The Shockingly Cold Galway Bay

Today, we planned to take a hike to Salt Hill, which was, from what I gathered beforehand, a beach a little ways past the heart of the city. Around 1:30, we met with those who wanted to go and began our trek into town. We went through the farmer’s market and met up with two others before continuing. The farmer’s market was so cute, so I made a vow that I would get up early and explore it next weekend. Luke bought Moroccan olives from the market and offered me some. I thought they were really, really good which was surprising since I’ve been claiming to not like olives my entire life. The walk to Salt Hill was the same as the walks I’ve been taking past over the past week to the lighthouse and the rocks, just a little farther. We ended up in another part of the city on the coast. We asked an old man where we could find Salt Hill, and he told us that we were already there. I was expecting more of nature-y, actually a hill type of place, but I liked what I saw. We went to this area that had two diving boards over the ocean. Several of us decided that we wanted to go. Luckily I was wearing leggings under my jeans since I'm always cold, so I could just take my jeans off to go in. We were all lined up by the diving board, but were unsure as to whether or not we should go in. An older man told us that it was too shallow to jump in. We were pretty disheartened and thought about just coming back another day when someone in our group just ran down the stairs and jumped in. The rest of us quickly assembled into a line and followed suit. As soon as my feet touched the water I turned to Emily and said, “I don’t wanna do this anymore!” and she replied, “Just go!” And so I went. It was so very cold. I think I went into shock. I kept saying “Oh my god!” over and over again and forgot to breathe. We swam out to the little raft deck and climbed on top to catch our breaths and declare our victory. 

The water actually wasn’t that bad when you got used to it, but it was still pretty awful. We all jumped off the raft and swam back to shore to change and warm up. My lips were purple. I had to go commando under my jeans, which wasn’t very pleasant, but probably better than wearing soggy undies. We stopped for ice cream on our way back, and I got a kid sized vanilla soft serve with lime sauce and flake. Flake is a layered chocolate stick that they put in ice cream and hot chocolate. It was very tasty though people made fun of me for getting lime sauce which they thought was gross, but what do they know anyway.