2006-08-01

Sunday, March 28

This was a day of sports. We woke up around 9:00, packed our things and then moved all of our luggage to another hostel Sleepzone, a bit nicer (although lacking atmosphere) and closer to the station. We then went down to High St. where we had bagels for breakfast once more, and then we walked around the city for a while. We saw the Spanish Arch and the Commercial Docks among other things. We had a big laugh when, about a month later at a pub in Copenhagen, we spotted a gigantic garbage pile on the waterfront on an Irish TV-transmission from Galway. The exact same pile had been there a month before, as well.

On 12:30 Celtic played Rangers at Celtic Park, so we went to King's Head (where we arrived shortly before 12:00) and were directed to the lounge on the very top, where some of the local Celtic supporters usualy watched the games on a big screen. There weren't a lot of us - 8-10 local girls, Hans and I, and a few others. As the game progressed we were joined by a few others, and the game ended satisfactorily - we beat the Huns 2-1. George turned up shortly before the final whistle - he had been out playing football himself, starring as a goalkeeper on the University's 3rd team.

We then ventured out on a rather long walk to Salthill, the famous Galway suburb with its beach and waterfront hotels, casinos and bars. Also in Salthill lies Pearse Stadium, site of the local GAA games. On this day the Galway hurling team played Laois. Hans and I both wanted to see some live Gaelic sports while we were in Ireland, and this was it. It was interesting to watch, but probably not something I'd do again - perhaps it might have helped if more than 1000 people had showed up on the large stadium.

Galway won - the final score was Galway 3-22 Laois 1-8 (don't ask!). Next we found a pub in Salthill where we watched Manchester United and Arsenal draw 1-1. Then we had a sandwich at a Sunset Boulevard joint, and then started the long walk back to Galway. We ended up at Monroe's (surprise, surprise), where we had a few beers - George then had to get back home to write some papers, or so, so he walked with us back to Sleepzone, where we said goodbye for this time. Hans and I then relaxed for a couple of hours, before we once again walked out into the city. We only stopped by two pubs this night (we had to catch the 07:45 from Galway the next morning): Some pub on Prospect Hill (I think) - I've forgotten the name (Hans, George?) - and then a couple of hours and quite a few pints at The Hole in the Wall, possibly one of the cheapest, but also very friendly pubs of the city (and a favourite among poor students, I gather). Both of the pubs are within 1-2 minutes walk from Eyre Square.

Monday, March 28

That was it, really - on Monday morning we caught the 07:45 train to Dublin, had a large brunch at the Galway Hooker (the pub in Dublin Heuston), downed a few pints while we waited for a bus to take us to Dublin Airport. We arrived at London Stanstead in the afternoon, waited for our plane which was delayed almost 2 hours, arrived in Malmö around 23:00 in the evening, got the bus back to Copenhagen Central and I finally arrived back in Lyngby shortly after midnight on March 30th.

I'll be going to Galway again in November - watch out, Monroes! :-)