Galway (pronouced Gulway)

Since I’m on a bus to Dublin I guess this is a good time to catch on my posts since I haven’t written in a couple days. I’ve been pretty busy between day tours and hanging out with people at my hostel. I got to Galway last Sunday night. The hostel I stayed at the first night I didn’t like at all. It was an older crowd and they weren’t the friendliest bunch. I woke up on Monday and switched hostels, even though I lost €12 doing it. It was a great decision though because I met a lot of cool people at the new hostel I went to. Monday I just walked around Galway and explored. It’s a very small city and basically consists of a university, a bunch of pubs, and these 2 guys.

Looking out over Galway Bay was nice though. One strange thing about Galway is that all the stores and shops close at 6pm. I finally managed to find a grocery store open until 7pm so that I could buy some stuff to make dinner. Tuesday I took a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher, which I’ll write a separate post for. That night I went to a pub with a bunch of girls from my hostel to watch the Liverpool-Real Madrid match. The best part about this, besides walking into a pub with 8 girls, most of which spoke French, was the Guinness. I don’t like Guinness back home, but here it is awesome! We met a couple Irish blokes at the pub. After I told him I was American he continued to talk crap about how Americans can’t drink. So in order to defend my country I challenged to a chugging contest with a pint of Guinness. I beat him the first time and he was pissed so he bought me another pint and wanted a rematch. The 2nd time I beat him by even more time than the first time. He congratulated me and for the rest of the night kept telling me that there was no way I could be American. Now I can officially say I outdrank and Irishman! It was a good time and Liverpool spanked Real Madrid 4-0. One other thing I’ve learned is that you don’t ever call football soccer here because people will laugh at you. If you call it football then at least you have a shot at sounding like you know what you’re talking about. Yesterday, I took a ferry to the Aran Islands. After I got back I was dead tired from riding a bike around the island all day. Later that night, my French friends talked me into watching the movie P.S. I Love You with them, which I have to say is the gayest chick flick I’ve ever seen. The only thing that saved it a little bit was that half of it was set in Ireland and we could pick out a couple of the places. Now I’m on my way to Dublin for the 5-day St. Patrick’s Day Festival. I still don’t have a place to stay for the night of St. Patrick’s Day, so I guess I’ll just stay up all night (which I doubt will be that hard in Dublin) then catch my plane to London the next morning.