the good life: Galway, Ireland

Michael and i took and early flight from edinburgh to dublin, then took a 2 hour train from dublin to galway and arrived around 2pm. Somehow we got lucky and were placed in first class even though i definitely booked 2nd class and defnitely paid the 2nd class flight. It was great! The seats were huge and we had our own big table and our names were even posted on the wall. It was defnintely the nicest train ive been on in europe. We stayed at Galway City Hostel which was right across from the train station.. So convenient. The hostel was ok.. Very basic. We had 2 beds in an 8 bed room. The beds were clean and pretty comfortable. The bathroom situation was the main problem. The mens floor was on the 2nd floor (where we were) and the womens was on the first. Each floor had only 2 toilets, 2 sinks and 3 showers for all those people. Rooms had as many as 14 people in them so it definitely wasnt enough space. The people that worked there were really nice though and there was free breakfast (toast and jam) and free wifi so it was ok. After we checked in Michael and i walked around the city. Galway is so cool! Kind of like a smaller, more pedestrian friendly Dublin. Quay street, one of the main streets in Galway has Lots and lots of pubs with good live music. After we walked around for a little we went to a tourist office and booked our day trips to the cliffs of moher and the aran islands.

We really lucked out because this weekend there was a huge music festival in Galway put on by coors light (definitely wierd to see tons of coors light ads in ireland) there were atleast 10 actd a day all over the city both in the streets and in the pubs. That night we went to a pub called the Quays. They had an awesome live band that did covers of alot of popular songs and a lot of irish music as well. We got there early enough that we were able to grab seats at the bar right by the music so it was great! We drank lots of guinness obviously, and my new favorite bulmers (irish cider). It was a perfect first night!

Friday we went on our day trip to the Cliffs of Moher. We books the tour with Lally tours - we did the 2 tour special and for 40 euro we got a full day tour to the cliffs of moher friday and the aran islands on satruday. It was a great deal because most other companies were charging atleast 30 for just one tour. We caught the bus just outside our hostel and there were only 2 other people eith us for a good part of the tour. We got to talk to the driver alot, he was the nicest old irish guy. He told us a good number of his 42 cousins (Dad's still got him beat!) live in the US and one even lives in silver spring! It was so nice to be on such a small tour (we think it was partially because it was the day of the royal wedding.. Sorry will and kate but the cliffs of moher were more important)

Our first stop were the ailween caves and a birds of prey exhibit. This was randomly inlcluded in our tour so we saw some pretty cool birds then took the bus up to tour the caves. The caves were discovered in 1940 by a man walking his dog. His dog ran after a bunny and dissapeared into thus huge network of caves. The caves are located in the rocky limestone hills of the burren.

the burren

inside the caves... pretty impossible to get good pictures

After touring the caves we took the bus over to the cliffs. We had about an hour and half there. All day our tour guide was saying how lucky we are that we were getting to see them on such a nice day. He said that they hadnt had a day like that in over a month so i was pretty happy. The cliffs were beautiful! Our tour guide warned us not to walk past the barriers even though many people do. I was surprised how many people i saw doing it.. It was almost hard to tell it was a restricted area because there was such a warn in path from people wallking past. Our tour guide told us just that last year 5 teenage boys died... Its really windy up there and i guess people underestimate it. We managed to stay behind the barriers and survive so it was a successful trip.

Memorial for those who have died at the cliffs, on the main
barrier to try and prevent people come walking along the edge.
behind it is a sign that says not to cross in 7 languages..
cant say they didn't try!

The cliffs were absolutely breathtaking and I couldnt believe how much we lucked out with the weather .. our tour guide couldnt either. He kept saying how days like we had made him love doing his job.. so nice.

The only downside of the cliffs was the astronomical amountof FLIES everywhere. I meant to ask my tourguide if that was normal but i forgot. It was disgusting. You couldnt see them at first, but as soon as you got close to the edge you were swarmed with flies! Id go up to take a picture and walk away covered! Seriously sick. You can even see them in some of my pictures!

the black specks and little dots all over the picture are FLIES

On top of the cliffs there is a tower called "obriens tower" it looked reeally cool and for 2 euro you could go up to the top. If you ever go to the cliffs DONT DO THIS! It was the most un-impressive thing ever. It looked big from below but once you climbed up there was only room for like 4 people up there. Also, the walls of the top were too high so you didnt even get a really good view. Now i know better!

obriens tower .. looks promising

the view from obriens tower ... womp womp. no better than the one
i had before i paid 2 euro!

Michael on top of the tower .. the picture is so close because
thats literally all the room i had, haha

After the cliffs we took the hour long bus ride back to galway. We made a pitstop at Dunguaire castle, right on the bay. It was really cool and i got a few good pictures.

That night we caught some traditional irish music at a cool bar called tigh coili. The music was just 3 guys sitting on a couch in the corner of the bar playing.. It was soo cool and laid back, i loved it! We met some girls from finland and a guy from australia that we ended up hanging out with most of the night. I also got 2 cards for free coors light. While it felt sacreligious drinking coors in ireland, i wasnt going to turn down free beer!

The next day we went on our day trip to the aran islands. We caught a bus a few blocks away that took us on a 45 minute ride to the ferry port. Then we took an hour-long ferry to the main island, inishmore. The aran islands is one of the only places in ireland where gaelic is still the primary language - it was really cool to hear it being spoken even though i obviously couldnt understand and of it. Once on the island we grabbed lunch then rented bikes (which is the big thing to do on the islands). The trail that goes along the island has a few stops along the way. The ride was absolutely beautiful! The island is very rural and quiet and covered with old stone walls. The trail runs through rolling hills and fields and has little paths out to the coast. We made stops at a few of the rocky beaches including one where there was a seal colony! It was so cool to see seals outside of the zoo! The total ride was about 5 miles and i was sad when it was over. When i go back to ireland i will definitely stay in the islands for a night so i can have more time there - new favorite place in europe!

cool rocks on the beach

Back in Galway we had new roommates in the hostel. It was finally a cool group of young people. They were all together but 2 were from sweden, one from italy , one from venezuela and one from argentina. They were all studying english in dublin and were here for the weekend. It was really cool to hear them talk because the only common language they had was English.

The next day was the first full day we had just to spend in galway. We took a bus tour of the city to make it easier to learn out way around. It was worth it to figure out where things were, but our tour guide was so wierd. She was talking like shed never seen any of the things she was showing us before. She would say "oh, look at that over there! Its University college of galway, how nice!" i wanted to tell her to cut the crap- we know she does this tour 8 times a day, every day, but i held it together somehow. During the tour we got off at salt hill, the beach area of galway. It was very different from beaches at home- no waves and very rocky- but still nice! They had a really cool diving platform and people were actually swimming! (it was only like 62 degrees out)

Salt Hill

That night we did a little more bar hopping. We went back to the quays for some music, then to tigh coili, then caught a street concert for the rest of night. The band was called keywest - i had caught them during the day earlier that day and they were so good! We just happened to be in the right place, right time to see them the second time. They were awesome and had a huge crowd. You can check them out here!

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/profile.php?id=100000780518860&sk=wall

The next day was our last day in galway. For all 4 nights in our hostel, we had this one australian guy in our room who never spoke and was always just laying in his bed. Really wierd. On our last morning we had just woken up and the guy came into the room and said "you guys might wanna check out the news" (read that in an australian accent for full effect) and that is how we found out that Bin Laden was killed! After watching the new in the hostel common room for a bit, we walked around the city, got a couple souveniers and caught our train around 3. I was so sad to ireland but i know i will definitely be back!

Random Pictures from around Galway: