The Vangclear Files: To Galway and Back

In America we have college towns, this means that it’s pretty much party central no matter where you go in town. I was curious if there was a place like this in Ireland. UL has parties sure, but they’re all in the student villages so it’s contained. This means I’ve been under the impression that the Irish don’t party like the Americans. I was proven quite wrong when I went to Galway.

My group of American friends planned a weekend trip to Galway. So Friday afternoon 12 American girls boarded a nonstop bus to Galway. We sat in the back and we were rowdy… as usual. But what do you expect from 12 girls? We got there and split off into two groups because half the girls stayed at a hotel and the rest of us stayed at a hostel. After a few hours of rest we got ready and hit the town.

I’ll start with the hostel, since it was my first hostel experience. It was a really super nice hostel. I was in a 6 person dorm, but I wasn’t with any friends. No biggie though cause everyone else were rooming down the hall. This was my hostel room…

I had a top bunk to sleep in because it looked like my roomies had already been there a few days. Which reminds me I never actually met who I was rooming with because they were out of the room when I got there and they were asleep when I got in that night. Then they left early the next morning but there were two English guys and a girl. And the beds were very comfy!

Now on to the good part. We started our night at the King’s Head.

It’s everything I’ve ever wanted an Irish pub to be. We got there and there was a live band, it was a happening joint and I would have been content to chill there all night. But alas the rest of the girls wanted to go to other places. So after a drink at The King’s Head we went off to the Queys (hope I spelled it right….)

This place was positively frightening. We didn’t even stay for a drink. Why you ask? We were born about 20 years too late to blend in. there were people my parents age there all dressed up and hooked out looking for a good time. And we were getting the oddest looks so I personally stuck with my fail proof plan, don’t make eye contact. Thank goodness we all made it out alive.

The next stop on our night out was Coyote. This was…. Interesting. We walk in and it was a very tacky attempt at an “American” bar. But we gave it the benefit of the doubt and hit the bar for drinks. After we got ours we took a seat at a corner table and take the tacky Texan décor in. then the next thing I know there are girls getting on the bar. I almost laughed. They started dancing in their “Saloon Girl” outfits. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in an American Bar… After this we thought that perhaps we would get our dance on. So we hit the dance floor. Bad idea. We got hard core creeped on by some old dude. He kept trying to dance with us, so two of the girls with me decided they wanted to ride the mechanical bull. This was probably the highlight of my night. Both of them fell of quite fast. That was fine thought because we were ready to move onto another place.

Carbon was where we chose to go. Turns out it was a dance club. We walked in and it was smoky and there were way too many lasers for me. So half the group (me included) left off to find somewhere else. We ended back up at The King’s Head where we got a drink and stayed for a bit before it was closing time. The ending to our night was very American…. We went to McDonalds. I personally didn’t eat anything it was too late plus who wants American fast food in Ireland?

When 3 am cam around we were getting back to the hostel and making plans for the next day.

Saturday we decided to be tourists! We walked around, I took a lot of pictures, got some postcards, you know the deal.

I got the 4 pm bus back to Limerick by myself because the rest of the group was staying another night. I wasn’t sure if I could take another night of partying. But over all Galway seemed like party central. There were so many pubs and clubs that we could have gone to. Perhaps I’ll go back when my brother comes to visit… but for now I’ll stick to Limerick and the not so crazy night life.

Here are a few other pictures of Galway.