Galway

            We arrived in Dublin late at night and caught a bus to Galway the next morning.  For those who aren’t familiar with the country of Ireland, Dublin is on the east coast and Galway is on the west coast.  It was about a four hour bus ride made longer by multiple stops along the way.  Galway is a beautiful city that has an awesome downtown area that reminds me of a college town like Athens or Oxford.  It is full of shops, restaurants, and most importantly PUBS!  I know it is customary to enjoy a Guinness at the bars, but I noticed they were serving Heineken, but it is referred to as Heineken Extra Cold because the keg is chilled to 0 degrees to ensure lasting enjoyment.  It was delicious!  I hope they bring it over to the states soon.

            Obama arrived and gave a speech the day before we got to Dublin, but luckily he only stayed for one day.  His presence was still made known though as can be seen below.  We were trying to decide where to each lunch and definitely avoided that place after seeing that poster for their special burger.  The Irish were in love with Obama, or most it seemed, but not all.

            We walked around downtown our first day exploring the beautiful area.  We came upon a harbor which had beautiful views of the sea. 

            Leaving the harbor and going back to the city, we passed some apartments and my sister spotted this in an apartment window.  Raider Nation is everywhere!!!  And this would not be my last sighting of raider nation in Ireland!

            The fair was also in town although we decided to skip on checking it out as I got tricked out of some money by a carny when I was in elementary school and did not want to try my luck again (although I am much wiser now).

            A/B Bank in the picture below is located in an old castle that we kept walking past when we were looking for it, not expecting a bank to be inside it now.  We also came upon this church which my sister marveled at, and then was disappointed when she found out it was an Episcopal church.  I got a good laugh out of that as she was trying to find some Catholic churches, but it was a gorgeous church and I took quite a few pictures of it.

I also found the best printer shop in all of Ireland, although they made a typo when spelling their name:

Also found Ireland’s version of the American Dollar store:

            In the middle of downtown Galway there is this statue of the great Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde conversing with Estonian writer Eduard Vilde.  My research shows that the two never actually met each other.  It was a great opportunity for a picture with you know what!

            On our second day in Ireland we took a bus tour of the countryside surrounding Galway.  We stopped at a farmer’s home and he took us on a walking tour of his property.  We got to climb up to the top of some hills which his family owned and were treated to spectacular views of the countryside.  His family owned a few cows  and some sheep.  It was a wonderful experience and the highlight of the trip because we got to experience an Irish Farmer’s home up close.  The information pamphlet said it would be a light walking tour, and so my sister wore her best pair of hiking boots.  Turned out she was not as prepared as she thought…

            We continued on the bus tour and were taken to the Cliffs of Moher.  The cliffs rise 394 feet above the Atlantic Ocean.  It was the location of several films including Inception and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.   You had to be very careful because of the extreme gusts of wind.  A Russian tourist’s car was found abandoned at the top and his body turned up in the sea below the cliffs a few months ago.  The tower is O’Brien’s Tower built by Sir Cornelius O’Brien to impress the ladies (what great lengths men go to in order to impress the women) and to improve tourism in the area.  He thought that increased tourism would help improve the poor economy in the 1830’s.

            On the bus ride back home we were treated to more castles and cliffs smaller than that of Moher.  I was impressed with this castle’s security system in the second to last picture, I guess a moat wasn’t getting the job done.

            Galway was an amazing city and we had a blast there and I would definitely recommend it as a must see place if you ever go to Ireland.  There is so much to do and see in the city and the surrounding area.  It was unfortunate we only had two days to spend there.  Stay tune for reports on our trip to Dublin and even more Raider fans!  Time to continue my birthday celebration in Paris!