18 September 2008: Galway, Ireland

I woke up this morning for an early bus to Galway and I had my cheapest meal to date: four slices of bread from the hostel breakfast and a packet of American cheese slices. Total cost: 68 cents.

I left Dublin at 10:00am and got to Galway at 1:40. To see the early timeline of my first day in Galway, let's set my arrival time at 00:00. The very beginning.

00:00-- arrive in Galway
00:30-- go to Welcome Week event at National University of Ireland
01:00-- meet Melissa
01:30-- rock (band) out to "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" with Melissa
02:00-- walk around City Centre with Melissa
03:00-- go back to Melissa's apartment for dinner

Damn that's good. Even without the Rock Band, I was still a fucking rock star.

I don't want to say anymore about the first three hours because there's so much more to be said for later in the day, but Melissa made pasta with bolognese sauce with garlic bread, and we topped it off with some chocolate ice cream.

It was during dinner that Emma, one of Melissa's roommates, threw down the gauntlet. That night she was going to a Vengaboys concert.

Those Vengaboys.

Yes, THOSE Vengaboys.

The Vengaboys were back in town.

When I heard this, I almost lost my mind. The Vengaboys were having a concert on the NUI campus that very night. As if my happening to show up during Welcome Week, thus going to the event and meeting Melissa, wasn't enough, I had also happened to show up on the very day of a concert of the all-time greatest discoteque band. The absolute all-time greatest discoteque band, and there's no one that even comes close.

To be honest, this was the all-time "now I can die happy" concert. I had to go.

Emma already had a ticket and was going, so I asked Melissa and Crona, the third roommate, if they wanted to go too. Melissa said no, but Crona was thinking about it. So after having a pre-concert dance party to Boom Boom Boom Boom and Vengabus, Emma and I headed to the concert and told Crona that if I couldn't get in we would call her.

The problem was, you see, that not only was I without a ticket I was also without a student ID. As we walked to the concert Emma said that, even if I were to get a ticket, I still wouldn't get in because I didn't have a student ID.

So basically I had two options: Use the international excuse or use the traveler excuse.

If I used the international excuse, it would require that I pretend to be an international student-- and thus haven't registered yet and don't have an ID-- and I would have to hope that the bouncer would let me in without a ticket because of how big a fan I am of the Vengaboys. The fucking Vengaboys.

If I used the traveler excuse, then I would just say that I was traveling and am not a student but heard about the concert and I would have to hope that the bouncer would let me in without a ticket because of how big a fan I am of the Vangaboys. The fucking Vengaboys.

Emma was pretty confident that the international student gig was the way to go because she said that being a student was the most important thing. But I felt like, if I was indeed a student, then I'd have no excuse for not getting a ticket beforehand. Plus, since I'm a student elsewhere, I thought that would be good enough and the bouncer would be willing to let me slip in.

So I told the bouncer that I had been traveling around Ireland and had only happened to be in Galway that night but I was the biggest non-European fan of the Vengaboys and so was there any way I could just sneak on in. Well, maybe Emma was right, because the dude wasn't budging: you MUST be a student.

I was at a stalemate but not ready to give up, and so Emma called Crona and she came to join us. We stood in line with Emma and a girl named Seana, and the bouncer dude was literally asking people who claimed to be international students to show him a passport and papers confirming that they were in fact internation students. And if they didn't have either he made them go to the library to print them out. Again, the dude wasn't budging. So I felt better about not saying I was an international student because that wouldn't have worked any better at all.

Also, by this point the concert was about an hour late because the band's bus was having trouble and hadn't arrived yet.

The Vengabus was broken down.

(You only heard that one about 500 times that night.)

Eventually Emma got through the line and went inside, so Crona and I took our respective alcohol-- a 6-pack for me and a bottle of something mixed for her-- and went into the building connected to the concert venue to think about our next move.

The band had still not arrived but there was a DJ playing so Crona and I drank a bit and had a bit of a dance party. We also had a good chuckle at the girls who were crying because they weren't let in on account of being too young, not having a ticket, not having a student ID, etc. I mean, these girls were literally crying. I couldn't believe it. We invited them to join our dance party and each one refused. Unbelievable. But hey, if they wanted to cry and be miserable, who were we to stop them?

(Crona and I also developed a new ranking system for girls: how much they're dying to get laid. A 1 if the girl is probably a virgin and a 10 if you know she's just DYING to get fucked and nothing is too demeaning to her for it to happen. The fun thing about this ranking system is that, for once, it's entirely plausible for fat chicks to get 10s and hotties to score low. In fact, to be honest, most of the fat chicks DID get at least an 8. It really flipped the switch.)

Finally, the security dudes made Crona and I leave where we were because the band was about to enter through the connected building. It was about fucking time, and we went outside. Except it wasn't about fucking time. It was still almost a half hour from the time we went outside to the time the concert began. People were actually booing. Booing the Vengaboys; that's almost sacreligious.

Eventually the band showed up and led off with Boom Boom Boom Boom, of course. I got up close to the door to see if there was any chance at all that I'd be able to sneak in, but it was looking bleak. It got even bleaker when the bouncer told me to step away from the door because "you're not even a student, I'll have campus security remove you from here." I couldn't believe how big of a dick this guy was being.

Anyway, I stepped back a little and continued to have my dance party, and I watched as people began to trickle out the very second that Boom Boom Boom Boom ended. The first wave of people who left said they had only wanted to hear the one song, but the rest told me that the concert sucked and they were already late for plans because the concert had started so late. Them being late for plans I can understand, but the concert sucked? Please, it's the Vengaboys. What did you expect?

Throughout the concert, these girls kept getting refused at the door. And every single one of them would end up crying. It was the funniest thing, really, and not because I like seeing people cry. It's because they were crying over the Vengaboys. You could hear them just as well outside as you could in, and Emma texted Crona to say that she couldn't even see the band because they were on the top level and only a very small amount of people were let up there. You might as well have a dance party outside, right?

Also, at least the bouncer was fair. You know? I mean, at least he wasn't letting in the cute girls either.

So the Vengaboys played Boom Boom Boom Boom and Vengabus and six other songs. For a grand total of an eight-song set. They were two hours late and then they literally played music for 45 minutes. Unbelievable. They did play an encore, but guess what it was-- Boom Boom Boom Boom. It's always a classy move when a band opens with their most famous song AND encores with it.

To be honest, I didn't know the Vengaboys HAD eight songs at all. Good for them.

After the concert, Emma and Crona and I went to a club which had people outside giving stamps that got you in for free. Unfortunately, Emma and Crona got the stamp for this placed called GPO but I didn't. So Crona paid my $5 cover. How sweet.

The club was pretty good but it's not like I have anything unique to add about it, but at the end this one girl told me to go back to her place with her. Normally you don't have to ask me twice, but I hadn't seen Melissa since we left the apartment and I wanted to go back and see her. Not only because I wanted to go back and see her but because she had been so sweet to me and cooked me dinner. And I wanted to go back and see her.

So I left the girl and asked Crona if I could crash on the couch in the apartment, since it occured to me that the subject had never really come up earlier and I didn't know if I could. Crona said yes, which sealed the deal. I saw the girl again waiting outside but I slipped off with Crona and Emma and headed back to their place.

Melissa was up because she had meant to meet us but her phone died and she didn't know where we were, and I talked with her for a little bit. This girl is unbelievably sweet and, I'm telling you, a dead ringer for Keira Knightly. Absolutey a dead ringer.

You guessed it.

I fell in love for time #3.