I’m going to start out by telling you all that the three of us Washcollers in Mardyke, that is Rosie, Buddy and I, are not very good split decision makers. Well Buddy did just come back from a last minute trip to London but Rosie and I are not good at spending large amounts of money (which is honestly anything above like 20 euro) on things without worrying over them for weeks at a time. So it came as a bit of a surprise to all of us when after coming back from the Ring of Kerry we made the decision to trek up to Galway for a night! We made all of the plans on Thursday, trekked out Friday and made it home to Cork at about 10:30pm on Saturday. It was a whirlwind tour in which we decided that we weren’t going to make any plans, just go where the wind took us, and that’s exactly what we did!
After the 3 hour bus ride, which I spent doped up and wishing for solid ground, we made our way to the Kinlay Hostel, which was super nice! We were high rollers paying for 20euro/night but we later found out that Kinlay was one of the best Hostels around so I wasn’t that mad about it. We dropped our stuff off in our room (we reserved beds in an 8 person suite hoping to make friends with our roomies) and decided to head out into town. We walked around downtown took in the colourful buildings, street performers and the smell of the water.
our room
super happy hostel!!!
I know what you’re all thinking, “can they go ANYWHERE in Ireland without hitting the sea!” You have to realize that Ireland is an island, coastal towns are abundant and yes, there are non-coastal regions. I just usually spend a couple of hours driving through them in a drug induced haze because Irish roads are crazy curvy and I think they give bus licenses to ANYONE!
Ok, back on track, on our journey downtown, between stopping in tourist shops and jewelry stores we came across the birthplace of the original Claddagh Ring! They had a little museum inside their shop and they still make the original design, it just cost a pretty penny for one of these gems.
just a billboard
the original claddagh makers
part of the museum
Then like clockwork, we managed to stumble upon a river. I am fairly certain that going to school next to a river at home, and in Ireland, has turned us all into hunting dogs of sort (a river will never be lost on our account!). Wherever we are we manage to find the closest bit of water! I even managed to make friends with the swans we met!
the river!
We meandered throughout downtown looking at the cute shops and exploring alleyways until dinner time.
cute entrance into Kirwan’s Lane
dinner!
We stopped at a place called Riordan’s for dinner, as they promised to have good home cooked food and Bailey’s Cheesecake! Rosie and I got the Guinness Stew while Buddy got the Shepherd’s Pie, everything was delicious and we managed to once again be awkward with not knowing how to pay for the bill! After dinner we went back to our hostel, freshened up and then headed out for a night on the town.
We decided to put together our own pub crawl for the night! We started off at The King’s Head, where I forgot that Galway Hooker is a terrible beer and I ordered a pint that I made the whole table struggle through! After meeting some friendly guys and pretending to understand rugby we made our way to another pub. We were in search of Trad music, which we were told was plentiful in Galway and after pushing through some crowds and waiting for the 9:30 band to start playing at 10 we hit the jackpot! The four piece band we found in Taaffes was playing nothing but pub tunes and Irish dancing songs.
Taaffes in the daylight
One especially drunk guy was having some great craic trying to get everyone to dance and sing with him! I talked to a woman from Dublin in the pub that told me that the band that was playing was well-known in the area and always played the best tunes! Once we got our fill of some fiddles we headed down the road in search of a dance party… and did we find one!
The Skeff is a pub that is just down the road from our hostel, it was a great location and it seemed to be a fairly lively place. Now Taaffes was quite small, the King’s Head… a bit larger but The Skeff was huge, and gorgeous! We scoped the place out and after a walk around we found a bunch of guys jamming to the music, I later found out from Rosie that it was a Stag Party. Needless to say, as we were looking to bust a move, we proceeded to dance like lunatics with these people for the rest of the night.
our friends for the night!
When we got back to our hostel everyone in our room was asleep so we shuffled around, got into our surprisingly comfortable beds and slept till morning. I woke up relatively early, got my stuff together and went out to breakfast in the kitchen. They had a whole spread of coffee/tea, juice, cereal, toast and scones! I ate my scone while talking to some Americans, finished my tea while getting advice from some Germans and was getting toast to take on the road by the time the others joined me.
As we left for the day we decided to hit up the Farmer’s Market downtown, which was quite darling!
They had crafts, and fresh produce, tonnes of people selling doughnuts and curries and there was a fishmonger or two chilling in the fringes. We had decided the day before that it might be a good idea to hit up the free walking tours they have in Galway, if only to make sure we took in all of the sites. (I know it was something planned, but other than that everything was spur of the moment!)
The tour started in the park where we learned about how much the Irish loved JFK, took us to City Hall and St. Nicholas’s Church, I made a wish on a bridge (hope it comes true!) and we ended up back in downtown. Our tour guide, Alex, was a college student in Galway who was originally from Cork. She told us all of the little quirky things about the area (like the religious symbols they all put up above their doors to make themselves look more Catholic for the Pope’s visit) and creepy stories (like how the term lynching came from a man named Lynch who hung his son in Galway)!
Eyre Park
the “religious” signs over the doors
our tour group!
a look over the river
the cathedral
Buddy and I lite some prayer candles here, I wanted to light some at St. Joseph, but there was a woman already praying there.
making a wish!
this is a protest we passed, I know it involved salmon and that I agreed with them, they were a polite protest!
another gorgeous view
We decided to do some more shopping when we finished the tour, where I may have bought myself a little something 😉 and then we decided to stop for tea at this place that I freaked out on the first day we arrived. It is called Cupan Tae, for those fluent in Irish you would know that it just means “Cup of Tea”, THIS PLACE WAS SOOOO DARLING! Matching tea sets, Bing Crosby playing softly in the background, theme of floral prints in pastel, and DOLIES! I could have lived in this place and die a happy lady!!! After we squealed our way through an adorable late lunch we decided to head out again.
THE CUTEST!
We ended up at Galway’s Museum where we learned a bit about the history, saw a lifesize Galway Hooker (hehe), fawned over one of John Ford’s director’s chairs, and took tonnes of pictures of Waterford Crystal. They had a great selection of Irish propaganda posters up as well which ranged from inspirational to lighthearted. After the museum we just walked around Galway a bit more, taking in the sites as we made our way back to Kinlay. We settled down to wait for our bus ride home, ate a little bit of food and just hung out in the lounge.
Galway Hooker
John Ford may or may not have sat in this chair!!!!!!!!!
beautiful Waterford crystal!!!
nice prop posters
us chilling in our hostel
All in all Galway is gorgeous! I definitely recommend a visit up there for anyone stopping in Eire. The youthful atmosphere, the crazy nice people and the beautiful Claddagh jewelry made Galway a diamond in the rough. If you haven’t figured out by now the “rough” is the 6 hour round trip bus ride to Galway from Cork and I do not like buses.
Put a Cork in it! 