Gal-Away

Another action packed day to report here in Ireland for the Honeyduo! We're not gonna sleep proper until we're home it seems! Jess and I did actually wake up at 10:30am, but we all had gone to be at 3:00am if you recall. We woke up to pancakes the Irish way courtesy of Michael. Apparently the difference is a lack of buttermilk, which you can tell as the pancakes are flat as anything and not as fluffy as American ones. It was still very tasty and a lovely breakfast though and Jess, Michael, and I enjoyed it before we got our act together and headed out the car to make a visit to one of Michael's sisters, Ann.

Ann's house was darling and she was overjoyed with the bottle of maple syrup we presented to her as a gift from America. Floridian's originally from Rhode Island bringing syrup from Vermont to a woman in Ireland. Life is funny. We gave lots of love to her dog Trotter before we went inside and had a chat in her living room about whatever we thought of, so the conversation went the way all the rest of the chats with the relatives have so far! Ann's a twin too, like Jess and I, and we had a great time discussing Twin Things with one another, like pranks we pulled (Ann and her sister Mary switched places on their dance dates without either man noticing) and Twinapathy, the alleged ability twins have to communicate even when they're apart simply by virtue of being twins. We chatted for likely over an hour before Ann had to get ready for a toe surgery she was having and we left for home once more.

Marie arrived home from her Mothers not long after we did but she was tired from the drive and we were all in the mood to relax so we went to our rooms and vegged out for some time. In the time we were all relaxing though, Terry, another one of our cousins apperently, arrived at the house and popped her head in to holler hello at least twice. Jess and I thought we heard something and poked out of our room to see a woman in a red car leaving. We assumed she was someone Mick and Marie knew and hadn't responded to for a reason, so we just went back to our room. It wasn't until a little later when we all returned downstairs to prepare for Michael's art exhibit that Marie called Terry to ask if she was coming to the exhibit that she had dropped by and no one had answered and she was now on her way our of town. Marie and Michael both said they hadn't head anything and they would have liked to have seen her and we all felt quite silly, but such is life.

Before we left we all had dinner together of chicken stuffed with black pudding wrapped in bacon served with a side of fresh potatoes and, of course, wine. The meal was excellent and Michael was impressed that we even tried the black pudding. According to him our mother was never as adventurous with food as we were and wouldn't even touch it. Jess and I actually aren't very adventurous with food, in fact we're really picky eaters usually, but hey, when in Rome! Or Ireland, as it were. We took that time to present Marie and Michael with the gifts we'd brought for them: Two 3D printed dragons, two Minnie Mouse shirts, and matching Mickey and Minnie keychains. The 3D dragons took forever to unwrap as they were overwhelmingly covered in clingfilm to protect them during the flight and it was quite the sight to see Michael surrounded by red and green wrap as he continued to pull more sheets of the relatively small dragons. Despite that, they both loved all of them and thanked us as we thanked them and it was a big thanking mess.

At 6:20pm we all set off for the Galway Art Club Art Exhibition where Michael's paintings were on display and for sale to the general public alongside 16 other artists. The event took place in a school gym but it was just lovely! Jess and I felt like such debutante's gliding around an art gallery with a glass of wine in our hand. It was all rather surreal. There was a lot of beautiful art for sale and if I'd had the money or luggage space (or wasn't too cheap to pay for a checked bag) I would have liked to have bought one! I really don't have the space though, and it was nice to just appreciate the art anyway. There we were introduced to Olda and Kloda, more third cousins of ours, who were very sweet and who's name I can't spell either because they're complicated to me or because I can't hear them being pronounced properly because of the Irish accent.

Michael had to be there the whole of the opening event so Jess and I had from 7:00pm to 10:00pm to entertain ourselves. We stayed in the art exhibit until 9:00pm and picked out our favourite works and played a game of 'male artist or female artist' based on the style and design or the pieces but we wanted some fresh air and to see a cathedral that was just down the road that we hadn't gotten to yet, so we took off for about an hour to check it out.

We found a lovely river on the way that we had to stop and look at before we got around to the cathedral. I have no idea what the river and cathedral were called, but they were both pretty and therefore we enjoyed them. We didn't go into the cathedral as it was obviously closed at 9:30pm, but we took a look around and it was quite pretty. Jess and I sticklers for old buildings though. It comes with the History Major. The return journey took us back into town where we poked our heads into a Spar store, essentially a gas-station-esque shop to see what they sold and the prices. We were very tempted to get a pack of Crunchie bars for 2 euro, but decided we were just hungry and should save our money for our further travels in Europe on more impressive things.

We returned to the school at 10:00pm to help with breakdown, which was just cleaning up wine glasses and throwing out plastic cups, and headed home with Michael and Marie. There we all settled into the kitchen and had toast with gooseberry jam and butter as Michael pulled out an old photo album to show us pictures of our relatives. We found a number of ones of mom where she looked just like us when we were younger. We also put Michael to the test by showing him pictures of us on the phones when our hair was different or matching to see if he could actually tell us apart. He really can't, but that's no surprise! Around 2:00am, because we're idiots, we all parted ways to get to bed. We all agreed to be up and ready at 8:00am for breakfast before Michael took us to the bus stop for our ride into Killarny. That left us with 5-6 hours of sleep but it was worth it for the extra time with Marie and Michael.