thanksgiving break part two: galway, ireland

after a full day of experiencing dublin to the greatest extent we could in one day, we woke up early to make our way to galway, ireland for the day. galway is on the west coast of ireland (while dublin is on the east). this city began as a small fort in the early 11th century and was the principal irish port for trade with spain and france. christopher columbus even visited galway in 1477.

after a slightly more expensive train ride than we expected, we arrived in galway about 3ish hours later. galway was also decorated for christmas and a christmas market was in strong force next to the train station. we were very hungry and grabbed some food (not kangaroo or ostrich burgers that they were selling) before making the most of our 6 hours in galway.

we didn't have the best map and set out to find out exactly where we were so we could attempt to find the train station when we needed to later. after ryan bought some gloves and i bought a hat (it was very cold), we went to see the ardeaglais cathedral (aka galway catheral, or cathedral of our lady assumed into heaven and st. nicholas). apparently construction began in 1958 on the site of the old city jail, and the building was dedicated in 1965 as the cathedral. the architecture consists of the renaissance dome and pillars, and rose windows and mosaics.

the cathedral "boasts what is probably the finest pipe organ in the country"

after the cathedral, we played in the children's park for a little bit before going to a tourist info building. we walked by lynch's castle which is actually just a bank now (and doesn't look anything like a castle). however, it used by be home to the most powerful family in galway. lynch's castle is the only complete secular medieval building left in galway today.

after hearing that we couldn't make it to the countryside of galway (which was where all the sweet castles were), we decided to walk back along the coast from where we were. we encountered the ship port of galway and the spanish arch. built in 1584, it was originally an extension of the famous city walls. it has also been known as the blind arch and features a wooden sculpture called madonna of the quays.

the only thing we could get in before the sun set was walking the claddagh, which means "the stony beach." the claddagh is an area close to the centre of galway city where the river meets the bay. it was formerly a fishing village. we spent the sunset walking out to the lighthouse (only to find out we couldn't get all the way up to it). this was the prettiest sunset i have ever seen.

wandering back towards the city center we attempted to see some gardens which ended up housing a university but wasn't very garden-y. we finished up the night have a drink at a pub to kill some time and grabbed some food to take on the train ride home.

once we got back to dublin, it was only around 9 pm and we still hadn't been to sinnott's bar. so we went :) and had a great time. i wish we could have stayed longer and been there with more people we knew, because the atmosphere was exciting and completely unexpected after seeing the small, local looking storefront.