them you are going to hike one of the popular mountains in the area, Knocknarea.

Except you don’t say Knock-na-ray, as an Irish resident would.

No, you stand there, and with a confidence you are not entitled to, tell your Irish coworker you are hiking Knock-a-rena. As in:

HEYYYYYY KNOCKARENA (aye!)

And it doesn’t feel quite right as it comes out of your mouth, but you don’t know the correct pronunciation, so you just have to double down and lean into it.   

And lean into it we did:

Besides learning another lesson in my ongoing Irish education while concurrently bringing dishonor to my ancestors, the hike was successful in a) showing me more of the beautiful Irish countryside b) showing me how out of shape I am and c) teaching me about Queen Maeve, an Irish legend who is buried standing straight up at the top of the mountain. When you look up Queen Maeve on Wikipedia it says “Occupation: Queen” and I think that’s a pretty good way to sum her up. My best friend Julia and I have matching pins that say “Badass Women’s Club” on them; I’d like to think Maeve would have one of those pins too. So inspired was I by her I even decided to name my car Maeve in her honor.

7/19/21

The week started strong when a casual introductory meeting with the Engineering Team Lead turned into a very in-depth description of the project I will be working on this year. Considering my biggest work-related achievement to this point was posting a picture to the company’s internal social media feed (it’s gotten 21 likes if you were wondering), I was pretty psyched. My manager gave me a suggested caption for that post which included the hashtag #diversityandinclusion. For a while I couldn’t figure out why he added that until I realized I was the diversity. A red-haired, pale-skinned girl from California. That made me chuckle a little bit.

Anyways, as I mentioned before, the role will be project-management focused, overseeing a project to execute upgrades on a manufacturing line in the plant. It is completely different than anything I’ve done before which is equally terrifying and exciting as I continue to try and figure out what I want to do in life, which is a topic that could take up a whole entry on its own. Alas, that’s a problem for a later Megan so we move on. 

7/24/22

This past weekend the gang traveled down to Galway in our First Big Irish Outing. The drive started at 6:30 in the morning with a playlist (curated by me) that consisted solely of Elvis, the Beatles, and 20 different renditions of the song All Star by Smash Mouth. Of the 4 cars that drove to Galway that morning, I can definitively say Maeve’s musical range was unmatched.

The Boat Out

I had boldly offered to plan the first day of the Galway trip, booking an all-day boat tour to both the Aran Islands and the Cliffs of Moher. I felt very accomplished about my planning abilities as I successfully coordinated 9 people coming from 6 different cities in Ireland, meeting on time in a central spot, and going on a boat ride to some of the most scenic attractions in Ireland. That was, of course, until we got to the front of the line and I showed my tickets to the worker. I was politely informed (as the guy laughed at me) that I had booked the tickets for the wrong day.

One small panic attack from me and many jokes at my expense later, the boat person kindly let us on and we embarked on our adventure.

And an adventure it was.

We took the ferry to Inis Mor, the largest of three islands off the coast of Ireland known for their beauty, their sights, and their sweaters. Once there, the plan was to get lunch and rent bikes to explore the island. Our first mistake was overestimating how much time we had to eat, and consequently underestimating how much time it would take to explore.

The Island

The gang soon found ourselves speed biking out to the famous fort on the cliffs, speed walking, and I mean speed walking up the hill to the actual cliffs (which were amazing by the way), and then speed biking back up over the hill to our starting point. If you didn’t pick up on my subtle hints, the key word here was speed. Like Lightning McQueen in the opening scene of the cinematic masterpiece Cars, we chanted the mantra “I am speed,” as we biked our little hearts out, water dripping down our eyes with an indistinguishable mix of the mist, sweat, and tears.

The Boat Back

With sore butts and thumping hearts, we boarded the boat only to find all the seats under the awning taken, leaving the team to brave the elements in the back of the boat. Getting rocked and soaked by rain and sea water was actually pretty fun… until about the last 30 minutes. By then I had transformed into a soggy, hungry, shaking mess of sadness ready to be anywhere but there. The only thing that kept me going was the thoughts of the burning hot shower waiting for me at the end of the journey.

The Hot Water Saga, Continued

I should pause here to give context to a key part of this story. Remember my last post, when I yelled in all caps that I had finally gotten hot water and said I was happier than Barney Stinson with a bag of gummy bears? Well that might have been a bit, how do you say, premature.

Things were going well until about half way through the past week I lost power and couldn’t figure out how to get it back on. There’s a long explanation about what is wrong with my water heater but the key point is this: if my water heater is turned on, then my power will go out every night without fail.

So yes, sitting on a boat drenched to the bone coming off a week of having to choose between electricity and hot water, it cannot be overstated how excited I was for an on demand hot shower.

At long last we get to the hotel room; I throw down my belongings and run to the bathroom to turn on the shower only to find… no power in the room.

I think my heart broke into a million pieces in that moment.

I was on the verge of an actual breakdown when IrelandJackie2022, that sweet sweet angel of a human, had the idea to call down to the front desk. Turns out we had to place our room key into a slot on the wall to get power.

At the risk of sounding dramatic, I come here to tell you I took the most glorious shower of my life that evening at the Clayton Hotel in Galway, Room 276, 7:30pm. I know I said the same thing about a week and a half ago when I got hot water for the first time in my apartment, but this was no comparison. This was pure bliss.

The rest of the weekend, while significantly less eventful, was still a blast, consisting of a Primark shopping spree, watching Galway play in the Ireland Gaelic Football Finals from a pub, and finally making our way back to good ol’ Sligo. We all agreed it was an amazing weekend, making memories and seeing all the sites Ireland has to offer.

As is custom, I will end with a list; this time of things that made me happy this week.

A List of Things That Made Me Happy This Week

1. Sven has a new friend! Meet Toad the Sheep, originating from Inis Mor, watching the game with a Guinness pour (see what I did there?)
2. I called my brother Michael to seek advice on a travel dilemma, and instead we just sat on the phone for 45 minutes whistling back and forth to each other. First, I feel that this is very on brand for us. Second – isn’t technology amazing? You can be two continents apart and whistle to each other. Truly revolutionary.
3. This picture of my friend Steph, who will henceforth be referred to as Pasta Protector, which has nothing to do with the picture but was worth noting.

4. When getting dinner at a restaurant in Galway we found out that our waiter knew our friend Wes, who lived in Ireland last year but is now back in America. The world is small and people are nice.

5. I am sitting in a pub on a Tuesday evening drinking a Guinness and writing this post. Enough said.

6. I then had to chug said Guinness due to the Sligo house rule we made our first night here: If thy order a Guinness, thy must finish the Guinness thyself before leaving the table. Thy did finish the Guinness.

Final Notes

As always, thank you so much for reading my blog posts! It brings me so much joy to write them and I hope it brings you a little bit of joy to read them. As things pick up here in Sligotown I will try my best to post new volumes of the Ireland Saga – I know how much everyone loves reading about me making a fool of myself. If you signed up for the Newsletter and haven’t seen any of the emails – check your spam folder! I promise I am not phishing for your information, I am simply fishing for your love and approval. Finally, Sven has his own page! Check out Sven the Adventure Alpaca to keep up with his journeys.