Youthful, vibrant Galway

By the time we got settled into our hostel room and took off to get lunch/dinner, the rain stopped and we had a pleasant walk across Galway's Latin Quarter and West End to our restaurant. Galway is a small university town with just under 80k inhabitants (so it's about the size of Bamberg) with many good places to eat and go out. It is also crisscrossed by the Corrib river, giving it a very maritime feel even if you're not directly at the coastline. I immediately took a liking to it.

We had fish & chips and a Hooker IPA at 'Hooked'. The beer was named not after a certain profession, but after a type of fishing boat. After dinner, a mini-pub crawl gave us a small taste of Galway nightlife. We didn't have a drink at every pub, mostly we just looked around. But the ones I liked best were:

The King's Head - pub and bistro with a medieval castle atmosphere (we also spotted a guy who could have easily been cast for Vikings).

Tigh Neachtrain - Quirky pub with lots of books and paintings on the wall as well as spying bunny up on the corner

The Crane Bar - A traditional style pub that is popular among Irish musicians and has traditional live music on the second floor.Read more