Galway

Am I a Galway girl? Well, I suppose not, but my dad's mother's mother was one, so I guess that's close enough.

Also, I'm in Galway. Extra points?

It's good. My roommate and I are here for the weekend, just to check it out. It's nice to be out of the "big" city for a bit. We took the bus very early today, sat in the back away from everyone, and prepared to spend 3 hours on the bus sleeping ... until a dozen loud Italian tourists got on the bus and took up all the seats in the 3rows directly behind us. And while many of them slept, the guy closest to us was on his phone the ENTIRE time, calling probably every friend he had in Europe to tell them that he was going to Galway. Yeesh.

So we got in, dropped our stuff at the residence, and headed out for the afternoon. It was raining off and on, so we walked around the ... old city? tourist area? downtown? for a while, before stopping into a cafe to have tea and a light lunch, and watch people walking by on the sidewalk. We went out again, but it was really too windy and rainy to do much outside. So, we went to the free City Museum, which turned out to be excellent - a small but interesting collection of exhibits, and it took us just as long as it took the weather to stop being so disgusting. So after soaking up a bit of Galway's history, we were able to take a walk down a couple of the long piers, and walk along the beach, look at the world's largest congregation of seagulls, and take 239,820,986,419 pictures. Then one pub for dinner, which for me was some excellent Indian food, and which also included a free bottle of German beer; and another pub for post-dinner drinks and a live music session.

Montrealers, listen up: if you want the authentic west-Ireland pub experience, go to O'Reagans on Bishop St below Ste Cat's on Wednesdays 8-10:30pm. (Actually, I think the music people have moved to Hurley's temporarily, in the same time slot, while O'Reagan's undergoes some renovations. But check it out. For realz.) Take it from someone who can now speak from experience. And also, if you are an old man and slightly drunk, be sure to hit on the old ladies in the bar. That's also part of the hilarity/authentic Irish experience.

Tomorrow we're taking a bus tour to the Cliffs of Mohor, which are supposed to be spectacular; and hopefully Sunday the weather will be nice for a trip out to the Burren and Connemara areas. Then back to Dublin on Sunday night. It will be a good weekend, though full.

11 million more photos to come.