So, most exciting news is that I'm moving apartments tomorrow. Remember those friends I made last week with the cooking and the pie? Well, they live two floors below me, across the hall from other friends, and they have an extra room, their third roommate just didn't show up at the beginning of the semester, soooo I'm gonna take it. This means I have a single (and possibly room if you want to visit) and will be living with friends, and will be neighbors with good friends/they guy teaching me tunes on the whistle. I realize living two floors up isn't that far away, but being right across the hall and in an apartment with friends will make a huge difference. I do enjoy the company of my roommates now, but having a double has been hard on both me and Betti, I think it will be better for both of us to have singles. This way she can skype and have people over in peace. We've already got a list of things we need to do after I move downstairs, starting with hot fudge sundaes and a movie tomorrow night.
In other news, yesterday afternoon I decided to join the friends I'm moving in with, on a wild and rash trip to Limerick to see a men's rugby match. They had tickets, but only realized yesterday that because the game was in the evening, there was no bus to catch back to Cork after the match (which is about two hours long). In the middle of this craziness of not knowing where they were staying or what they were doing, I decided to buy a ticket to the match and join in...definitely for the adventure of it. Finally, after no small amount of stress and sending Jq through the pouring rain to print tickets (she had to turn a paper in on campus) we had a game plan of sorts. So we set off to catch the bus, it's still raining, and we leave ten minutes before the bus is supposed to leave. This is when we decided this trip was an adventure story we were writing as we were going, and it was not allowed to turn into a horror story, so we stayed positive.
Chapter One - Leave the building
Christine and Kasey stop at an ATM, it's seven minutes until the bus leaves so Jq and I run ahead to buy tickets and find the bus. This was easy enough, but wait, the bus driver is almost unsure if he has enough seats for the four of us, and Kasey and Christine are still inside in line to buy tickets. So Jq and I run mini interference at the door to the bus to make sure we all make it. And we do, just squeezing into the last four seats minutes before the bus departs.
Chapter Two - Bus ride
Which was uneventful, thankfully. At one point I asked Jq if we were sure we were on the right bus, because I was in such a rush, and then when I sat down I started to think about it, and wasn't positive. Only to realize, after a friendly Irish guy made fun of me for getting on a bus not knowing where it was going, that the bus driver would've told us we were in the wrong place when he looked at our tickets when we got on. Then, I really wanted to look out the window, because the countryside is so beautiful and there are a lot of really cool ruins, but the girl next to me, who had the window seat, pulled the shade closed. So I just took a nap.
Chapter Three - Arrive in Limerick
Creepy guy asks us if we want a cigarette or need anything. We ask for directions to the street we need and then hurry off. It was surprisingly easy to find the hotel that we booked. But this is where it gets exciting. We wanted to book a family room, which is supposed to have room for two adults and two kids, with a double bed and a pull out couch, but they said that it wouldn't fit four adults. So instead we booked a room for three adults, one double and one twin bed, but there were four of us. So as we were walking there we came up with at least three contingency plans for who was going to go in and check in, and what we would say if they asked specific questions, and it ended up not being necessary (at this point). Christine and I went up and checked in while Kasey and Jq loitered around the couches pretending not to know us. Then we all happened to get in the elevator at the same time and made our way to the room, which was nice enough for a hotel.
Chapter Four - Walk to the match
This turned out to be surprisingly easy as well. We'd google mapped directions, but ended up not needing them because all that was necessary was to follow the streaming hordes of people and the traffic. We arrived just as Edinburgh scored the first points. The match was a lot of fun. And though rugby is definitely not a sport I enjoy playing, it was nice to somewhat understand what was going on and be able to semi coherently explain it to the others. Honestly, the men's game was also a little more exciting to watch then the women's match last week. They throw the ball so much more quickly and just seemed to keep the flow of the game going. There also weren't any all out brawls on the field (though I can't really decide if that's a plus or a minus). Munster ended up winning! Which was exciting, it's nice to have traveled that far and have the team you're rooting for win. We live in the province of Munster, it's basically the south of Ireland. What's interesting in rugby, is that whenever there's a kick, either for a penalty or after a try is scored, everyone goes completely silent. A literal hush falls over the crows as hundreds of people shush each other. It's a crazy experience. Sometimes there's the one jerk who will shout something or whistle, but most of the time everyone is completely silent. Except the birds, but then you can hear them twittering up in the rafters.
A scrum. They basically lock into each other and push.
The Munster mascot. Looks kinda like a creepy blow up lego guy. He walked around a lot of the field...very very slowly.
Chapter Five - Post match fun
After the match we followed the streaming hordes back into the city of Limerick. Which, despite it's reputation as "stab city" was actually really beautiful. The lights on the River Shannon kinda reminded me of the bridge over the harbor in Sydney. Anyway, first we went into a pub that was really crowded, but there was going to be a live band, so I was reluctant to leave, but after having stood in the cold at the match for a couple hours, we all wanted to sit down. So we headed around the corner to a smaller pub. This pub was so perfect and cute. I think we were probably the only people there under 30, but there was a group of probably six or seven men, that fluctuated while we were there, with a bunch of instruments who were belting folk songs. Not traditional Irish music like we've seen in a bunch of other pubs, but just folk songs from around the world, at one point the banjo player played Lara's Theme from Dr. Zhivago. It was really nice. We all just got a pint and sat around a candlelit table, listened to the old men, wished we could've joined them, and chatted for a couple hours. It was fabulous! After this, we decided we were craving something fried, having stood at a match watching people eating hotdogs and hamburgers. So we headed to the nearest kebab place.
Tangent: WHY DON'T WE HAVE KEBAB PLACES AT HOME?!?!?! I don't mean to yell, but yes, they may be too prevalent here, and in Australia, and I'm sure elsewhere around Europe, but we don't have them at all at home. They have hamburgers, and kebabs (which are really gyro), and chips (fries) with all sorts of topping: curry, garlic and cheese, taco...oh man, these places are fabulous, and not very expensive and sooo much better then McDonald's or burger King (which also exist here too). I just don't get it. I don't know what I'm going to do without garlic and cheese chips!
Anyways, got our fried food, planning on heading back to the hotel to continue hanging, maybe play a card game. But after we finished, we were wiped out...
Chapter Six - Back to the hotel
So this is where the story gets thrilling and there's suspense...who knows what's gonna happen next? I finally proved my prowess with directions and directed us safely back to the hotel. The lobby is completely empty as we enter and we're heading towards the elevators when all of a sudden, "excuse me!" calls a security guard, who was definitely sitting behind the tree in the corner. He walks up to us with sheets of paper and asks us for identification. Christine, being the person who booked the room, gives him her name, and he finds her on the sheet and crosses her off. However, we only have a three person room and there are four of us...what do we do?? The security guard catches this detail and asks us about it and we all scramble to remember our plans from before. Oh yes...Jq is actually a student at the university of limerick and she'd just left her stuff in the room because we were headed to the match. She was just here to pick it up and head back to school. Man, I'm sure he didn't believe us, but he waved us on, and I put the dead bolt in the door, just to make sure they wouldn't come checking :) I think that was literally the most exciting/tense part of the adventure, aside from trying to determine if we were going to get a hotel/hostel or just try to stay in a pub all night and wander around until the next bus (so glad we didn't do that, we were all sooo tired).
Chapter Seven - Saturday morning
We woke up this morning in time to catch the 10:35 bus. Checked out of the hotel without any hassle at all, walked back to the bus station without getting lost. And headed back to Cork. This time I got to look out the window the whole way and saw some pretty cool ruins. That's something we don't have at home...old castles in the middle of fields just falling to pieces. So cool! Arrived safely back in Cork and went our separate ways to do homework and write blogs and so forth, until we reconvene tomorrow to move me downstairs and have a fabulous day!
The End
I was really glad I decided to join them, I couldn't decide yesterday, especially since the weather was ghastly, but it was definitely worth it. It wasn't even raining in Limerick, the weather was perfect for a rugby match, a little chilly, but still really nice.
Until next time...
Irish proverb of the day
It is the quiet pigs that eat the meal.
Is iad na muca ciúine a itheann an mhin.
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