While I am happy to be back in the cottages in Spiddal after a crazy weekend in Dublin, it hasn’t exactly been easy.
As I’ve mentioned before, we have weekly electricity allowances in the cottages which means that we really can’t turn on the heat because it drains our coin stash. On top of that, the cottages are made of cinder blocks so they are not exactly the best for keeping the cold air out.
And to make matters worse, the owners just installed new “vents” for safety purposes with the gas fireplaces. When I say “vents” I mean a hole in the top of our wall that opens up to the outside with a slitted plastic covering.
The cottages are so cold that I can see my breath when I wake up in the morning. So we leave the fireplace running all day and I sit in front of the flames to eat, do my homework, relax, and write. God bless sleeping with a hot water bottle at night – it’s a life saver.
But I honestly wouldn’t trade Cottage 4 for the world.
Unfortunately, the girls in Cottage 3 did have to trade their cottage for the remainder of our time in Ireland. They swapped their cottage for a heated, two-story house with instant hot water, 2.5 baths, a dishwasher, and private bedrooms with queen-sized beds. Absolute luxury.
But I say “unfortunately” for a reason. While the girls are not complaining about the upgraded amenities and larger living space, the house is at the end of the row of cottages, out of sight from the rest of the group. We have all grown so accustomed to living 10 seconds away from each other and being able to barge in to each other’s cottages at all hours of the day and night.
Also, Cottage 3 was always a central meeting spot for everyone – it was our group’s hub.
Reading this, you probably think that our living situation in the cottages sounds awful and think we are crazy for not wanting to live in the house at the end of the row. But I speak on behalf of the group when I say that we wouldn’t have it any other way than living in our tiny, cold cottages.
So now you’re probably wondering why the girls of Cottage 3 got upgraded to the house in the first place.
The answer is Netflix.
A German company who is filming an Irish crime series for Netflix scoped out our cottages in Spiddal and asked to use Cottage 3 for filming. The cottage was transformed into a safe-house for the set.
At 5:30am on Monday the film crew brought in 6 trucks full of props, costumes, and film equipment. Let me tell you that the cottages are not sound proof whatsoever, so it was a very pleasant wake-up call.
I ignored the ruckus and commotion outside all morning and kept the curtains pulled shut, so when I opened my front door to walk to class I was shocked.
I literally walked straight into a hoard of crew members. Camera equipment and cars filled the parking lot. Lighting equipment surrounded Cottage 3. The Garda (police) were even stationed in front of my cottage because the show was using real hand guns and rifles to shoot at the cottage’s windows.
My group and I all said that we felt like strangers on our own turf. We kept having to walk right through the middle of set to get to class and to/from each other’s cottages. We had to time our walks outside the cottages perfectly so as not to interrupt filming.
We were asked a few times by the Garda and crew memebrs what we were doing here. When we said we lived in the neighboring cottages and were studying here they all seemed shocked and kind of chuckled. But they can laugh all they want because we love everything about our Galway program.
In the end, it was really cool to watch the filming, especially the scene with the van full of men in black ski masks doing a drive-by shooting. The front of the cottages was littered with shells after all the scene’s takes. And the windows of Cottage 3 were destroyed.
So you can check out Cottage 3 on Netflix in 2020.
BRYNN ADELINE 