Celtic Odyssey: Learning to take it easy

Sunday I finally got to go to mass, twice. I haven’t been able to go Sunday mornings because all the trips I’ve been on have had activities in the morning and my travelling companions aren’t religious. Well, I wanted to go and I there was nothing to hold me back. I headed over to Galway Cathedral and found that the time I had for it starting was wrong, so I missed the first half of the service. It was still a really nice service. After that, I went back to my hostel, then headed over to see what time St. Patrick’s cathedral’s mass started. I had some time to spare, so I did a bit of reading outside, while enjoying the nice weather in Galway. Then I headed over for a full mass. It was very nice and small and we actually got to sing one of the songs in Gaelic – pretty cool! Afterwards, the lady I was sitting next to, Kelly, started talking to me. She’s been in Ireland for a little while, but had been in a very different situation just a few years ago: job in the US (she’s from GA), fiancée, etc. Now she’s thinking about going to this missions school in Northern Ireland, it sounds really cool – it’s not for a specific denomination, it just preps people for mission work and helps send them off. She was very nice, I really liked talking to her and that was cool that I got to meet her, as I probably wouldn’t have if I’d been with someone here. Right outside the church was a market, because there is a huge arts festival going on in Galway. As I couldn’t do any tours and make it back in time for my train, I decided to stay in Galway and take advantage of the arts festival. In the main street, there were more performers than usual (all the cities I’ve been to in Ireland have street performers, most pretty good). I talked to one boy who had a ukelele duck-taped to his guitar – he called it a guikelele. He was really good and it was nice to talk to a local again. Afterwards, I went back to the church I went to first to get photos, and wanted to go to this large tent. I found out it wasn’t open yet, but I met some Aussies who told me about an art exhibition with some thought-provoking art. I headed over there and found this massive exhibition (about 30 works of art) that were modern-day interpretations of stories in the Bible. Jesus walking on water near a surfer, Daniel in the lion’s den with a photographer, the crucifixion with thousands of needles coming out of all parts of their body – showing the pain they were in. It was such a different thing to see and think about, I really liked it. After, I sat and enjoyed the main square of Galway and then headed home. It was a very nice, relaxing day.