I’m a very sentimental person, especially when it comes to being nostalgic. I could go on for hours about some happy or bittersweet memory, and I have to admit I’m one of those people who tells people present for an event about the event, just because it’s such a great story. And if there’s one place I’ll be sentimentally nostalgic about for a long time (forever), it’s Ireland. After a year and a half in Galway – getting my Master’s in Literature and Publishing, meeting amazing people, exploring one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever seen – I moved back to the United States last week. On one hand, I’m excited; I have plans to move across the country in the next few months and I’m looking forward to a new adventure. On the other hand, I miss Ireland already. I could make this blog post about all the wonderful people I met and all the amazing places I visited and how much I love Galway even when it rains for two weeks straight. But c’mon, that’s mushy, I’m not going to make ye read that. Instead, here are 25 of the silliest things I already miss about living in Ireland:
- Getting garlic-cheese chips AND curry-cheese chips after a night out.
- Cans by the Spanish Arch (or anywhere else)
- Every sentence containing “Ah,” “sure,” or “be grand”
- “Ah, sure, be grand” also being a complete sentence in itself
- That ridiculous Garth Brooks/Croke Park saga
- Looking at photos from the Roisin Dubh photobooth on Facebook the next morning
- Looking at photos from other nightclubs on Facebook the next morning and being glad you were at the Roisin
- Football matches being on at a reasonable hour of the day (not 7am EST like is Liverpool – City this weekend)
- The word “naggin” (and the item “naggin”)
- The word “craic” (and associated good craic)
- Watching the Castletown Donkey Derby 1994 video
- Getting 99s multiple times in a day during the summer
- Late-night rambles along the prom
- Buying everything ever from Penneys
- Leading to constant use of the phrase “Thanks, Penneys”
- Almost everyone having some random connection to Niall Horan
- Everyone else having some random connection to Michael Fassbender
- Assuming all North Americans except myself are Canadian (there’re SO many Canadians in Ireland)
- Complaining about Bus Eireann but using it anyway
- Complaining about Ryanair but using it anyway
- The hilarious lowbudget-ness of the Irish version of “Take Me Out.”
- Everyone knowing all the words to Rubberbandits “Horse Outside” (and being up to quote it at a moment’s notice)
- Hating Dublin in the GAA even though you don’t follow the GAA
- That one really awful, enthusiastic busker on Shop Street (you know the one)
- And of course, loving ham.
thebestpossibletime 