Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Which Way? Galway!

I've decided I'll save you from reading another novel and explain our trip to Galway using mostly pictures. After a 3.5 hour bus ride, we arrived in Galway late Friday night. We headed straight to a pub where we listened to a really great DJ. It was an early night though, as we wanted to get up and enjoy the city the next day. Here's what we did on Saturday...


The Galway Gang - Matt, Megann, Vaughan, and Claire


The very fast moving River Corrib




Galway Cathedral


Galway Bay boats


I pet one. It attacked. I ran.


Playing in the park


It looks like it could have been a nice, hot sandy beach. But it wasn't...


One lone tree


The Spanish Arch. I don't know it's significance and it wasn't very interesting to see, but our book told us to go to it and - ta da - here it is!


A fun Saturday night was spent at The King's Head


That fun Saturday night started off with some Bubbly! Drinking champagne in style from pint glasses and mugs at the hostel.


After our big night out on Saturday, we were all pretty slow to get up Sunday morning. We were planning on doing a day trip to see the Cliffs of Moher, but slept through that. Megann and Vaughan headed back to Dublin, while Matt, Claire and I decided to extend our stay one more night. We went to a pub to listen to some traditional Irish music, then found our way to another pub to see a live band called "No Banjo." They were a mix of bluegrass, jazz, swing, rock - everything - and they put on a great show!


A traditional Irish band. There were about eight of them sitting in the pub booths, whistling and drumming away and loving life. I was too!


No Banjo. They lied, they really did have a banjo.


Monday was awesome. Matt and I did a 7 hour bus tour of The Burren and the Cliffs of Moher (which are in County Clare, not Galway). The Burren is basically a big limestone mountain that we traveled through to get to the Cliffs, and it has one of the strangest landscapes I've ever seen. It's very desert-like and bare, and sheep, horses and cows freely graze on the rocks (our bus nearly hit a sheep along the way).


I'm the king of the castle...


...and Matt's the dirty rascal! Matt's first time seeing the ocean (look beyond the rocks!)


On our way to the Cliffs. This picture looks black and white, but it's not!


Finally, what I've been waiting for all this time - rolling hills, green pastures, and sheep! It's true people, Ireland really does look like this!


A-mazing! The Cliffs of Moher stretch for 8km and rise up to 214 metres above the Atlantic Ocean. You used to be able to walk right to the edge (see the foreground) but that has since been blocked off. There have been many deaths at the Cliffs, mostly accidental (loose ground, strong winds, etc.), so I'm grateful for the barriers!


A long way down


We saw surfer dudes catching some waves down below. How they survived that freezing cold water, I don't know.


The Poulnabrone Portal Tomb. 22 bodies were excavated from this tomb, which are said to be nearly 5000 years old.


Aillwee Caves. Our bus driver said the cave tour was "SPECTACULAR!" and worth the 8 Euro each, so we decided to do it. It was probably the worst tour I've ever been on and the biggest waste of money. Our tour guide was brutal, and what was advertised as a "thunderous waterfall" was really a trickling sprinkle of water.


I immediately got a good vibe from Galway, and Matt and I are considering moving there at some point. It's a lot smaller and has less to do than Dublin, but the people seem friendlier, there are actual Irish people (imagine that!), it's a student city so it's youthful and fun, and it's pretty artsy. Our main concern is finding work there because it is so small, and with the recession and all, that makes it more difficult. We'll see. Who knows where we'll be in a few months?!

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Guys, haven't talked to you in a while, but sounds like you are having a blast!! Im so glad to see all the pictures and read all your stories! Alex, the pictures are awesome! Amazing Cliffs of Moher is right, Wow, that would be so cool to see!
Take care and have loads more fun!