mickan in world

Even the good can be a bit too much at times. Old Swedish saying. In my meaning very much true. Even lovely Dublin can be a bit much after a while. Too much fumes, too much studies, too much of the same people and too much running around, too crowded Luas and too much to do. Then you take a break and when you're back again you remember why you love it so much.

This week is reading week (no lectures or tutorials) so Hanna and I thought we'd take the chance to get out of town for a bit. We got an invitation to Westport to stay with our friend Eòin (pronounced Owen) and to go to the Oireachtas na Gealge (Irish festival). Very tempting indeed and we thought why not?

Westport is five hours away by bus on the complete other side of Ireland, namely on the west coast. It is a boggy, beauty of a land with marshes, sheep and windling roads. There is also the Croagh Padraig, the holy mountain, where St. Patric pondered religeuse matters and which Irish pilgrims climb barefoot. Someday I'll climb it, but this time there was not enough time.

We arrived late Friday and met up with Eòin who took us straight to a concert with the blablabla Cajun Band(?). Great craic! The festival promotes Irish language and it took about ten minutes before this artsy looking guy came up to me and Hanna and started jabbering away in Irish. This happens at times and it is always a bit of a mess because in the noisy room it is darn hard to hear if people are speaking Irish or just some heavily accented English. It's not really polite to go: "Excuse me, but what language are you speaking?". Evidently Hanna and myself started speaking Swedish to eachother (thought that would make him realize we didn't understand nada) which just rendered him very impressed at the level of Irish we were at; he didn't understand a thing. After a while we overcame our communicational difficulties; when we all finally understood that English was the shit, and Hanna and I realized that he wanted to interview us for some TV-thing. So if you happen to put on Irish TV one day, just look out for us, ok?

The rest of the night was a blast. When the blablabla Cajun band (!?) where through we headed to the pub and had us some lovely Bulmers and gossip with Eòins hillarious bud Thomas and then the four of us headed for the one club in town: Mojo. The mojo was on at Mojo and we got the grow going to disco beats and old goodies. At 4 o'clock we found ourselves happily exhausted in Eòin's kitchen eating pizza and massaging our feet.

In the morning we woke up to find the family gathered around the breakfast table. Eòin's mum cooked full Irish breakfast and we smiled like little suns at everything and everyone. In town the festival was on with a barreldancing competition, which basically is: So you think you can dance?" ....In that case try doing it on a barrel. With the one difference that the contestants could actually dance. Traditional dancing of course. 

Hanna and I went for a coffee at a lovely little coffee shop and as we sat there giggling about who comes in but not Eòin's ex. boyfriend and his new boyfriend. We were readily introduced earlier on so we had a nice chatt, and then Eòin joined us and the laugh was on.

After dinner at Eòin's grandma's (I miss my grandma!!!) he took us for a ride around town. A bit of a drive and then down to the harbour. Westport surely is very pretty. Hanna and I was presented with the choice of pub or mass for the hour to come. We chose pub (don't judge us) and had a real good time at Matt Molloys. Another concert was on at Hotel Westport and Eòin got us in for free. This one was absolutely amazing and we were spellbound for two hours eventhough most was in Irish.

To finish off the weekend and the festival there was a big bash at the Plaza hotel. As usual Eòin got us in for free and the craic really was on. There was a trad band and Cailie (trad Irish dancing) and we picked up the steps rather fast. It was such amazing fun and we danced and danced until our feet were beaten, brused and aching. I couldn't stop smiling.

Sunday held a boggy walk and a long journey home. It is good to be back though in my little room at Halls. I've gotten a fair bit done today and I had a good boxing practice. Taking it easy tonight because we have a game tomorrow. Wednesday mum is coming over. It will be so good to see her, can hardly wait!

Oh, just remembered I've forgotten to wright about Halloween. But too tired now. I was Superwoman and we had a good laugh.

Some words of wisdom:

Do remember to forgett
all your worries and regretts.
Live while you have life to live,
give while you have love to give.