Galway, Ireland
Galway was one of the most awesome cities I have been to since being on my 3 month long trip so far!
I left Dublin on Monday around 11am to head to the Connely train station to talk to the info desk guy there to see if he could re-print the 25 euro train ticket that I had purchased, and accidentally threw away in a public trash-can the day prior, but said he couldn't. He then went to tell me that the only train to go to Galway leaves from a different train station that was 2 miles away.
My train was supposed to leave within 45 minutes so I had to haul ass (with my big backpacks on) to that train station and purchase another ticket. I get there, purchase a new ticket, which was now 40 euros!, to find out that the train wasn't going to be arriving for another hour...
I didn't get too mad, as I don't really ever anymore, as I just waited for the train to arrive.
On the train, there was a group of 4 older Irish people who had popped three bottles of champagne on the train within the three hour train ride to Galway.
I mind the gap as I step off the train and figure out Galway. Turns out Galway is fairly small (compared to Dublin) and that my hostel was at most a five minute walk from the train station.
I arrive at my hostel (Snoozles) where I had paid roughly 20 euros per night.
The staff there was extremely kind and open! I checked in to a 6 bed, fair sized room with only one other guy in the room. I shower up and bust out my laptop to write my blog post about Dublin. After the 4 hours of working on my laptop writing my adventures from Dublin, it was time for me to go out and find a bite to eat and drink. I stopped by a place called "The Front Door" which was one of the places I had researched to grab a nice beer prior to going there. I order (2) 4.20 euro pint and a 11 euro BBQ bacon burger that was super good! I then head across the street to this bar called Taafes, or Taffers.
I saw that they had live music going on at 9pm and we all know by now that I am a sucker for live music. Everywhere in Ireland has live music so it's not hard to find.
I order myself a Smithwicks and sit down at the corner of the small bar. As soon after the guy next to me leaves, this cute girl sits down next to me by herself. I had a few pints of Guinness by now so my liquid courage came in and I struck up a conversation with her. Turns out her name was Agathe and she was an economics teacher from France who was out here on a vacation all over Ireland for two weeks due to their school's spring break.
Agathe didn't speak English very well so I had to pronunciation my words and talk very simple and slow to her so she could understand my English.
She suggested another bar, as she didn't like the un-traditional music that Taafes was playing, called "The Crane Bar". This bar was about a 15 minute walk from where my hostel was (which is "far" apparently) We get in and right as we get in I order a whisky and a Guinness and Agathe orders a Guinness too. In this bar they were playing traditional Irish music with a bagpipe, a guitar, a little drum thing, and a violin. We ended up staying at that bar talking and listening to the music until about 12:45am. We leave to go eat some sandwiches that she had brought along with her.
I go in for the kiss on this cute French girl and she totally turns her head! I was sorta drunk so I just laughed it off and didn't make it awkward. Whatever! Gotta get shot down sometimes right!
I seriously stumble myself back home from her Air BnB in the rain at 1:30am and make it home safe!
The next morning I had to be up at 7:45am to then walk 10 minutes to the meeting point to get picked up from a shuttle that I was supposed to take to go on a ferry to see the Cliffs of Moher and the Aran Islands.
I arrive at 8:40am (I was supposed to be picked up at 8:45am) and 8:50am comes around with still no sight of a shuttle... I ended up waiting all the way until 9:40am outside of a different hostel and still a no show.
I walk back to my hostel to call the company and get some Wifi. The assistant at the tour company (Doolan2Aran) named Cathy, was one of the most helpful assistants I had ever dealt with. She told me the tour would be cancelled for the next two days due to weather. Because of the weather, I had to extend my trip in Galway one more night.
Now that I wasn't going to see the Cliffs of Moher anymore I could meet up with my little French girl for some breakfast and beers.
It was about 11:45am and we go in to Taafes again to grab some food and a beer. I order a chicken sandwich that was super bomb and she gets the clam chowder. I have a pint of Smithwicks Red Ale and she gets a Guinness.
We pound the pint and the food and head down the road to "The Kings Head" for another pint of Guinness. This time she orders an Irish Coffee instead though. We talk some more and, once we finish our drinks, head out to the main street to get a little tourist shopping done for her. She buys a few things for her family and we needed another drink in us so we stop at some other, more fancy-ish looking bar off the main street. In that bar I order a Jameson and a Guinness. We sit outside on the turf they have laid out where a puppy was roaming around. I pet the puppy some and continued to talk as we drink our beers. It was almost 4pm by this time so she had to leave to go to southern Ireland now. I walk her to the car, give her the good old two kisses on the cheeks and say our goodbyes. I didn't go for the kiss this time hahaha
When she left I wanted to keep my buzz going so I decided to go to "the best craft beer bar in Galway" called "The Salt House".
I take a seat at a bar next to a local who was talking it up with the friendly bartender and order a pint of a pale ale from Galway Bay Brewing (which is one of the most popular craft beer brewery's around). I didn't like the vibes there that much so I headed down the street to another craft beer bar called Bierhaus. While there I had a 6.5% Sour Pale Ale that was pretty damn tart but tasted good after not having a sour beer for a hot minute. While I'm drinking it I see a girl with a group of people order the same drink and had a California ID with her so I naturally strike up a conversation. We exchange a few words, getting to know eachother real quick and went our separate ways.
Next to me at the bar was an elder couple and another guy who were talking about the legalization of marijuana in California, so naturally I had to give them my two cents. We make a quick joke and I said my goodbye to everyone before leaving the bar, pretty drunk now to head to the Galway Cathedral where I walked around in for 5 minutes.
I was starving by now so on the way back to my hostel I stopped at a little restaurant where they had Mexican based poutine which I naturally ordered, along with a can of IPA.
I finish it all and start walking back to my hostel to shower, shave, and rest with 2 more beers at the hostel before going out that night...
12:15am comes around and I have been drinking for roughly 12 hours straight at this point and am feeling extremely tired. After visiting "The Kings Head" for some live music where they played some more modern music, I head back to the hostel where I proceed to P.T.F.O.
The next day I was sorta groggy but had to do some laundry (hopefully my last time on my trip). I threw on my tie die tank top that says "radical" on it and a pair or shorts in flip flops while all my clothes are being washed.
I also extended my stay one more night and talked to my receptionist Tina who was from Slovenia and asked her to go out for a drink later that night as she was finishing up with my laundry. Before the laundry was done I walk around the town with no socks and shorts on where I got a lot of interesting looks!
That evening I go out and grab some food and wait to hear back from Tina to grab a drink.
6pm comes around and my laundry is folded and packed away when I get a text from Tina saying she can't go out with me due to her tile man repairing her floor in her apartment. I threw on a movie and just watched shows on my computer until 10:30pm when I passed out.
In the middle of the night at 2:30am my only other roomate brought home a girl... They ended up talking loudly and having sex. I didn't want to be "that guy" so I just threw on some headphones and zoned out to some meditation music while they went at it.
I woke up at 7:45am the following morning to finally get to go on my tour to the Cliffs of Moher and Aran Island. The couple was up when I had got up as well...
They say hi to me and she gets up, shirt undone, showing me her pierced tits not giving a shit in her underwear too... I say hi and try not to stare while I explain to them what I was doing that day. I end up leaving and getting picked up by a shuttle to then go to a bigger, full, bus to drive the hour and 15 minutes to get to Dorin where we would take a ferry to Aran Islands.
Our tour guide was pretty awesome, explaining everything I needed to know about the landscape and history of the area. On the bus I introduce myself to a cute asian girl who was also there by herself. Her name was Leanna and she is from Fort Collins, Colorado. She is about to graduate with her masters in sports psychology and has a huge social media following for being one of the worlds top competing weightlifters. We make it to the Aran Islands after hoping on a nice 30 minute boat ride to the island.
On the island we had an hour and fifteen minutes to roam aroundso Leanna and I rent some bikes and ride down to the beach where we take a couple pictures and quickly realize times ticking and we wanted beers.
We stop at one of the three bars on the island and I ordered a Pale Ale (that was very good) that was brewed on the island!
I was very impressed. We slam that pint and head out to the next bar that is more close to the boat. We have about 35 minutes left at this point so we order more beers, slam those, and order one more too. She couldn't finish her second one so I finished it for her.
We make the boat and are now on our way to go see the Cliffs of Moher from the ocean where we saw a scene that was filmed in Harry Potter. It was awesome getting to see the cliffs from a view that most people don't get to see.
After driving around on the ocean in the boat for a little while we make it back to the dock.
We all hop on the bus and our bus driver is cool so we stop at a bar for 20 minutes before heading up to the cliffs to see them from that view now. We were the first ones in the bar so I ordered two pints to myself and a cop friend of ours from Michigan we had met on the bus mentions shots so Leanna naturally orders us all a shot of Jameson on top of the beers. We pound our beers and shots and head back on the bus with a nice buzz going on before visiting the top of the Cliffs of Moher. The scenery up top was completely breath-taking.
You could see the cliffs for what seemed like miles in the radiant blue sunshine!
We sadly had to say our goodbye to get home at a reasonable time.
By the time we got home my buzz was practically gone and it was roughly 7:30pm.
I tip the driver and make plans to meet up with Leanna at 9pm at her hostel. I down two beers and take a shower in that short amount of time before meeting up with her.
The first stop was a bar called "The Quess" who had stopped serving food at 8pm (we were starving) and so we just ordered one beer and had to go find food!
We stop at some place across from Taafes where she had fish and chips and I had a meat and Guiness pie with some chips. It was pretty good!
I suggest "The Crane Bar" to her and she was down so we go out there.
I order a whisky and Guinness and before we even got our drinks a couple had befriended us. The dude was from Ireland and ran a small bar and his chick friend was from Greece who was his subordinate. We drink a couple drinks there with them before they decided to take us out to a more modern, hipster vibed bar a little bit away. I was sorta drunk by this time and was just chilling talking to Leanna listening to the weird music trying to appreciate it. Next thing I know the guy we were with takes my hand and tells me to dance with the chick he was with. We dance some and I sit down after a song or two and he does the same thing, whatever.
I dance with her again and she starts making out with me, I was down for a little bit but then I stopped because I thought she was hammered. Towards the end of the night Leanna tells me that the guy was SUPER attracted to me... I felt weird about that. The question came up that Leanna would make out with me if I let the dude kiss me..... I couldn't bring myself to doing it but I did think about it for a while hahahaha.
We called it a night. I walked Leanna back to her place, said our goodbyes, and went our separate ways, as I always do...
I pass out to wake up at 7:45am the next morning too to catch a bus to Belfast at 8:45am...
Galway was for sure a hell of a time and I wouldn't change that experience for the world!
If anyone is ever out in Ireland make sure to go out in Galway and to see the Cliffs of Moher because they are absolutely amazing!
Thank you everyone for reading! I hope the stories made you laugh and gave you some insight!
Until my next blog post which will be about Belfast next!
Cheers,
Ty Stevenson