PTM // Too many places to stay in Ireland…

Yesterday I spent most of the day with my second cousins Kevin, and Oliver as they were in town for a couple days visiting from Ireland. It was great seeing them, it’s been years! More than years, I haven’t seen Kevin in almost 10 years, and Oliver since 1989 when I attended my cousin Paul’s wedding at the ripe old age of 5. Kevin was here was back in 1999, and he supposedly stayed at my house for a night or two although I don’t remember too much of that. I was about 15 years of age then, and probably could have cared less who was in town, from what ever country. Unfortunately, I must have been too cool to even notice.

Of course we all got to talking about my trip, and they were filling me in on all of the places that they have traveled to in Europe. Especially Kevin who just got back from traveling a bit of Europe not too long ago actually. He couldn’t tell me enough how cheap Eastern Europe is, and I can’t wait to find out first hand! Out of all of the places he’s been, he said that he enjoyed Prague the most, and luckily enough I’ll be spending 2 nights there in May on my Contiki trip, and another 2 or 3 nights there on my InterRail trip in July!

Both Kevin and Oliver repeatedly invited me to stay with them when I get to Galway next month. and Kevin can’t wait to take me out for a night in Galway. He claims that he’s planning on showing me some good “Craic” (wikipedia: Craic). I can already sense the nausea coming on!

What’s great about the Irish folks is that when you’re over visiting in Ireland they go way out of their way to drive you around the world to see all of the sights, purchase every round of drinks each night, and force you to never even attempt to take out your wallet while you’re there. The next morning rolls around, and they’re up bright and early to cook you breakfast! Ahh… there’s simply nothing better than a traditional Irish breakfast. As usual, I’m going to try to reverse this process and actually pay for things this time around. Each time I go to Ireland, I say that, and I somehow seem to come home with more money that I went with.

These 20 some odd days that I’ll be spending in Ireland at the beginning of my trip almost don’t seem long enough at this point. I have people asking me to come stay with them left and right! So much family, so little time? Hopefully not, and either way I’m sure I’ll be back to Galway again before I head back to the US anyways…