Galway

On January 23rd (I think? I can't remember the exact day for some reason), there was a mass trip for students to Galway. Galway is one of the largest cities in the country - not saying a lot compared to big cities in the US I guess, but definitely felt big compared to tiny Ballyvaughan). I can now say I've been in two places that qualify as European "cities" (first was Galway, then after that we made a trip to Dublin - the next blog post should be about that).

What was in Galway?.... let's see... a lot of commercial/consumer-centric stuff, some of it not the most appealing to look at. A lot of people walking around, though, which was nice in a way (the sense of more activity and energy than in a place like Ballyvaughan). There were whole sections of street that were only for pedestrians, and had a lot of shops crammed next to each other. I think I remember seeing, in a video on Galway before we came to Ireland, that there are not a lot of old buildings left in the city (I forgot exactly why - maybe something to do with the British?). The church interior in the photo below - that building was actually only constructed in the 1960s.

Shortly after we arrived, me and Dustin and our friend Ashley (from the school) went wandering. We found a shop where a young woman artist carved jewelry from bone - we all went inside and she showed us the back area where she worked. She had a huge jaw bone from a sperm whale that somebody had given her, just sitting on the floor. The carved jewelry was all neat to look at too.

After that we went briefly to a used book store, then through a shopping mall, where we got some shakes, checked out a book/art supplies store, and stopped for a short time at a comic book store. We then decided to split from Ashley, and me and Dustin went on our own way, walking towards and across the river. I think it was after this that we stopped in a seafood joint and had a small meal. Then we happened to meet up with some friends at a nearby intersection and wandered with them for a short time. We split from them, and went inside the Galway Cathedral, then walked to the University (U of I) campus. There we wandered around, not really looking at anything in particular. It was pretty quiet and deserted, and we later heard there were exams going on. We also saw signs for an anime convention, and eventually found it, but decided not to pay the money to go in.

At the end of the day me and Dustin went to a couple more art supply stores and bought some materials.

That's most of what I can remember of our day in Galway.