Last weekend was spent in Galway, which I always want to spell as Galaway thanks to my friend, Patty. The weather was A-MAZ-ING! There wasn't any precipitation and the sun showed through all day, which was better than I had hoped for. I was just hoping it wasn’t pouring when we went to the cliffs of Moher (a light drizzle instead of heavy rain). It’s supposed to be cold, windy and wet on the west side of Ireland, which is where Galway is located.
You all need to listen to a song that a lot of the pubs in Ireland play about a Galway girl. The girls from Galway LOVE it. This song was stuck in my head the whole time I was there, lol. It was written by Steve Earl while he was staying just outside Galway for a bit. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nt_TirDyKU
We (Megan from Purdue, Rachel from Kansas, and I) took a three hour train to the Galway city centre, which is much less stressful than taking a plane, like we have for the other trips. We sat and ate cheap food from home and talked, facing each other on the way there with plenty of leg room. In addition we didn’t have to go through security, arrive 2 hours before our plane left, etc. It was grand.
Once we arrived in Galway, we dropped our bags off at the hostel and walked around the town all day. We went to a farmers market that was right next to St. Nicolas’ Church, which is said to have been where Christopher Columbus stopped to pray before departing for the New World. The farmer’s market had your typical vendors of gloves, leather goods, food, toys, art, and knick knacks. There was a guy there making doughnuts on the spot and we decided to try them. They were so delicious that I want to go back to Galway just to get those doughnuts! They just melted in your mouth. Mmmmmm…… Then we went window shopping around town where we saw some people tap dancing/clogging (I’m not sure what you would call it) trying to raise money to go to Haiti. It was pretty cool. The city was just very cute over all and bustling for the bank holiday weekend. It was right beside Galway Bay, which was quite beautiful, with the Aran Islands and some cliffs in the distance.
On Sunday we went on a bus tour of the Cliffs of Moher and the surrounding area. We went inside a cave, walked along the cliffs, viewed old castles, etc. The Cliffs of Moher were not as nice as the cliffs that we had previously visited in Howth, in my opinion. They were nice, but it was so busy and we weren’t given that much time and there were walls that were pretty high so you couldn’t even get a great picture of yourself there. Apparently people die all the time there by losing their balance when they get too close to the edge. Maybe that’s why the walls were there. Also, if we had gotten there earlier, we could have seen puffins. That would have been pretty sweet! However, it is hard to get there early enough when you don’t have a car. The road signs are confusing anyway, so I’m not sure that I would have made it there with a car, anyway. As anticlimactic as the Cliffs of Moher were (they were still quite beautiful), I still had a great time because I was in such a beautiful part of Ireland with breathtaking views, absolutely magnificent weather, and great travelling partners. I couldn’t ask for much more!
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