Galway, Ireland

**For more information on our whole Ireland trip, click here for the post on our itinerary and planning.**

After we had seen Dublin, we had decided to take the Irish Rail across the country to the west coast, where we would settle in Galway for a few days.  We had purchased online tickets ahead of time, as had been recommended to us, but unfortunately I ended up with a case of food poisoning from the night before and was unable to take our early train.  We obtained tickets on a later one, but ended up paying about three times as much.  Buy online - and don't eat late night pizza in Dublin from a food truck...

Galway is the largest city on Ireland's west coast, but is still significantly smaller than Dublin. Galway is somewhat of a college town, housing the 9,000 students at University College Galway, and it definitely has a younger feel than some of the other places we visited.  It seemed to be the very center for bachelor and bachelorette parties (called stag and hen parties in Ireland) the weekend we were there.  There is also a very strong creative community of writers, artists, and musicians, making it a very fun place to shop.

We stayed at the Jurys Inn Galway, which is conveniently located at the end of Quay Street near the banks of the River Corrib.  It is a comfortable and clean place, but our main complaint is that the walls seem paper thin - this is not a quiet place for a long rest.  Galway is definitely a party town, especially on the weekends, and you will hear your neighbors celebrating long into the night.  Our friends stayed at the Radisson SAS, which is also nicely located, and it's definitely the one I would recommend in Galway.

Flags representing the 14 clans of Galway - Anglo-Norman families who settled Galway in the mid-13th century.

Quay Street

I had learned about the Claddagh tradition (you can read a summary here) before coming to Galway and Thomas Dillon on Quay Street was one of my can't miss places to see.  It dates back to 1750 and is said to be the original maker of the Claddagh ring.  I knew I wanted one of these as a souvenir of our trip - this had to be the place it came from (I've worn it almost every day since).  Besides a large selection of Claddagh rings that fit all tastes and price ranges and other Irish jewelry, they also have a small museum of some very old versions of the ring in the back.

Galway, like Dublin, is a very fun city to wander.  It's significantly smaller than Dublin so there is no need for transportation - your feet will take you everywhere you want to go.  The River Corrib flows through the city and leads out to Galway Bay...

...and near the mouth is where you can find the Spanish Arch.  This, along with three others, was built in 1584 to protect the quay where Spanish ships unloaded cargo.

More river views

Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas, located on Nun's Island (the west bank of the River Corrib beside the Salmon Weir Bridge).  It is Galway's largest Catholic church and was built in 1965 on the site of the old Galway jail.  We didn't go inside, but it is free to visitors.

As previously mentioned, Galway has a very lively pub culture.  We visited several and enjoyed them all.  Our favorite was Tigh Neachtain (or Naughton's Pub) near the Spanish Arch, which Fodor's lists as "the place for traditional music in Galway City".  You might also check out The King's Head and Taafe's - although I don't think you can really go wrong  :)  My girl friend and I giggled on learning that some of these pubs still contain "snugs", booths the women would historically sit in while their men were at the bar.  Luckily, we were now welcomed in all pub areas  :)  If more modern live music is your thing, head over the bridge from the Claddagh to check out Monroe's.

Naughton's Pub

If you are looking for a calmer afternoon pint, we loved the Dew Drop Inn - it was incredibly charming.

Guinness really is quite pervasive  :)

For a dinner outside of the pubs, check out McDonaugh's Seafood House on Quay Street.  There is generally a long wait on weekends, so be prepared, but their fish and chips are worth it.  My husband and I spent most of our dinner chatting with a lovely Galway man named B.T. who was there alone and both loved our conversation.  It was the first time we realized that people really aren't lying when they talk about the Irish being a warm and friendly people - we had so many fascinating and enjoyable conversations with native Irish and it added such depth and satisfaction to our vacation.

We also used our visit to Galway as a launching point for our trip into the Connemara, which will be the subject of my next post.