Day 137: Galway

Left our accommodation after a delicious cooked breakfast put on by our host. We were both a bit sad to leave, as it was one of the most comfortable places we've stayed in for quite a while. And despite being in the middle of nowhere, we both quite enjoyed it and would've happily stayed for another couple of nights.

But we got back in the car and hit the road again, as is our life now. Lots of driving today actually, 3 hours to the south from Donegal down to the city of Galway which is one of the largest settlements on the western coast of Ireland. The drive wasn't much excitement unfortunately, fairly boring farmland with not much in the way of towns or habitation to break things up. Although I don't mind driving, I really hate not having cruise control!

Arrived in Galway in the rain around 1pm, to find it jam-packed with traffic due to a marine festival happening on the docks - directly in front of our AirBNB! Obviously we couldn't check in for a few hours yet, so we parked in a multi-storey carpark at the other end of town and wandered town.

I was taken aback with how touristy the place was, considering I'd never really heard of it before. Seemed like every man and his dog from the west of Ireland was here! Probably doesn't help that it's the first weekend of the Irish school holidays either, so locals are on their break as well as the usual contingent of foreigners.

Had a bit of trouble finding somewhere to eat since dogs aren't welcome in pubs in Ireland. Eventually managed to find somewhere that we could sit outside and not get wet while we ate, though I nearly started a punch-up when a man sat down mere inches from us and lit up a cigarette.

We had a look around the town, and then a wander around the sea festival (lots of seafood, cooking demonstrations, water-based stuff like explorer ships, navy boats, historic ships etc). Considered visiting a couple of things but the lines were all quite long.

Eventually at 4pm we were able to check in to our Airbnb. Unfortunately this proved difficult since we had free parking in the building, but of course we didn't know where the entrance was, and access to the street was being tightly controlled due to the festival. Eventually managed to get in with the help of our host.

Not the greatest apartment today sadly, we have a single room in our host's apartment and although the building is mid-90s, it feels like student accommodation. Our hosts are college age and although they're quite nice and chatty, everything feels very undergraduate and juvenile. Party photos blu-tacked to the wall, bunting strung up around the living room, hessian rugs draped over junk piles, none of the glassware/crockery/cutlery sets are matching.

We settled into our room as best we could, and eventually just decided to get takeaway burritos for dinner and eat there while working. The really good Mexican place we'd eaten at in Belfast had a branch here, so we grabbed food from there and ate in the apartment. Didn't get a great night's sleep as it seemed like people were constantly coming and going (they'd had friends over earlier which I thought was a bit odd when you're hosting Airbnb guests). Can't win em all I guess.Read more