Galway

the bus ride to Galway was a nightmare at the time but kind of funny in hindsight. the signs at the bus station were incorrect so i had to walk around trying to find the bus. when i did i got stuck with a bus driver with a really strange taste in music one minute he'd be listening to the Mary Poppins soundtrack, then it was Opera and then some music hall numbers from the dark ages. but the funny and painful thing was that he sung along the whole way but he was so tone deaf that it didn't even sound like the song. he sounded a little bit like Mr Bean singing. by the end of the 9 hour trip (it took longer because the roads were icy) i was ready to cry!

Galway, wow! this place is easily one of the most beautiful little spots i've ever seen. the first day i was here i just took it easy and sat on the water for a couple of hours. it was such great weather, there was no wind at all and the sun on my face was magic. i think i could've sat there forever, just looking out over the water. speak of water there are heaps of canals that run through the city which are really nice, i've noticed i really like places with water or canals, can't explain why though.
Galway is a really tradional town, there are some really cute little cobblestone streets and lanes full of shops and great little pubs (i thought the pubs in Belfast were cool, these take the cake!) and the vibe in them is electric, there seems to be something going on in them every night of the week, they have plenty of local music being played in them. the perfect place to have a Guinness, mmmmm Guinness, so good! while i was there people in the crowd were yelling out a request called 'Galway Girl', i'd never heard of it before, but everyone in the pub did, they sung it word for word, it was pretty amazing. the singer was quite good too, he started making up funny lyrics to the song and got everyone laughing.
i think the city is prettiest at night, its light up beautifully. some of the buildings here are really cute too, some of the streets here look great with when the house are painted different colours, sometimes just the doors, sometimes the windows, sometime the roof is made of straw, its all good.

I took a trip down to County Clare and saw a bit of the countrys west coast, it was really beautiful, i couldn't get over how rocky it was, the highlight was the Cliffs of Moher, that are roughly 200m high. i walked along most of it, but it was a bit wet and it was muddy, just as i was thinking in my head 'Australian Male falls to his death' i slipped and nearly did fall in, after that i start thinking 'australian male on holiday finds pot of gold' it hasn't happened yet.
another thing i really liked was the different hues of green, they were unbelievable. The stone walls that divided the area were amazing, the way they were constructed looked like they could fall over at any moment because they were just rocks sitting on top of rocks, they didn't have anything holding them together. speaking of rocks, i saw the Poulnabrone Dolmen. they are kind of like stonehenge but only one of them instead of many, its where they would put the dead and animals would come and eat there flesh (yuk!), when theyre done the bodies would be buried. we also saw the Kilfenora high crosses. and a few different castles. i have to say the novelty of castles has started to wear off, oh whats that? a castle... oh look ANOTHER castle. half of them are ruins anyway.

of course its the people in the town that make the place. everyone here is really friendly and have a good sense of humour. I saw some guy in the street who reminded me of Father Jack from the TV show 'Father Ted' he was mumbling stuff and was rather dissheveled i thought at any moment he might yell 'Feck!'. also there is this woman who is staying at the hostel, she reminds me of a cat lady, minus the cats. she always talking to herself and is always cooking toast and the way she makes her coffee, its like shes making some sort of potion. i think shes a bit mental. i thought that if i go to Ireland i might see a leprechaun, so far i've seen 2 midgets, does that count? anyway i'm off to riverdance my way to Cork! watch out Michael Flatley!