Ireland Day 35 - Tattoo

I don't anticipate much else happening today, so I'm going to go ahead and blog now.

Today was the big day, tattoo number three! My appointment was at 2 so I had some time to kill. I took advantage of this time to sleep in and it was awesome. I didn't want to sleep the day away though, so I got up and chatted with Jacki! She's the best =3 I had a nice big breakfast (read: two bowls of frosted flakes and a banana) to give me strength! Oddly enough I really wasn't nervous until I laid down to receive the tattoo. I must be getting stronger.

I have photos like this of my wrist and shoulder too.

I caught the 12:45 bus into town to give myself time to walk around and take some money out of the bank. I whiled away the time at the Spanish Arch enjoying the rain and my repetitive playlist. Originally, Geraldine was going to come with me to my appointment, but plans changed a bit! To my great relief, Dave offered to come with me. I needed that. A ways into the tattooing he asked me why I was squeezing the hell out of my own hands and then offered me his. So I squeezed and pinched and dug my fingernails into him instead of myself. Poor guy. Good thing he's a man and therefore feels no pain :P

This one took a bit longer than my other two. It's a little bigger, but not by much, just a lot of line work. It was beginning to be unbearable. My leg wanted to twitch and freak out very badly. I was terrified that I'd have a coughing fit and mess up the artist D: Fortunately, my body appeared to realize it wasn't the time or place for coughing and it kept itself under control.

Looking in the mirror it isn't crooked, but however I move my leg it appears to be crooked from my angle!

FINALLY, it was over. After that I was absolutely ravenous so we went and got some food. I wanted some delicious Italian (and more bruschetta!) so we walked to Bella Roma and they were closed D: D: I was very upset. He suggested Eddie Rocket's (which is just Johnny Rocket's) and my stomach decided American food would be perfect. So we took my ravenous self over there instead. I had a cheese burger, fries and a chocolate shake. It was perfection. I noticed that Dave still had some good red marks still on his hand from my fingernails. Dug a little too hard. Whoops!

It doesn't "mean" anything. It can be whatever I want. I'm going to say "Ireland" and "Travel".

Now I am relaxing with my pant leg rolled up all covered in good. It stung pretty good while I was washing it. Also, this one was definitely more painful than the other two. Yikes. Especially when the needle got closer and closer to my inner leg. Ow ow ow. I'm glad it's over with now! Glad I had a buddy to help me through it too.

After fooding he showed me the huge cathedral and the college. I had yet to explore those areas of Galway, so I really appreciated it! A pretty good day I'd say :)

-MJ

Ireland Day 32 - Sandwich

I'm naming this blog after my mediocre dinner tonight. It was a sandwich, in case you weren't sure. I really don't like nuts/oats/grains clogging up my bread. I tried, I really did. I can do wheat, but not all the other stuff.

Moving on though! I actually took a real picture today. It was of the bad sandwich.

I think it looked fairly promising too. Oh well! Now I know.

When I woke up this morning I was actually feeling better. My head is still feeling a bit like it is stuffed with cotton, I have a bit of the sniffles and the worst cough, but I am on the upswing I think! There was a tiny bit of a setback this morning when I coughed so hard that I threw up, but that passed thankfully! I've been wracked with coughing fits through the whole day, terrifying and disturbing customers I'm sure. I can only hope that I'll sleep soundly tonight (although I don't know how that'll work).

This morning there was a very large shoot to be done - 9 adults and 6 kids. WOW. Brad trained Catharine and I for it earlier in the week and she and I attended it together. My voice is still very weak as well, so I am hopeless at rounding people up. Catharine is awesome! The shoot went really well I think. Got some great shots of the huge family. The rest of the day was pretty low key. Good for my voice.

At lunch I decided I wanted mashed potatoes again, so I went to Riordan's and had bangers and mash. Mmmmmm. It was so so so good. I had a hot chocolate directly after that. I treated myself, some might say xD My throat definitely appreciated all the warm nourishment.

My evening transitioned nicely to an enjoyable sit-down with Steve at the kitchen table. He made me some tea and gave me biscuits and we were chatting about Ireland and how nice it is here. So pleasant!

For the most part I haven't done much today, just edited through photos from the day trip to the Cliffs of Moher. I did probably 70 or so? Exhausting. Worth it though! I love the pictures, they make me happy to look at.

The days are creeping ever close to Wednesday, when I will be getting my third secret tattoo :O Excitement!

Time to sleep!

-MJ

Ireland Day 19 - Dominos

Not a lot of pictures today, but we did eat Dominos! I had a buy one get one free coupon that I was anxious to use. Emily arrived in town today, YAY! So we had a girls night in watching Friends, Coach Carter and then Sex in the City while we chowed down on pizza. They arrange the pepperonis here. That was a funny surprise.

They arrange them per slice!

Today was sort of low-key, sort of. Maybe I just think that because I didn't make a lot of on-the-spot updates. Let's review!

Wake up! Go into town. I made a very special shoe swap (Geraldine let Maisa borrow flats so she didn't have to wear heels to the club) and hung out with Owen. We had lunch with Geraldine on her lunch break (they're so cute) and then walked around the square. We ran into Catherine at one point and that was kind of funny. I haven't just ran into someone I knew since I've been here. A little surreal.

I had some errands to run, including getting my wedding shots to Brad and scheduling my tattoo appointment :O I took in a few pictures and was very specific about what I wanted. He didn't write anything down, just a very brief description. I'll see what they draw up and obviously if I don't like it I'll have them change it. August 11th! I'm excited. I know everyone is just so curious to know what it'll be, but surprises are a good thing.

Catherine is lovely inside AND outside ;)

I've been listening to my playlist I made yesterday all day today. I even took my headphones out onto the bus with me! Made things a little more interesting. It was a good time walking around with Owen. Got to know him a bit better. Woohoo for friends! Oh, no restaurants here seems to use sliced cheese, it's all grated. Note to Ireland: it is very difficult to eat a sandwich when the cheese is flying everywhere.

Emily arrived via bus around 2:45 so we met her at the station. I was so excited to see her again! She's awesome. We mosied around and met up with Maisa. Commence more exploring! I didn't take out my camera once because I'm an idiot. A lazy one. Oh well. Just carried around a gradually heavy backpack for no reason. I'm going to be so strong after this trip.

We caught the bus back to the house and hung out over with Catherine for the rest of the night. Today was a good day, relaxing and full of friends (both real people and the TV show! :B)

Moulding around the fireplace at Miriam's.

Tomorrow the girls and I are going to The Cliffs of Moher! Hot damn, I am excited. The video camera is charging and the camera battery is going on next! AHH! The bus leaves at 10:15 and I believe arrives back in town at 5 or 5:30. That's a lot of cliff-y goodness! We also go to The Burren. Mr Martin McDonagh insists I have to go, so I'll be thinking of him while I'm there :)

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10:22 am: home: The weather here is too unpredictable. It said rain and fog so I decided not to go to the Aran Islands. Now sunny and rain? Ugh.

11:24 am: home: Wearing pants that are slightly damp.

12:20 pm: 33 bus: The guy in front of me on the bus has a piercing on the back of his neck.

12:44 pm: Outside of Geraldine and Owen's place: Watching a "clamping" officer trying to determine if he can ticket a parked car.

-MJ

Ireland Day 13 - A Change of Plans

I'm oddly sleepy for 4 in the afternoon. This morning I woke up and didn't feel like going on a bus tour. Before deciding for sure that I had changed my mind, I checked to make sure it wouldn't mess up my entire travel plans. Fortunately, it did not. So today, instead, I went to town, exchanged my broken zippered sweatshirt, took a video of Shop Street, had lunch and then went for a walk down part of The Prom again. The weather changed rapidly from astonishingly beautiful, to overcast, to rainy and unpleasant and then back to partly cloudy with mostly sunny skies. It's thinly overcast at the moment. No weather type seems to last for very long here.

It was a challenge, but I managed to take a fair amount of pictures and do quite a bit of video while I was out. I loaded my backpack with necessary items and continued to rotate through them as the situation required. I dabbled with the idea of going to the aquarium, but I had already spent money on lunch and a CD, so perhaps another time. Instead I admired the ocean from a little remembrance park and met up with Dave for a few minutes after he was done at school. When something is good he says it's "class", which I find funny. I've never heard people say that before. I've heard of something being a  "class act", but never something just being "class". Classy! But not class. Lack of class... not class. I don't know. I learn something new everyday. Oh, and he says that no one here says "neat". Also silly, in my opinion, because it's a great word! I was telling him what a neat guy Martin McDonagh was, and he made sure to let me know that no one says that word xD

Lunch was an interesting time. I finally ate at Neactain's. It was very quiet when I got there and I wasn't entirely sure what the ordering process was. No one said anything to me, but I guess I did something right when I approached the counter with a menu in hand. Everyone was very nice. I ate potato and leek soup. There was a pasta offering but it sounded a bit heavier than I wanted. I also had a coke. It was €2.40, something I didn't realize until after I had consumed it, which is a bit steep if you ask me. It was one of the most delicious cokes I've ever had though, maybe that has something to do with it. The soup was OK, I think a little more sophisticated than I'm used to. I finished it though!

Neactain's was playing some fantastic Irish music so I began asking the employees who it was/what is was. One of the bartenders, a man named Steve, started talking to me about Irish music and feeling me out for which types I liked. He then wrote down a few different artists on a piece of paper and heavily recommended the Waterboys. He asked if I'd heard of them and I said no. He replied with, "You're lucky" and I asked, "Are they bad?" and he said, "No they're fantastic. I'd love to experience them for the first time again". After that I went around the corner to HMV and bought the only album they had by them; a greatest hits from '81-'90. I'm very excited to listen to it. Steve also gave me an EP from a guy that works there named Emmet. I actually met Emmet last week when Brad took me out for a pint. He's moving to London this year, I believe music, so that's great for him! I mentioned this to Steve and he was surprised and told me to tell Brad that he says hello. Such lovely people here in Ireland :)

I'm getting hungry. I wonder what's for dinner? Miriam bought me some peanut butter. It even says "American Style" on the container! That made me laugh. I had toast this morning and it was delicious. I think tomorrow I'll try out a hot chocolate from Butlers Chocolate Cafe, the supposed masters of hot cocoa here in Galway. Fingers crossed that it does not disappoint. I'm going to watch Harry Potter now, me thinks.

Oh wait! At the bus stop this morning I met a French guy named Pierre. He's visiting some friends here in Ireland. I guess he hasn't been here in quite some time because he fell out of contact with a bunch of people he met in '95. Through the magic of Facebook he found them again and is making the rounds in Ireland to reconnect everyone. How great is that? We continued to chat on the bus and he asked if I knew anyone in Paris (since I told him I'd be there for a weekend) and I said no. He offered to meet me for a drink while I'm there if I'm looking for someone to chat with. Very nice of him! I took his e-mail address and I'll be contacting him before I fly out in August. Look at me, makin' friends on the other side of the world!

Ok, toast and Harry Potter time!

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10:52 am: home: It's a gorgeous day. I think I'll walk The Prom again.

11:08 am: bus stop: The weather changes very rapidly here, even more than back home. It's strange.

11:39 am: Shop Street: Met a very nice French man from Paris named Pierre at the bus stop. We had a good conversation and he gave me his e-mail address in case I wanted someone to go out and have a drink with when I'm there for the weekend. :)

12:32 pm: Shop Street: 90% sure I just picked out my new tattoo design.

12:43 pm: Neactain's: Having lunch at Neactain's, finally. Potato and leek soup with bread. There is something strangely comforting about drinking a coca cola.

1:52 pm: A park: Sitting, passing time and enjoying the ocean.

-MJ