Galway, I hardly knew ye

A continuing theme through these posts (other than the fact that they are entirely too long and in horrific need of both a spell check and an editor) is that there just simply isn't enough time to see everything. And you really need the perfect combination of travellers to get everything you can out of a town.

And so it is that after two days in Galway, I left feeling like I needed more time in Western Ireland. This weekend's collection of Manchester Biz School exports consisted of myself, Pauline the sensitive French girl, Lisa the sarcastic Canadian and Dan the world's nicest American. And while we are all quite lovely people, we never seemed to get all the wheels on the ground at the same time. So, my report is somewhat incomplete. But that also means I'm coming back with a big group, so save your money now.

Some quick facts on Galway - it's the second fastest growing city in Europe (can you name the first - answer will be listed below) with a population increase from 25,000 to 80,000 in 15 years. Some people say this is because the Irish transportation infrastructure is so bad that people come to visit and can't get back, but others attribute it to a growing university population.

Galway's other claim is that it's basically the gateway to all of the small cities in Western Ireland. And there really are a lot of neat things to see. Unfortunately, the aforementioned transportation system makes it pretty difficult to move around.

Everything you need to see in Galway proper is in about a 6-10 block town square, but that does have a lot to see, including lots of traditional Irish pubs and a surprising amount of International joints. One odd rule seems to be that pubs stop serving food at 9:00, so if you have a late lunch and thus want a late dinner, you are stuck in the 18-20 Euro zone of fancy restaurants.

For me, the highlight of Galway's is a bar on the other side of the river called Monroe's. If you have ever been in an American version of an Irish bar, well this is the place they ripped the design off of. It comes complete with 3 old Irish guys on stage playing a string-like thing, a drum-like thing and a horn-like thing and belting out traditional music and an occasional Bob Dylan song (don't ask me - I just report what I see). I had decided to leave my travel buddies behind towards the end of our last night here, in order to make a mad dash through the places we hadn't been, but I ended up getting stuck on a bar stool in this place because it was so cool. It was so perfectly Galwayian (yes I just made that word up) that the only thing NOT Irish about it were the lost American guy and 2 Swiss girls. I'll add that the second coolest place to relax here is called "The Crane." Here, 8-10 musicians take over a section of the bar and just jam together on Irish horns, guitars, etc... As a crowd, our jobis just to sit and listen, so it has a nice laid back feel.

(Answer to above question - Warsaw.)

Even if you decide not to spend a single minute in a Galway pub, you are just a tour bus away from just about the loveliest coastline and small Irish villages you can imagine. We only made it as far as the Cliffs of Moher, and I fear there's no way the pictures of the tour cannot do the countryside justice.

So after Thursday and Friday nights in Galway, we were off to find Dan's long lost ancestors in a little Irish village called Roscommon, along with 2 nights in Dublin. Stories to come...