Galway

I am gratified that I actually found an available blog name that doesn't have a bunch of numbers in it. Hopefully it will be memorable. I used to have an email address that began with memorable_address. Hmm...

I'm in Galway, and the Galway Sessions are on, which should be called the Stirling Sessions, because it's a bunch of musicians from Stirling who are coming down to Ireland to play music. Plus some others. I come to Ireland and what do I get? More Scottish people. :)

I got into town at about 6 PM, checked into my hostel, put my laptop in the safety deposit box. Looked up restaurants online. As my friend Zoe had recommended Tigh Neachtain, a pub just down the street, I looked up their menu--it looked good and not too expensive. So I went, only to find that it wasn't a pub with food, it was an attached restaurant above the pub. And I'd been looking at the starters menu, not the main courses. It was a place where people wore nice clothes, and there I was, in a hoodie and jeans, looking at €15 dishes. But I thought to myself, well, why not. Life is for enjoying yourself. So I had a damn good risotto and an excellent glass of wine. And realized that I was very lucky to have come at the right moment, as others were turned away who didn't have reservations. I probably didn't spend much more than I would have at the other pubs on the street.


Then I went to an event that I'd seen advertised on couchsurfing, which was excellent, an album release gig at Roisin Dubh for this band: http://walkperson.net/#listen/ and hung out with them and their friends afterwards in the Crane Pub, which was too crowded. I still had no idea where I was going to stay the next night, and I didn't really want to stay in a hostel again. But Kiata, who had organized the event, suggested we ask a likely-looking person who was sitting at the other end of the table if I could stay with her... After a bout of daring each other to ask her, I plucked up my courage. So that's where I'm staying. She happens to be on couchsurfing as well. I suppose it's becoming more and more frequent. :) 


I had to leave because of a waning voice caused by cigarette smoke and my stubborn cold (everyone in Galway seems to smoke). There was a rock cover band outside the hostel window that thankfully stopped playing at 2 am. That would have been fine, except that some kind of roaring noise filled the room at 8 am, I suspect something kitchen-related. Augh. 


So I waited for Arianne (my host) to show up this morning, then we went to the Galway market that happens every Saturday and Sunday, and then--at her flat that she said was 10 minutes away, I don't believe it--crashed out for most of the afternoon. This evening we're going out to another music thing. Then tomorrow I'm wandering around the town centre before going back to Clare, and back to au pairing for three kids. More on that later.