Galway

Located on the West Coast of Ireland, Galway is an amazing city, though it is really more of large village than a city. Though I only had two days in Galway, I feel like I got to see a lot of it! Here's a bit about some of the major sights Sana and I visited.

Quay Street and Shop Street, major tourists blocks with lots of shops, bars and restaurants, are definitely worth walking up and down. I picked up an Irish wool sweater and shipped it home (update September 18th: it still smells like sheep).

I visited Galway Cathedral, though only from the outside because it was Sunday and I didn't want to disrupt mass. Unlike most of the churches I've visited in Europe, this one is fairly modern and only dates back to the 1950s. It was quite impressive nonetheless.

In the center of Galway is Eyre Square, a large park with lots of attractions along the side. Also interesting to see: inside the park is a statue of JFK.

The Spanish Arch is located along the River Corrib and dates back to the 16th century. It was originally built as a part of the city wall, but now doesn't really serve any purpose. Still cool to see!

Galway also had a lot of awesome pubs with live Irish music. We visited The Crane, a pub that my friend who went to university in Galway recommended. The pub had great music! About 10 men played at the pub throughout the evening and all were volunteers playing for fun. Periodically, random men would shhh everyone in the bar and sing songs unaccompanied and all the people in the bar would join in during the chorus. One of the cute musicians bought me a drink...

Galway was a great place to spend my first two evenings!!!

Sana & I on shop street

Enjoying live pub music