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Nicole's
Travelogues and Budget Travel Tips..
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GALWAY, IRELAND
After seeing the Cliffs of Moher we headed to Galway. Galway is the capital of the West of Ireland and has a population of about 66,000. It's known as a haven for creative artsy types and has lots of cobble-stone streets lined with bohemian cafes. Galway takes its name from the Gaillimh river that formed the western boundary of the earliest settlement, which was called Dún Bhun na Gaillimhe, or the fort at the mouth of the Gaillimhe. The word Gaillimh means "stony" as in "stony river". Galway also bears the nickname The City of the Tribes, because fourteen "Tribes" (merchant families) led the city in its Anglo-Norman period.
On the outskirts of Galway we passed the Dunguaire Castle. It was built in the 16th. century but is said to be on the site of the 7th. century stronghold of Dunguaire, one of the Kings of Connaught.
Some say the name Hooker comes from the Dutch word Hoeker which is known to apply to hook and line fishing. I believe the black boat with the white stripe in the photo is a Hooker. Hookers definitely look different where I come from! Ha ha ha! So it had been a few hours since we had some pints so we went in search of a pub.
We went shopping around Eyre Square Center and Shop Street/William Street (pedestrian only streets). Galway's central public square, Eyre Square, was going through serious restoration when we were there. Then we had to RUN to the train station because if we missed the 6:30pm train back to Dublin, we would have to stay overnight and I would miss my train to Belfast. Yikes! But we did stop quickly at a shop to get beer for the train ride. It's so nice traveling with drinking buddies! We made it with 3 minutes to spare. Whew! It took about 3 hours to get back to Dublin, so we passed the time uh drinking and drinking. Hey, when in Ireland.... |
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As we passed Claddagh Dock in Galway Bay, our driver said, "You can see a Galway Hooker to your right." I thought she was out working pretty early. Ha ha but it turned out that a Hooker was a type of boat. 
We found Fox's Bar on Forster Street. Well we should have known that it would take a while to get our beers. The bars motto was 'we've got all the time in the world.' Ha haha. The pub was cool inside with stone floors and wooden booths. We grabbed one in the corner and started on our pints. We started talking to the guys next to us who were from Galway and big rugby fans. The welsh guy that was with us was actually in Ireland for the big game in Dublin on Sunday. It was fun hearing them go back and forth! Humm or maybe that was the pints of Guiness. In any case, we had a good time talking about pretty much nothing for an hour.