Intervarsities Part 3: Destination Maynooth

Friday made the mammoth trek to Maynooth's Glenroyal Hotel.

Maynooth is a weird place. It's situated maybe 30 minutes outside Dublin when there is no traffic. It's quite blatantly a suburb in Dublin's great conurbation which stretches well past this small Kildare village. All that being said the locals seem determined to be as country as possible perhaps as a reaction to being swallowed by Dublin. The pubs are very much country pubs (albeit bigger and full of students), the hotel is very much a country hotel with weddings with people with mustaches on-going 24 hours. Although it's a poor reflection on me I was quite taken aback when the owner of the Centra spoke to me in Irish. Anyway, to me it might as well be Ballybunion as 30 minutes from my house.

Getting out there on a Friday evening it might as well be BallyNaHoolieWoolie with the M50 jock-o-block the entire way out to the exit for Galway and the N4 snailing along after that. The team had a meal together in the hotel that evening. As the time crept on towards ten we headed in to the main street to meet up with the other teams for the draw that would decide the order for the weekend.

We headed down to the Roost and when most of the teams were there we made the draw. I didn't stick around too much longer after that, as I found myself pretty shattered once again.

The idea for the team to all travel and stay in the hotel was a master-stroke. There was a real sense of togetherness about the whole thing and making a weekend of it, even if we were so close to UCD.

Well it seemed like a good idea until I tried to get to sleep in my room. Just outside the window there was a vent for an air-conditioning vent which was making a noise like a tractor, right outside the window. Shortly after 11pm that noise was joined by the noise of the nightclub which must have been directly below us, the throbbing irregular beat of the base from whatever best of 90's trance CD that they were playing filled the room and there was no way I could get to sleep. Eventually just before 2, I went down to the desk to complain, they apoligise and told me that there wasn't much they could do tonight but tomorrow they would change the room. The nightclub was due to close at 2am anyway, so with the promise of quite to come I returned to bed.

At around 2am the nightclub finished and by about 3am the stragglers who had been talking loudly outside it's door, also under the window had been cleared. I was just about getting to sleep when someone statred shouting in the corridor. I soon overheard that it was some female knacker with a thick Dublin accent who was very tired and emotional whaling down the phone to someone called Sharon "Shrad-don" as only drunken scum no how to do at three O'Clock in the morning. Eventually it stopped but at 4am she came back and I could take no longer - I got and got my trousers on again, ready to smash her head in with the nearest fire-hydrant. Luckily enough as I poked my head out the door some hotel staff were coming down the corridor to collect her.

Finally, I could get to sleep... for 4 hours!