GAA!

No, I'm not choking on something. Just expressing some excitement that tomorrow I'll be crossing off not one, but two things from my list of things-to-do-before-I-leave that I had more or less given up on: attending a Gaelic football match, and attending a hurling match. Both sports fall under the rule of the GAA, or Gaelic Athletic Association.

There weren't going to be any decent GAA matches in Galway for the rest of my time here by the looks of it, but I got looking at the fixtures (what they call "schedules" over here) tonight, and in my typical way of warping a sense of spontaneous reason, was intrigued by the fact that County Offaly is playing a football match against County Carlow at 2pm, followed by a hurling match against Kilkenny at 4, both at the same stadium in Portlaoise. (Yes, the matches really only last 90 minutes, and as both sports use the same field configuration, this is completely possible.)

I convinced my housemate Julia to go as well, (Emma is quite bummed that she has to work, otherwise she'd be game for it) so we're renting a car and driving "across the country" to Portlaoise for the two matches. Of course we don't have tickets, but it looks like they should be readily available for 15-20 euro for both matches. At least I hope that's the case. Trying to find this stuff out online at the last second is more difficult than it should be. I did come across one web site that even indicated that the hurling match was in fact being played at Croke Park in Dublin, not Portlaoise, but several other sites support the notion that both are in Portlaoise, so we'll see. (Have I mentioned my frustration with the fact that Irish web sites are not the reliable end-all-be-all of information that they should be?)

And here's a little post script of yet another way that rental car companies like to make my butt hurt: I quickly found a car online from Budget for tomorrow. Started booking it to pick it up from Galway City Center, but noticed that there was a 25 euro "location fee" for picking it up in city center! (The rental was only 33.) I changed it to pick it up at the small airport outside town after Emma said she could drive me out there to pick it up in the morning and went ahead and booked it. After finalizing the reservation, I noticed in small print on the page that a 25 euro "airport fee" would be added for picking it up at the airport.

Fer feck's sake. I just can't win with these guys.