Always A Galway Girl
Despite Gerard Butler not really being from Galway, and never actually living there ever . . .
. . . Galway is still one of my favorite places in all of Ireland.
When I first visited Ireland 8 years ago, this city was all the rage for college-age kids because of its abundance of nightlife, food, and close proximity from one place to the next.
It is a cozy city that just makes you feel welcome, no matter how short your stay.
I was very excited to go back. Maybe not to Halo, the club where the guy on the dance floor almost passed... but rather, to partake in the more traditional aspects of the city - like the pubs!
Also, you remember my friendship made on the train from Rome to Venice, right?
A quick recap that my title of that blog " 7- Hour BFF "post was actually a little inaccurate.
As we reminisced about old times (aka that one time on the train, 4 years ago), it was brought to my attention that 7-hour BFF wasn't on the train for all 7 hours. She got off in Tuscany - only 2 hours in.
So truly, a friendship was formed in a mere 2 hours.
Impressive?
Yes.
I probably have said all this before, but I am refreshing for those of you who have missed a post or two.
Anyway, we planned to meet up on this trip on the very first day of our road trip. We stayed over in Galway, which allowed for one of our gaggle to meet up with her family that she'd never met before.
(How amazing and fortunate is that? Facebook has some perks. To be able to message family, set up a meeting place, and just meet. Across the globe. Unreal.)
Her family was really awesome and sweet. I bonded with her one relative; a genealogist who let me know that there are, indeed, people with my mom's last name alive and kickin' in Ireland.... but only 29 of them. That's more than I thought, tbh.
Every place I had gone to before did not even recognize the last name.
That night, as we sat in the corner of a basement of a pub in the heart of Galway listening to Drake and Camila Cabello (authentic, I know), we tried to reach out to 7-hour BFF without much success.
We came to terms with the possibility that we would not be meeting up after all.
As sad as we were, the actuality of this whole plan coming to fruition was a little slim to begin with.
That night we pushed ourselves as almost 30-year olds to go out past the midnight hour.
...Ok, I pushed myself.
The others are beautiful powerful butterflies who can go and do anything including staying up all night and therefore helped me to do so
We went to a place called DNA.
Yeah, it's most likely how you imagine a club named "DNA": early 20-somethings packed into one floor of what looked like a two-story club with two half-bars.
Hair gel.
Minimal clothing.
Sloppy 20-somethings .
Fun.
At least that was what my pessimistic self immediately thought as we sat down at a
"VIP couch" without anyone regulating the VIPs.
I wedged myself as far as I could into the corner and vowed to stay there the whole night like the old grump I am.
Until I realized (in short): YOLO, got myself a bubbly, and made my way to the dance floor where my friends and I were delighted to show off our Eminem rapping skills for a crowd of Irish kids.
I honestly ended up having one of the best nights the whole trip.
Thanks Eminem!
Back to the story.
So the next day we realized that the Galway v. Limerick game (hurling) was happening and the town was humming with similar energy to a college football tailgate.
Immediately, one of my friends and I were like - we gotta be here for the game.
We found a pub where we had awesome seats, but since we were there three hours before the game and half of our table went to go buy matching wool sweaters in town (picture to come)....
they pretty much made us pay the bill and leave.
Which worked out perfectly because that is when we got the text from 7-hour BFF!
She was on her way to Eyre Square and was going to take us to the Ed Sheeran bar (briefly mentioned in previous posts).
It was amazing. Like Harry Potter's Diagon Alley and all that jazz.
We saw the picturesque rainbow houses on Galway Bay.
Had a complete photoshoot.
And we made plans to meet up in Dublin a week later!
Like. True friendship.
So
Dublin is a whole other story with more friends, the Pope, etc.
so I am gonna save it for another day.
But this has been a great snapshot of part of our crazy busy vacation and all the adventure it entailed.
Until next time,
skål
credit: Youtube
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