Ireland: Day 4

Also see Day 1, Day 2, Day 3:

Day 4: Galway
This day didn’t start out great. I woke up with a sore throat, which usually spells doom for me. It went away by mid-day, but I was pretty sure I was getting a cold. Plus, we had an all around failure of flat irons. Mine stopped working back in Dublin, but I was able to use one of the other girls for a couple days. But on Day 4, hers overheated and the plastic melted, making the flat iron unable to close and rendering it useless. So the rest of the trip I struggled to keep my hair under control.

It took a hair tie, about 15 bobby pins, and eventually a headband to keep it pulled back. I wasn’t so much worried about how it looked, but keeping a fro under control in the rain and winds of Ireland had me very aggravated. So between the developing cold and the broken hair tools, I was kind of grumbly. Luckily it was a nice day and we were spending the whole thing exploring Galway.

First we walked over to the Galway Cathedral, which, like most cathedrals, was ornate and beautiful. And so much fun to walk through and photograph.

After the cathedral, we walked along the river and back onto the streets just to get the lay of the land. We also took some time to check out a few shops.

We knew we were heading to a pretty secluded area the next day, so at lunchtime we hit a grocery store and stocked up on a few days’ worth of groceries. We filled several large canvas bags with food, enough for seven people to struggle in carrying back to the hostel. You should have seen us, it was comical. I wish I could have taken a picture, but I was too busy breaking my back under the weight of enough food to feed an elementary school. After the grocery situation was settled, we decided to head out for some serious souvenir shopping. That dominated our afternoon, and when we were tired, we stopped in at the Quays for a drink.

From the storefront, the Quays looks like a quaint little pub, but inside it’s huge! And at that time of day it was nearly empty, so we just relaxed awhile and had deep discussions about who knows what. Probably solving the world’s problems.

That night we grabbed dinner out, then visited the Spanish Arch to listen to some traditional Irish music. One thing I love about Ireland is that when there’s a musical performance, instead of setting up a stage for the band, the performers just sit around a couple tables, mixed right in with the customers. There’s not a big to-do about it. The group will start out with maybe an accordion and a pipe player, then a fiddle will show up and join, then a banjo, etc. It’s all very casual.

On the way home, I captured this image of Galway. It’s even lovely at night, no?

The other nice thing about that night is that I got to call the Giraffe. I didn’t have a cell phone, but a few of us chipped in to buy an international calling card. Then after a 15-minute conversation, we both got online and g-chatted for awhile. It was nice, I needed a Giraffe fix.