July 9th-The Spud and the Hooker

Friday! There were only two sections of class this morning because the other half of the program was heading to Dingle for the weekend. So I basically went to my nine o'clock archaeology class and then had the rest of the day free. Unfortunately, the crazy Friday night would have to wait, because I ended up working on my two papers due next week. I spent a good portion of the morning working on my archaeology paper, gathering information about the various ritual and burial practices from the neolithic to the early bronze age. Then I decided to take a break from megalithic tombs and metal hoards for lunch at the Spudhouse, a potato-centric restaurant down the road from the university. I got a massive baked potato stuffed with chicken and ham drizzled in cheesy wonder. It was epic enough that I headed straight back to school and started writing my history paper on the Irish potato famine--yes, the irony is brilliant. Anyway, after a rather product day of research, we were ready for a real Friday night. Our first stop was the River Inn, right down the road from our homestay so we didn't have to walk too far in the rain. I had a rather delicious goat cheese tart. We then walked down to the Salthouse, getting rather soaked. But the craic was worth braving the rain (craic is Irish for "good times"). The Salthouse is a great bar for anyone looking for places to go in Galway and has a wide selection of beers and other drinks. I'm not much of a beer person, but I decided to be adventurous and try a Galway Hooker (it's a beer as well as an opportunity for lots of clever jokes). It was... interesting. The best activity of the night was playing a Jenga knock-off game called Timberrrr. It got pretty competitive. The night finished off with a trip to the Irish fast food chain Supermac's for hot muffin sundaes, which are possibly the best desserts you will ever find for under $3.