Ireland-GALWAY

After a few days, I decided to take a break from the busy city streets and head out into the famously scenic countryside of Ireland. I hopped on a train to Galway, a port town all the way west. It only took 2.5 hours to cross from the east to west coast of Ireland, and cost 35 euro round trip. No pictures I captured did any justice to the beauty of the lands along the way. I am from Portland, but even I thought the scenery was remarkably GREEN.

Galway is really special. As in, super endearing and engrained into my memory forever. It’s an itty-bitty cobblestone town with lots of charming pubs, remarkably stunning views of their port and cathedral, and unbelievably stubborn rainfall. It was raining when I stepped out and it was raining when I got back on the train. But when the sun came out for an hour, the whole town transformed. I went from self-consciously sipping a Guinness at a random pub to skipping along the bridges, surprised at myself for being so happy and content to be on my own in a foreign little Irish town. I found a map and tracked down all the landmarks (which laid within blocks of each other) and was a bit disappointed when ‘Lynch’s Castle’ turned out to be a converted bank. I had salmon & chips for lunch, and it was phenomenal. I picked McDoughs cause it was close to the river, but they must have pulled the salmon straight out of the water cause it was amazing! A day in Galway is more than enough time to do everything there is to do apart from sitting somewhere to soak in the peace and beauty. 

I also made a friend during the ride over, a nice older Irish man. Traveling is sometimes nice with random company! 

 Down the main street-performers!

 Early in the morn' before shops opened

 Beautiful, isn't it? Taken from a nook at the Galway Museum 

 Money shot! You can see the opening out to the ocean past the houses

 Standing on top of a bridge-so pretty it was unreal!

 I made it all the way down to the cathedral, went down the 'solitude walk' or something

 Light a candle, say a prayer. 

 This was a different church, completely empty but peaceful 

 My lunch! OMG I don't ever need to eat anything else. 

Blurry view from the train, my window was a picture frame.