Galway, Day 1

15th Oct '14

Off to Galway today!! We left at 7 in the morning for our long 5 hour bus journey. Luckily nobody was late and we left on time. I fell asleep for a lot of the bus journey because I don't really like them. My classmates weren't too loud on the bus which was good and I got two seats to myself so I could stretch out. I also brought a pillow which was the best decision I have made so far because it made the long bus journey much more comfortable. We stopped at Enfield half way there and we all got lunch there and Bronwyn was such a child and got toys from the claw machines there. I was so glad to stretch my legs there. Then it was back on the bus for another few hours. We also stopped at a centra store on the way to stock up on sweets which was good. I bought soo much junk there.
When we arrived at 1 we were given a welcome by one of the instructors and given a brief about the place and what we'd be doing there and safety rules. We then got lunch of soup and sandwhiches before we were thrown right into our activites. I was in the gorge walking group first. We wore wetsuits, jackets and a life jacket with normal runners. We then took a 15 minute bus ride to the river suck on the border between Galway and Mayo, It is a very scenic area with the rivers and mountains and there was a lot of sheep. I was eager to get started. Our instructor told us exactly where to jump and it was so cold jumping in for the first time even with the wetsuits, it was a horrible feeling when the water filled into my runners. The current on the river was very strong after all of the heavy rain so it was too dangerous to do all of the jumps. We only got to do 3 jumps and no slides which was kind of disappointing because it was the activity I was most looking forward to, all of the other groups did about 5 jumps and 3 slides. But i still enjoyed it and got to know a few new people in the first two hours of my stay. It was quite scary jumping off some of them but I tried all of them and some of them a few times. On the bus on the way back to the centre we got hot miwadi to warm us up, it tasted so good! Then it was into the showers to warm up and dinner. I got to hear about what some of the other groups did and they really enjoyed themselves. We had duty groups to tidy up after each meal. I wasn't on for the first day.
After dinner we went on a walk in the woods nearby. It was dark so we all had torches. We were then split up into two groups and set off on different paths to find our way back, without any torches, it was scary and dark but we did use one torch. I was holding onto peoples arms to stop myself tripping up.  Our group made it back first. The sky was very pretty because you could see all the stars. Some of the lads tried to hide and jump out and scare us but we always saw them before they jumped out. When we got back from the walk we had tea and biscuits and played a few card games before going to bed. Me and my friends ate so many sweets and stayed up really late talking. I had soo much fun on the first day and was quite impressed with the qualities of the rooms (but our rooms shower didn't work right which was annyoing because it turned itself on in the night sometimes). The instructors were soo nice and funny and we all got on really well with them. I also got to know some new people which was good to. I couldn't wait to do more activities.

Bus journey

 At costa's with hot chocolate

 Mary, me and Bronwyn

                                       Waiting to start activities

They had so many dogs there but this one was the cutest. I f his name but he used to just stare at the ground at the mallest of sticks and rocks waiting for you to kick or throw it and whenever you even put your hand towards the ground he'd stare at you waiting for you to throw something . He was quite dumb which was funny, he was really soft aswell.