Galway & Cork

So I crossed two of Ireland's "must visit" cities off my list last weekend when I went to Galway.  My new friend Amanda who's from LA which I met here in Dublin, is doing a law school program in Galway.  She knew Talia's brother and came over to our place for Rosh Hashana. Anyways, long story short, I went to visit Galway and stayed with her.  I took a three hour train there on that Friday, which was relatively painless.  Got into Galway around 5:30 and we went to dinner and had drinks. Galway is a pretty cute city, kind of a smaller version of Dublin. Much colder tho! 

The next day we decided to take a bus to Cork for the day to see the Jazz Festival.  

Galway is in the Western region of Ireland while Cork is more South West.  So we hoped on a bus at 8:30 am and took a 3 hour bus ride to Cork.  Seems a bit crazy looking back but we were all game.  We got there and it was raining, sadly.  We had lunch and then tried to figure out where this big festival was taking place.  Alas, everyone we asked said that the festival was everywhere.  I guess pubs just hired jazz bands to play and that was pretty much what the festival was. So we had some coffee at a shop and learned they would be playing jazz at 4pm.  So until then we figured that all we could do was drink...and so we did! 

 

Funnily enough we ended up having drinks at Captain 

America of all places. The staff was super nice and there were 

great drink specials. We had kamaze shots and made em blue for the "craic" which is Irish slan for fun.  I also had a fabulous

 strawberry mojito for only 5 Euro.  We got fairly buzzed and had a good time! We went back to the coffee shop and listened to a great jazz band.  

Afterwards, after being full of food and alcohol, we took the bus back to Galway. Me, being thet motion sick person that I am took two dramamenes.  The bus ride there wasn't bad but oh the bus ride back was HORRENDOUS.  There were millions of potholes and overall a very turbulent drive.  I seriously wanted to die. It was way worst then the Kilkenny bus ride.  The driver had stopped and I asked to get out and ran to the Supermac's to use the bathroom. I started getting dizzy in the middle of the street and made it in the door, but had to sit down.  Got up to use the restroom and ended up throwing up.  Got back on the bus for two more torturous hours.  Right as the driver was pulling in to the station, I knew that I had to get out. I asked him to open the door and the moment it opened, I projectile vomited on the floor. (Sorry for the graphic details). It was kinda gross and I felt bad for the onlookers.  It wasn't even that I was hungover, it was just a bad bus drive.  My friends who don't normally get sick said it was bad. 

So, after a nice sleep, we had a lazy sunday in Galway. I like the city, its very beautiful.  It is  however way colder than in Dublin, so I was more appreciative after getting back.  My umbrella which I used for two months in Dublin was destroyed after a week in Galway.   Overall, I give Galway and Cork two thumbs up.  Don't know that I need to ever go again, but I'm glad that I did.  The Cork Festival might have been more fun if we had stayed there for the night, but what are ya gonna do?