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.

Dublin, Ireland

**For more information on our Ireland itinerary and how we planned, click here.**

As I have said before in this blog, neither my husband or I are huge "city" people.  We lived in Chicago for 8 years and have visited many large cities around the world, but we prefer to keep our stays short and generally enjoy the small towns and countryside much more.  Dublin, being our entrance and exit point from Ireland, lent itself well to such a short visit, and I think we both enjoyed it much more than we thought we would.  It's a very vibrant city, with something going on everywhere you look, but still retains its Irish charm.  People are quite friendly here and there is a decent culinary scene, as well as a rich history in which to immerse yourself.  We were also meeting our dear friends in Ireland who were living in London at the time, and the ease of travel for them made this a no brainer.

We stayed at the Westin Dublin, mostly because we could use travel points here.  It's a former bank and a very nice hotel - I would stay again or recommend to a friend.  We really liked the location next to Temple Bar, but not in Temple Bar.

Temple Bar is the biggest pub district in the city and is crowded with young people on the weekends (and some weeknights!)  We visited several pubs in this area and had a great time having pints with our friends and listening to live music.  I wouldn't necessarily recommend one place over another - they all feel pretty similar to be honest and have approximately the same food, drinks, and entertainment.  So pub hop away and find the one you like best!  I will say that this area does cater to a lot of tourists, so it doesn't feel quite as authentic as some of the smaller towns.

We explored a bit of Dublin on foot, especially the area around our hotel.  One of our first stops was Dublin Castle, which was the seat of British government in Ireland for more than 7 centuries.  Dublin gets its name from the Dubh Linn or Black Pool on the site of the present Castle Gardens and Coach House. It is now mainly used for Irish governmental purposes.  We didn't go inside this castle, but they do offer public tours.

Bedford Tower

Christ Church Cathedral.  Construction of the present church started in 1172 by Strongbow, a Norman baron.  It is open to the public if you'd like to explore.

Don't miss Ireland's oldest pub a few blocks northwest of Christ Church Cathedral!  It's everything you'd hope it would be  :)

The River Liffey runs through the middle of Dublin and supplies much of Dublin's water.  You will certainly cross one of its bridges in your exploration of the city.    

A view of the River Liffey and the Ha'Penny Bridge from the Millennium Bridge

The Ha'Penny bridge, built in 1816 by William Walsh, who then retained the right to charge anyone crossing it a ha'penny toll for 100 years.  The toll was dropped in 1919.

One thing I would strongly suggest for touring Dublin would be to familiarize yourself with the Dublin Bus system.  It was very easy to hop on and off and took us everywhere we needed to go within the city. These buses also have open top decks that are great fun in nice weather!  We used it to get to St Patrick's Cathedral, St Stephen's Green, and the Guinness Storehouse.  Check out the Leap Card which is prepaid and allows you to travel without needing exact change.

St. Stephen's Green is Dublin's version of NYC's Central Park.  It's really beautiful and a very welcome respite from the busy city.  A note on Ireland weather here: you may be able to tell that our day was somewhat grey and overcast.  We traveled in April and found this to be a common denominator for most of the trip.  Be prepared for rain, cold, and wind when you travel to Ireland. We did also have some beautiful sunny days, but they were sadly the exception.

Grafton Street, Dublin's main shopping district, right outside of St. Stephen's Green.  It's a pedestrian street and the place to find higher end shopping if that is one of your interests.

Certainly one of the highlights of a visit to Dublin, St. Patrick's cathedral is the largest cathedral in Ireland and the national cathedral of the Church of Ireland.  It was dedicated in 1192 and went through a major renovation in 1860 funded by the Guinness family after troops camped in its naeve. It is open every day to the public, but check visitor hours around their regular services.  The cost is 6 euros for adults and you can buy tickets ahead of time online if you wish.

Even the floor is spectacular!

Stone that originally marked St Patrick's well

And no self respecting person can visit Dublin without a trip to the Guinness Storehouse!  Even if you are like me and don't really enjoy Guinness (don't tell anyone in Ireland!) you will still enjoy the factory and the historical significance.  It is a little outside of central Dublin, but the Dublin Bus does stop there. You can also buy tickets online for this attraction and I would recommend it - we didn't experience this but apparently the line to buy them can get quite long.  You can usually save a little money this way too!

The self guided tour will take you through several exhibits and a tasting room.  Once per hour, a random tourist is selected to start a new brewing batch.  They have a clock available so you can hang around the area if this interests you  :)

The final stop is the Gravity Bar.  If you are so lucky to have a beautiful day, you will be able to see all around Dublin through 360 degrees of windows.  Our day was again overcast, but the views were still very cool.  Each patron receives a complementary pint of Guinness with admission, so if you are only going to try one on your trip (as I did), this would be the place!

As far as food recommendations in Dublin...  I'll be honest and say that we didn't really seek out fine cuisine.  Because much of our days in the city involved pub hopping, we tended to eat when we were hungry and take what was available.  The pub food is all decent and all very similar wherever you go. I would say that in general, we didn't find Ireland much of a culinary inspiration, although there were some good restaurants we found elsewhere that I will touch on later.  If anyone has great recommendations in Dublin, I'd be all ears!

Overall, Dublin is a fun and vibrant city, and we really enjoyed our two days here before heading off to Galway.  It's a great starting and ending point as well given the major airport, and the culture and history here will get you immersed very quickly in Irish life.