We left Dublin to head west to Galway for a quick overnight get-away. We'd heard great things about Galway, and even though Dublin was a blast, we were excited to get out of the big city and start seeing some countryside.
As the train rolled out of Dublin, the concrete buildings faded off, giving way to rolling green fields and sheep--lots of sheep! This was our first experience seeing the famous Irish sheep, and it was a little disconcerting because it looked like some hooligans had caught and graffiti-ed them. They were brightly painted, and though it didn't seem to bother them, it bothered us. (Seriously, who paints sheep??)
We found out later that's how the farmers "brand" the sheep. They pick a paint color (or colors) and location to mark the sheep and register that with the Irish government. That allows the farmers to identify their sheep when they run off into the hills and mix with all the other flocks.
After a quick nap, we arrived in Galway. We could see immediately how different it was from Dublin--still busy, but on a much smaller scale. And we could see water! We never got close to a port in Dublin, we could only see it from the Guinness Storehouse. But here in Galway, we walked along the water's edge until we found our hotel.
The second interesting fact of the day is that we learned Galway is famous for "hen" and "stag" parties (aka bacherlorette/bachelor parties). I'm not sure why exactly, except that maybe it's the closest big city for some of the smaller towns, but it certainly lived up to its reputation. It was a Saturday night, and the hens were already about!
They filled the hotel lobby, all clutching champagne flutes and fancy suitcases. Registration took a while and the sheer number of hens completely flustered the poor receptionist. We finally got our room, but when we returned from dropping off our bags, ANOTHER hen party filled the lobby! We could only imagine how busy the restaurants and bars in town would be tonight!
Amber and I had no idea where to go, or even where the main part of town was, so we asked at the front desk. This is when we realized a really good reason why we are such compatible travel partners--Amber hates to ask people questions, which I have no problem doing. What I am bad at is listening to answers (curse you, ADHD!), but turns out, Amber is super good at that part! So between the two of us, we can make contact with any person, AND get directions/recommendations!
So off we went, map in hand, courtesy of the hotel receptionist. We walked down a very empty, kind of industrial street, which confused me, because I'd heard what a busy, happening town Galway was. We passed lots of quaint buildings, though, and even more colorful doors and vibrant flower boxes. (The Irish flowers really thrive in all the rain and extended summer sunlight!)
We turned the corner onto Shop Street, and suddenly, we saw where all the people were.
Shop Street was insanely crowded, but it was also ADORABLE! It was a pedestrian street, closed off to cars, and looked like an old medieval town. Banners hung between the buildings on either side, and there were flowers everywhere.
There were restaurants and brick buildings and brightly painted buildings and pubs, and souvenir shops and regular shops and sweater shops and street performers and musicians and...oh my God, it was overwhelming! We didn't know where to turn first, or what to look at, and we just wanted stop and to take it all in except that the throngs of tourists bustling by kept nudging us out of the way.
We found the restaurant the receptionist suggested, and gratefully slid inside. It was tiny, and filled to capacity, but it was also warm and the food looked fantastic. Amber ordered a beautiful salad, but I was intrigued by an appetizer.
"What is 'potted crab'?" I asked the waitress.
She looked at me like I'm an idiot and slowly answered, "It's crab. In a little pot." And she was right! (It was like a warm crab salad you spread on slabs of soda bread--it was DELICIOUS!)
After lunch, we slowly strolled the street, stopping every five seconds to take a photo or look at something new. The musicians all played exotic looking instruments, which fascinated us.
This guy was one of my favorites, mostly because I couldn't figure out exactly what he was doing. He was hilarious--he'd obviously gone through a lot of trouble to cover the pub in paper, and he even had a cardboard cut out of himself in the window! He looked like an ordinary busker until you looked closely at his "banjo"--also a cardboard cut out!
He didn't sing or play, he just stood there saying, "Plink plonk." He even had sheet music to go along with it. Amber and I couldn't stop cracking up at him!
There were musicians on literally every corner. We stopped to watch them all, and I feared we'd never make it down the street, but then again, who cared? This was exactly why we came to Galway!
We also found this adorable busker--he was sooooo cute, we were pretty much glued to the street in front of him, just staring at him. And we weren't the only ones, either--the whole area was filled with girls staring just as intensely.
He even stopped a full hen party in their tracks! They were hilarious, all dressed up in matching golf outfits. He dedicated Ed Sheeran's "Living Out Loud" to them, and they held their giant inflatable golf clubs aloft, swinging them back and forth in time.
Amber decided we should support local artists, and bought us both a copy of his CD. She got a smile and a wink when she dropped the money into his guitar case, reaffirming that not only was he gorgeous, but charming as well. I think all the female hearts in our area sighed and melted simultaneously.
As if Galway wasn't busy enough on that sunny Saturday, there was even more shopping behind the main street--a farmer's market! They had the coolest stuff--crafts, and fresh veggies galore.
There were flowers, fresh cut and in pots.
And there was a fishmonger, selling all sorts of fresh seafood on giant mounds of ice.
This ugly guy caught my attention--I couldn't turn away from it. I've never seen a monk fish before, it looked like an alien from the sea.
It was so disgusting, I vowed never to eat one, a vow I unknowingly broke the very next day when I ordered a tasty seafood platter. (Amber remembered the fish and my vow after I'd finished eating.)
We shopped a bit, passing harpists and a magician/trapeze artist as we strolled, finally coming to the end of the main street. It was bordered by a park filled with more performers (street dancers this time), and absolutely filled with people and more flowers. It was a great spot to people watch.
All that walking (OK, not really that much) made us thirsty. We found a pub that promised trad music, and ordered a couple of beers. The place was packed, mostly with men at first, and then with the golfing hen party. (Curiously, there was a sign at the front door barring hen or stag parties in the pub.)
We sat next to a young guy who soon became our new best friend. Jason was a local--he loved this pub and was super friendly. He told us about Irish politics, and about growing up in the country. He spoke of his father working hard every day on the farm, and how Jason couldn't wait to get away from it. He was funny and endearing, with an easy smile and a quick laugh. Amber and I both fell in love with his charming ways. (Amber accurately pointed out later that all Irish men have that charm, whether they're 8 or 80, and it worked on us every time!)
We'd come in for the live music, but quickly opted for drinking a few beers with a fun local guy instead. After our frenetic sightseeing the past few days, it felt great (and a little bit naughty) to spend the evening drinking in a pub.
Eventually, though, our stomachs betrayed us. Jason sent us off to his favorite chipper for dinner, McDonagh's. I remembered seeing it earlier in the day, but couldn't remember where, exactly--we'd walked up and down the street a couple times. We got lost within two minutes of leaving the pub, and had to ask another local guy for directions.
"Which way to McDonagh's?" I called out to a group of men smoking cigarettes on the patio. They sighed, and silently pointed behind us, a bit dismissively. We couldn't figure it out--after all the friendly, helpful Irish people we'd met, this guy seemed irritated with us. Not angry, but definitely annoyed.
"That was weird," Amber said, and I agreed. But I realized why a couple blocks later.
"I don't think McDonagh's is this way..." I started to say, and then I remembered what was.
"McDonald's is this way!" I told Amber, laughing. "No wonder he was glaring at us! He thought the stupid Americans wanted to eat at McDonald's, not McDonagh's!"
And sure enough, there it was, the Golden Arches. We turned around and found McDonagh's in the other direction.
The restaurant, like all the other pubs and eateries in town, was packed. There were two sides--a take out side, and a sit down side. We each stood in a separate line, figuring fate would tell us which side to choose. The pricier sit-down side eventually won out because they served beer, and actually had seating.
The seating, however, was communal, and very close. The waitress led us to a table filled with four very quiet (German?) boys and we sat down inches away from them. The foreign boys quietly ate their dinner, completely avoiding eye contact.
We ordered dinner--more fish! And more mushy peas, which sound gross, but are delicious and slightly weird all at the same time. We also ordered local beers, Galway Hookers, named after the boats famous to the Galway region.
And yes, we snickered and giggled and took lots of photos with them, which did not help our case with the Very Quiet Foreign Boys.
By the time we were done, it was dark outside, which meant it was really late. We considered another pub with more music, but we were stuffed from dinner, and the "Just one beer" compromise doesn't work in Ireland because all the beers are giant and heavy.
But no matter...like all our days so far, Galway proved an excellent host, and a fine city to see. A gentle rain fell on us as we walked home, our first Irish rain, which delighted us. (That wore off soon enough in the coming days!)
Then it was back to our hotel for a good night's sleep, interrupted only occasionally by an enthusiastic stag party singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." Maybe the lion was the only one sleeping, but it didn't dampen our new found love for Ireland in the least.
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