Im pretty sure it was late 2005 when i heard Nicola say that "Galway was a graveyard of ambition". Through out the next couple of years i heard it a couple of times off different people and i never said anything but i just said to myself that it wasnt true. I arrived to this country with not even enough money for a cup of tea (fittingly enough im leaving the same way!) yet i fulfilled everything i never knew i wanted.
I knew a few people that lived on the east coast but i had no way of contacting them. I only knew one other person, him who had invited me, and he didnt arrive till the next day so after spending the night at the airport, yes i was woken up by the police asking me if i had anywhere to go and me being mexican and always being terrified of the po po i said yes of course and went back to the western union agent asked her if my money had been wired and for the third or fourth time she said no but would you like a cup of tea she said, obviously feeling sorry for me, i said yes please! what i thought would be a lovely cup of warm tea with no sugar turned out to be a fiver and me being the quick thinker that i am asked her if it was possible if i could use the fiver to ride into the Big Smoke and she said do what you want.
Excellent! Now if i can just ride in and meet my contact in um where did he say? a hotel somewhere down from trinity college? where the hell is trinity college? anyways i found the hotel and sat down at a table exhausted with about a euro on me and all i wanted was a bloody damn pint of guiness. will i chance the wetern union again? my trusty sidekick the ibook g4 would point me in the right direction and also confirmed that my contact was on his way and that i was in the right hotel! May i leave my stuff here ill be back in a sec sure im checking in (ha! no im not) and off i went wondering around like an eejit past molly malone and i think to the post office but thats not important cuz there waiting for me was my western union money transfer!
hoorayyy!!! a bite to eat and back to the hotel and there waiting for me was of course Curtin and with him my first pint of guiness in ireland, the ones in the states and the cans in mexico dont count apparently. We jumped on a train and it got seriously dark outside and after two or so hours we jumped off at a train station god know where, I met Barney and Catherine and off we went on an hour or so drive in utter darkness. Can these people not affored street lights?? Kilcolgan is it? sure if i could see anything id tell you if it was nice. The Curtins reception and hospitality was the warmest and it made me feel at home even though i was thousands of miles away.
In the morning i was shocked from what i saw though... there were cows and sheep in the backyard, stone walls for as far as the eye could see, grey skies and rain everywhere.
hooray! this is exactly how i dreamt about it!!
