I left Ballyvaughan on Monday for the Cliffs of Moher, and eventually headed onto Galway via Bus Eireann. I reached Galway around 530pm or so and had to go find the hostel that I would stay at that night. It's called Sleepzone - really great place and nice people as well. Pretty cheap overall, was around 12€ for the night. The following two nights I spent at a couchsurfer's place who lived nearby, in order to save some money. As my first time couchsurfing it was very nice, the person I stayed with was very accommodating and genial guy. I left Galway Thursday morning for Dublin, which I will detail in a following post.
The front of Sleepzone.
Managed a pint early on. This pub is directly off of Eyre Square. Stopped there immediately after getting settled into the hostel.
Some bathroom humor at the Hostel.
Lidl, an amazing German grocery somewhere between Aldi and Ikea.
Found some super cheap Brie and bread for the nights foods.
Galway is a pretty small town, with maybe something like 100k people living there total. At the center is Eyre Square. The sleepzone hostel was nearby, only about a 10 minute walk. Nearby are many attractions: A couple of historic Churches, the Corrib river, a Spanish arch, as well as loads of bars. It seems like most of the busy places was done at pubs really - drinking is a large part of the culture. And as they say when in Rome, drink a lot of Guinness.
The town itself is really quaint. It has a small town feel to it, the buildings are painting in a rather pastel fashion. There are shops and boutique markets that sell clothes and other goods. There were often people playing music on the street.
A street sign in Galway. They always use Gaelic as well as English on all the signs. This is in an attempt to preserve original language as its spoken by so few people now a days. I heard it spoken a couple of times - quite a nice language love the way it sounds.
You can see the festive decor already happening here. There was a nice feeling to the city.
Guy playing music, the street signs are cool.
I like the colors the buildings have.
The way into the smaller streets of the city.
More weird signs.
A fine example of a litter bin.
The Spanish Arch.
A girl painting by the riverside.
The city has a path that leads out to the west off the Galway Bay to a place called Salthill. Its about a 30 minute walk from the main square. Its a really scenic walk starting from the river to the bay and eventually a nice look at the causeway and greater bay area.
Goose getting wacky out there on the river.
The river Corrib.
Nice view of the bay and some grass.
The causeway.
The sunset brought some nice colors.
Obligatory sunset pic.
Caught a small arts exhibition while we were walking around town too. Its called Tulca and has been happening for the past 10 years or so. There were about 8 different spaces participating in it, all curated by one person. Galway actually has a decent art scene, theres a theatre in town as well as lots of visual arts spaces. It also hosts the Galway Arts Festival yearly July. Galway Arts Festival has gotten some international acclaim and one of the biggest arts event in the country.
Friend Matthew who I met in the hostel.
So like I mentioned apart from nice scenery there is a bit of a nightlife. The city boasts quite a fair amount of traditional pubs as well as some clubs, though I never ventured out to those. I think part of the reason is that Galway is also a college town, having about 3 or 4 colleges in the near vicinity. We all know what college types like to do on their weekend time, or anytime really. As I was there during midweek it was decently busy, however apparently on weekends the hostels really fill up and the party really rolls into town. Below are a couple photos of the nightlife.
Yea, I mostly drank Guinness while in Ireland. Just made the most sense, I never used to like it soo much but I think primarily it was because it doesn't travel so well to the states. Here it was extremely smooth and creamy, and not too heavy either.
A local band playing some Irish tunes, really great experience. The guy with the harmonica was singing as well. It was really emotive, very pleasant.
Managed to attend also a silent disco. For those of you not familiar, there is no actual music played from loudspeakers. As you enter, everyone grabs headphones and tunes to either channel one or two. The two djs spin two different kinds of music and you can switch back and forth during the course of the night. Super weird but I kinda liked it.
Overall I had a really great time in Galway. Of course I wish it would have been a bit longer stay but for the amount of time I was able to spend there it was well worth it.