Galway

Today I chilled. It was quite nice to be separated from my Giant for a day. Don't get me wrong, I love my ride. It's just that after sitting on it on average for 6hrs/day for two weeks straight, you probably can imagine what a day without feels like.

Last night I went for a beer with a nice fellow from Vancouver (yep they're all over the place). Well, it turned out to be four beers and some nice chatting. The problem with just having one was that the Beoir finder app I told you about yesterday was not quite up to date and we "needed" to go to four pubs to find the local beer, the Galway hooker (I'll explain the name later). It would have been extremely impolite to leave a pub without having a pint of another beer first...

I did some walking in the morning after having breakfast at the hostel. I found the Galway city museum and since there was no admission I had a look inside. I spent an hour our maybe two there, but not really because of the local history. They had an exhibition from a German artist called George Grosz. I really enjoyed his satirical drawings that depicted the decadence and corruption of the Weimar era Berlin. I am absolutely no art freak normally, but this exhibition really was something that got me baffled and at the same time it made me laugh a lot. The criticism on the Weimar society and it's authorities, still is fitting today.

I did see other things in the museum as well. The local fishing boat the Galway hooker was one thing I learned about. I also saw some celtic artifacts found in the area and learned how and when the city was founded. All in all not as interesting as the history of some other cities I've seen on my tour.

I decided to take a free walking tour of the city offered at the hostel. It was quite interesting and informative even though our Australian guide was terribly hung over. The city really is as nice and beautiful as I've heard from countless people recommending it during the past three weeks. It's a big student city and I think that's one reason for the liveliness of it. After visiting Cork, I said that I'd rather live there than in Dublin. Now after seeing Galway, I do have to say that I'd rather life here than in Cork. The history of the city might not be as impressive as elsewhere, but the "now" definitely is something very special.

After the tour I had a quick lunch in an Italian restaurant and then came back to the hostel to have a break from the sun (yes, that is something new). I actually fell asleep for a while on a comfy sofa in the reception area.

Two young Germans guys woke me up at five and I chatted with them for a while and they even gave be some of their beer. I shared two of my craft beer bottles with them later, but I don't think I managed to turn then into Beoir fans.

Check out the pictures, there's a bunch of them here.

The last part of the tour starts tomorrow. I'll start heading back to Dublin. I'll still spend the morning in Galway before I start off. There's more to see here still. I "booked" a night at Colin and Jutta's place along the way. If all goes like planned, I'll get to Dublin on Sunday and then I'll have the Monday for returning my bicycle and enjoying the capital for the last time on this trip.