Jack McDade

Day Eight – Bunratty to Galway

Posted on 08. Apr, 2009 by Jack in Ireland

We have really seen a LOT. I mean, seriously, by day 8 we have seen everything that was on our list. It’s at this point we needed to come up with some plans. We thought about heading back southeast again and seeing the Rock of Cashel (a huge castle), but it would involve backtracking against the less exciting (at least in comparison to the last few stops) areas, plus we’re not sure if it’s as cool as it looks. You know how that goes.

We decided, as is almost always the best choice, to talk to our host at breakfast, seeing if he had any recommendations. That’s worked out really, really well for us so far, plus it’s great to chat and laugh with the Irish! There was no shortage of laughter with Noel! We talked and told stories for at least a half an hour over coffee and tea, which is where we learned all about The Fiddler. Noel recommended heading up to Galway against the Rock of Cashel. The plus side being you get to see one of the fastest growing cities, hopefully hear some good music, and be in good position to take the M6 to the M4 and get back to Dublin for our last night in 2.5 hours.

Their kids, a little 3 year year old girl and a boy who was probably a hear and a half old, kept popping in to say hi and run away only to return and wave again, giggling. They were awesome, and I loved Noel’s parenting technique with his son. A squinting eye and raised fist shaked at the boy and he’d stop doing what we wasn’t supposed to and start laughing hysterically. “I’ll pop ya!” I love the Irish. Noel left shortly after to attend mass, so we packed it up.

After pulling out of the drive (the two kids holding hands and waving in the doorway of their huge stone-front house) we headed back North again to Galway.

The drive was pretty standard countryside so we flicked on some Irish talk radio. Bizzare stuff. ADD Disc Jockies playing random lame songs from the 90s and making fun of them. Something i can appreciate.

We made the trip to Galway in 90 minutes or so and promptly spent probably the next 90 looking for parking. What a busy city! We circled the block around the Tourist Info Center probably no less than 7 times, and it’s NOT a small block. The city was pretty nice though, nothing spectacular but still nice. Lots of cathedrals and spires scattered throughout. Once we finally found a paid parking down on The Quay (by the docks), we walked back up to the Info Center only to find it closed on Sundays. So we grabbed some lunch and waited for a info kiosk to open in the main square.

It turns out there isn’t much to do in Galway when it’s not tourist season. Normally there would be live music in the streets and in every pub, but not today, not during the day. So we found a B&B and read for a while, planning on heading back into the pub district for dinner and some music.

Galway is quite American feeling — a downtown area (arcitectually different than the US of course) with loads of commerical retail stores around a beltway (a mile of Double Carriageway, 2 lanes of traffic each way, followed by a roundabout, then another mile to the next roundabout, etc…) and neighborhoods scattered outside of that. We were a little dissapointed but at least it was fairly relaxing day. Not a ton of driving.

We met an American couple at the B&B, Four Winds Lodge, from Florida and chatted with them for a while, comparing notes of our stops. We had both stayed at the same awesome B&B in Doolin it turns out, and ate at the same pub (not a huge coincidence, there are only 3!).

Back in town for some pub grub, there was live music in quite a few of the establishments that didn’t serve food. We listened here and there before finally staying at The King’s Head Pub. A small looking place that opened up into almost a huge stone cave in the back with some pretty groovy lighting shooting up the walls. We got the last table, which was fortunate as they stopped serving food in 20 minutes, like many pubs (usually between 8 and 8:30). Keep that in mind if you’re planning a trip! We saw the American couple come in and look for a spot without success, so i jogged out and grabbed them lest they miss dinner. We chatted for a bit while eating and then we set in different directions– them to bed (ah, retirees) and us for some music.

Galway is much, much more exciting at night! The pub area is lively with action, full of people, many hopping from one spot to another, some playing music in the streets (a guy was playing the digereedoo even), others wandering around drunk. Pubs do serve beer after all   The only place that had traditional music after 9 turned out to be a really hot college spot so it was crammed to overflowing with obnoxious 19 year olds getting their party on (drinking age is 18 in Ireland), so we decided to just walk around for a bit before heading back for some sleep. We did stalk an old man with a very strange shaped pack on his back for a few minutes, hoping he’d bust out some pipes or something even more exotic, but he seemed content to just stare at brick walls more than we were.

Tags: bunratty, galway, Ireland, music