As previously mentioned, on Tuesday we went to Galway. About an hour up the road from here, I had been warned I'd like Galway.Unfortunately, the road to Galway is a truly momentous road, and the town of Gort about halfway had removed any loose fillings once and for all. Arriving into the city itself was kinda like arriving in another country. It had a real impression of being a European city like Brussels or Munich, with flags flying everywhere. The city has a huge multitude of multi-storey car parks around the city centre, and when we'd parked we took the walk in the drizzle up to what is known as the Latin quarter where we found a pub called
Tig Coili. I had a couple of pints of Coors and TDT settled down with an Irish coffee (or three), where we drank in the atmosphere. It was fairly early, and was fairly empty. The bar staff were friendly and the stories that were available were obvious due to the large collection of badges (of the sewn variety, warn on the sleeves of fireman/policemen/paramedics), or the signed bank notes pinned to the bar. In fact, I noticed no sterling. I asked the barmaid "Why is there no UK money there?" to which she replied "the British are too tight." Oh.
As we sat outside, other people would come and sit with us and chat. It was such a relaxed feeling, so friendly and for the first time in a long time I could actually feel myself really relaxing into the mood. And then to cap it all, the sun came out. We took a walk up to a large square called Eyre Square, looking in the shops and stalls. We were however hungry, and despite my persuasion to take TDT to Burger King, we ended up back by Tig Coili, but this time across the road in another pub, apparently popular with students, called
the King's Head. This is an 800 year old tavern, and was full of character. I was excited at the prospect of a pint of Hoegaarden, a Belgian white beer, when the barman mentioned another local pale ale called the
Galway Hooker. This, accompanied with the good food (A chicken, bacon, lettuce, tomato and special sauce club sandwich and chips), good company (TDT), and now good weather, meant we didn't want to leave. Unfortunately, TDT had work the next day, and although she pleaded with me I knew she wouldn't want to head home on the Wednesday morning if we stayed, so I promised we'd return soon.
Oh hell, try and stop me!
