After talking to the cool people behind the desk at our hostel this morning, we decided to skip town and head over to Galway, Ireland. Since we still have a few days before Josh gets here, we wanted to make sure that we didn’t overdo Dublin, and that we got to explore some other area in Ireland. Josh, if you’re reading this, don’t worry, we have plenty of ideas for Dublin stuff once you get here. So anyway, we decided to go to Galway this morning, and within the hour we had bought our tickets and were on the bus. The funny thing about bus Eireann is that it is kind of like the Irish equivalent to the Greyhound bus system in the US, especially because the mascot for bus Eireann is also a dog (just like on Greyhound), except that it’s a golden retriever. And there’s a picture on the side of the bus of it running…yes, again, just like greyhound. I was rather amused by it. I tried pointing out the similarities to Nolin, though his level of excitement was considerably lower than mine.

After about a 3 hour ride, we arrived in Galway, a lovely little seaside, formerly fishing, town. It’s definitely a shift from the bustling streets of Dublin… everything here seems to close at 5pm, until the clubs open at around 11. The pubs, as is to be expected anywhere in Ireland, are open all day. There’s the main square (Eyre Square) and two popular pedestrian-only streets (Shop Street and High Street), which are lined with restaurants, pubs, bookstores, cafes, and clothing stores. Nolin and I have enjoyed trotting up and down these streets all day long, along with all of the surrounding side-streets. What neither of us realized until we got here is that Galway is the town where the famous Claddagh rings originated. Claddagh rings are the ones with the hands holding a heart topped by a crown, symbolizing friendship, love, and loyalty.

We also took a walk out by the seaside, which was incredibly windy, but rather beautiful. An approximately 1 mile walk down a jetty, led by our thirsty inner-photographers, toward a red and white lighthouse. Of course, we discovered that the entire area at the end of the jetty was locked off, and we couldn’t get anywhere near the lighthouse. We did get some good exercise though, that’s for sure, and by the time we reached town again we had the classic pink noses and cheeks caused by cold and windy Irish weather.

coast of Galway:

Thanks to our “Let’s Go: Ireland” (our bible here), we ended up finding some live jazz music at a pub. It was a full 18-piece jazz band, accompanied by some old-fashioned swing dancing. It was great fun, and a nice change of pace for us. We’re hoping to find some good live traditional Irish music once we get back to Dublin.

Yes, I may have been a little skeptical when we first arrived, but I think that’s because I’ve grown so attached to Dublin. We both quickly discovered what a great little find Galway is, the history that it holds, and the nice little change of pace to a quiet seaside city. We’ll be spending all of tomorrow here too, and then will be heading back to Dublin on the 18th before we meet up with Josh on the 19th.

We’ll hopefully upload some pictures tomorrow of our trip so far. Thanks to all those who have been reading along with our adventures! We’ll try to keep the updates coming.

Peace and love from Galway, Ireland