Galway Girl

Galway City

Now that I have a computer at my beck and call (Tom, the 14 year old here has an awesome tiny laptop that he lets me use whenever I want), I can back up and tell you all about Galway a bit more. On my second day in Galway, as I mentioned before, I went on a full-day bus trip to the Cliff of Moher. That evening, I went on a walk over to Salthill, about a 30 minute walk up the coast from Galway, to check out the resort town scene. They had a leisure center with a ferris wheel and a ton of carnival games, but the highlight was this awesome pub, O'Connells where they had the most ornately decorated pub I've ever seen.

Salthill Leisure Park


O'Connells Pub



Later that night after I walked back into the city center, I went on a one-person pub crawl in search of some good music. I ended up stopping in at 4 or 5 pubs, and found quite an array of music. Galway is supposed to be known for it's great trad music, which I didn't really know what that was until I got to Galway. Apparently it's the type of traditional Irish music, except usually without the singing. So the type of music that I like, which is the traditionally sounding music, except with singing, that type is considered drinking songs. Either way, I still had a ton of fun listening to all the musicians and I even met another nice couple from America at one of the pubs.



My favorite pub, The Kings Head, had a cover band and a ton of crazy people dancing their feet off. It reminded me of a scene out of a high school prom the way they do it in the movies from the 80's where they're all having way too much fun. It was quite a scene.



The King's Head Pub (also happens to be the name of my favorite pub in LA)


The other cool thing about Galway is that it is the home of the Claddagh clan, who are famous for making Claddagh rings, which is also the ring that Angel gives Buffy on the show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (although I don't remember Angel being Irish!!). I went to the 'original' makers of the ring and almost dropped €40 on a ring just to have one, but I didn't give in. Instead I went to McDonagh's and got some of the best fish and chips in the city. Yum!



Makers of the Claddagh Ring




Best Fish and Chips!



Overall, Galway is a nice city, but it's nothing like Dublin. Even the music wasn't all that special comparatively, but if Dublin is too big or too fast for ya, then Galway is probably just the right speed.