I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane... sorta

So I got way caught up in writing the five novels I've banged out and a couple dozen short stories to give this blog the attention it deserved... I am leaving Galway, Ireland tomorrow and returning to the states and that makes me very sad indeed.
But I promised I would post pictures of Galway (between broken laptop and Nanowrimo I never got to it); so here they are:

Galway Cathedral from the Canal

Canal by night

Canal Road

One of the first places that Mad Jack and I discovered in Galway was this road.  It connects our hostel to the college and we walked down it many times (most of my swan pictures came from the canal.

Bats

This is not the canal, but it is a shit ton of bats and this was late October.  They are flying over Scholar's walk which is where I enjoy the best Vanilla Chai Latte of my life at Mr. Waffles, and were Mad Jack and often eat 2 euro chicken sandwiches from Londis.  All of our wedding planning has happened in the SuperMac (Irish version of MacDonalds) on this street.

This is Nimmos Hostel from the outside.

Monroe's Tavern was basically our bar until we moved to Droim Choain.

These are all down-town Galway: known as Shop and Market St:

 One store window.  Notice the green and pink wig.  This was way before Halloween.

One of my favorite things about Galway is how hidden the city it.  It unfolds like an accordion.  For example, in the picture on the right, you'd think that alcove/hall next to Anthonys is part of the store.

Then is leads to another street with another eight stores.  Some of the best restaurants/ cafes in Galway are hidden like that.

Note the very not hidden-ness of the Mcdonalds.






Street performer:  This guy was circularly breathing and creating an eerie fog horn sound when he stopped he explained he was the undertone for a violin quartet that hadn't arrived yet.

More performers, outside the King's Head

 I didn't get many other pictures of street performers because I felt odd treating them like scenery.








My favorite street artist was a man from Africa who was playing a jimbe; I didn't have my camera that day but he was incredibly pleasant.  There was also a man who had a piano, a real upright piano that he would play in the street.  Reportedly, he could make a thousand dollars in tips on any given day.


The fella in the doorway of Dubray Books, I had a conversation with.  He's got a band and practices his songs outside like this.

Dubray Books was my bookstore.  I wish I had thrown them more business, but I basically went there to look at the pretty covers.











This is not where Mad Jack got my ring.













I never went to this Chinese restaurant, but I always admired it.

This is me just walking down Market Street

Still walking...

More performers.

Still walking down the street.

This is exactly what it looks like...  athletes celebrating.

Look at that joy.

There's so nothing... gay about this.

That banner is celebrating gay love... I mean Hurling.  Hurling is a big deal in Galway.

 Like a really big deal.









Notice that the best of luck cake is bigger than the wedding cake.

Ha.  I'm gonna need one of these soon.  Holy shit, I'm still getting married.

Also Christmas comes early in Ireland.  There were taken a few days after Halloween:

German Gingerbread

Yeah they have gaudy Christmas lawn ornaments in Ireland too.


And also:

I dedicate this Penguin to First mate, Dirty Bess and Bloody-Thirty Wench, Red Mary... they know why.... 

On an unrelated note...

 So the King's Head, probably has my favorite origins in Ireland.  Apparently, after a coup in England, nobody wanted to be the guy who executed the old king.  So they went to Ireland, found an execution there, and gave him a house to chop off the King's Head.  He lived in it a while, and eventually it was turned into this bar and restaurant.

More walking...It's a big town.

The guy who did this would come out everyday and re-draw this at the base of the Spanish Arch right where the buskers start showing up.  I don't know if he got good tips, but I'll bet his message made a difference for the musicians down the way.

      Other places about Galway, that are not Market Street and Shop street.

This is St. Nicol's church below.  Interestingly enough there are only three clocks on that tower.  The one facing Co. Clagdagh doesn't have a clock in it.  Basically, the people of Galway disliked them so much they wouldn't even give them the time of day.

Around Halloween.

That yellow building in the distance is Guinness

Best eye Dr. in Galway, I hope.

    

In my mind this is either an old Guinness Factory, or the owners of the apartment really, Really like Guinness.

   When you walk far enough, you get to Eyre Street.

 Which is watching you....

These are the kinds of shoes women wear here.

I did want theses though...

On Erye Street you will find many things that I'll bet you didn't know where native to Ireland.

For example: this is the birthplace of footwear.

All change comes from Ireland.  All Obama has to do is come shopping.  Change is right there on Erye Street

and bras are on the corner...

 This is where Beverly Hills can be purchased.  I'm not sure if it's the people or the area that is for sale.


And most surprising to me, the great outdoors apparently, is manufactured in the middle of Galway City.  Keep that in mind next time you're out in nature.  It's made in Ireland.... Probably by faeries.

A Mall.

Look a tree!

You know what I haven't done in a while?  Shown you pictures of trees and the sky.

Tree, sky, and Water!

Sky and Water!

Mother-F-ing Ducks!

These are all along the Corrib River which is the water that slices Galway in half.

This is Salmon Weir

 


I like to think this is an ancient boat launch.

Add caption

View from  and a  view of the Salmon Weir Bridge.













This is the Galway Cathedral which is a building that makes you believe the majesty of God can be housed in a building.  Just looking at it makes me wish I was not as afraid of new places or old religions.


I want this house.









Though where I actually stayed in Ireland was also quite wonderful.




Here's the walk home to Droim Chaoin:

I always stopped here on my way to and from the library

Hotel at the base of the hill

This hill is a killer...at 2 am

This dog was not a stray, but he was always outside on the road, following us.

A flower growing out of the sidewalk.  I took a picture of this three months ago (left) and the one on the right is the one I took of it last night. Still alive and blooming.  Faeries.  They are everywhere.

View from my room at sunrise.

Yeah.

I'm going to miss this place: