Galway, Ireland

by chris cunningham

I was so ready to leave Dublin this morning. The weather has been atrocious. I cabbed it out to the airport and had a hard time finding anyplace that had cars. I ended up with a larger car than I wanted but it all was for the best in the end. I left Dublin about 11:00 and had hoped to make it out to Galway. It took about 4 hours to cross the middle of Ireland but I got there and decided to try and beat the sun and get to the Cliffs of Moher in the late afternoon. Since the sun sets on the west it would light up the cliffs for some nice photos. Try as I might it was getting dark so I turned around. I did stop at a little castle called Dongory to check out the view. They were setting up for some sort of dinner inside. I finally found a place to stay in a town called Clarinbridge and it was really nice and inexpensive. When I walked in the girl at the desk immediately started speaking gaelic to me which I took as a good sign that I didn’t stand out to much. Of course when I hesitated with an “uh…”, she welcomed me in english. Whew. After checking in I drove back into the city of Galway and walked around the main town area a bit. It was getting seriously cold so I started thinking blankets and heater. I went to bed without eating since the hotel restaurant was closed and the place was out in the middle of nowhere. Other than the fush n’ chups in Dublin I eaten sandwiches the whole time. Big day tomorrow.