Galloping all the way to Galway

Saturday, July 7th

Today is the day I go to Galway (that rhymed. teehee). I woke up to find out I had booked the hostel for the wrong weekend. I made several calls, and booked a hostel for three of us. It was 7 euro more each, but it was the best I could do at the time. After doing that I was a little late meeting Hanna, but we made it to the bus 15 minutes early. The next, almost, 3 hours was spent sleeping and reading.

When we arrived in Galway we ate and just hung around the town. The place we ate at was called Fagan's. It was a pub below a very nice hotel. The service was good and all the waiters were well dressed. They stopped by at least twice to see how our meal was. It is very cute and friendly. Once our friend Lexi got there were booked tickets to Aran Islands(we decided to change out tickets the next day for the evening). Originally we were supposed to leave at noon, and we had asked a ticket lady to print them and she said we had the wrong bus station (she was wrong), but we fixed it. We also checked into our hotel then walked through the dock area because they had been having dock races. It was cute. I ended up buying some cute wool gloves. My hands get cold easily so it is nice to have them. We walked a long the dock and then just sat on a stone wall in the sun. It was lovely.

Then it was time to eat and get ready before the pub crawl. The place we ate had terrible service. They brought out the wrong thing for me. She was rude as well. I don't think I have ever had worse service. Needless to say, I did not take a picture of the menu or restaurant.

Pub Crawl time. We were all so excited. We had heard from others that it was AMAZING and so much fun. It all started at a pub called Skeff. You get little green wristbands and either a Baby Guinness (Kaluha and Baileys) or a Guinness. I ended up getting a mojito as well, but the mint was a little too strong for my liking. It reminded me of catnip. The three of us just hung out at this one. We talked to the two guides and then they brought everyone together before we left for the next pub and played a game. They asked us three questions. 1. What is your favorite color- but describe its personality in three words. 2. What is your favorite animal- but describe it in two words. 3. Describe the ocean in one word. It was really funny in the end because each meant something. 1. Your personality. 2. Your significant other. 3. Your sex life. I will tell you my answers and then add in a few other people's. 1. Love, anger, lust. 2. Camouflage & Mischievous (at least I believe that is what I said). 3. Vast. My original answers (that I didn't say) were a little different. 1. Love, anger, blood (slightly creepy. lol). 2. Stripped & I didn't get a second word so I chose a different animal. 3. Wet. lol. A few people said salty, calm, and open for the third one. One girl said sneaky for the second one. The answers for the first one varied from calm to green. It was great.

The second bars was called Fibbers Magee (or something, I have a picture). There the upper room we were supposed to go to was booked so we just hung out on the very crowded bottom floor. Our free drink at this one was tequila and lime. This surprised me because it is rare to find tequila in a pub. We all took our shots. The music was the right kind of loud and they also did a contest. The person that could drink the black line of a Guinness to the middle of the E in the cup won a free t-shirt. Hanna was so close. She, literally, lost by a hair. It was that small of  difference. We took pictures with the guides and learned a new drinking game. Best in pubs. There are only three rules. if someone hits the top edge and bottom edge of your cup you drink. If they only hit the top you both drink. BUT if you pull away and they miss they drink. Very simple but probably a lot harder the longer you are in a pub. I also got a black rum on ice. Simple and not terrible. We all said a quick goodbye outside to one of the guides because he had to go back to the office.

The next pub was Kelly's. Apparently we weren't actually supposed to go there, so they didn't reserve us a table. It was ok though because we still had a lot of fun. We had sambucca (tastes like black licorice). I had had it once before and it just tastes terrible. They had another contest (all the contests you have to pay for but it was only 3 euro 20p. Basically, 2 teams. 5 people on a time. Chugging relay. I stayed out because I can't have beer anyway. My friends' team lost dearly because Hanna would only sip. It was actually rather comical. Man, I love these girls! lol While there I also met some really cool people who were from Galway. We chatted and it was a lot of fun. I had a martini in remembrance of my Grandpa Al because he and my grandmother would have them every evening.

The fourth pub had a name that was in Irish and I couldn't for the life of me remember the name. There we got a shot of moonshine for our drink. It was TERRIBLE. That's probably why it was one of our free drinks. ;) I met a girl that was from London traveling with some people from Scotland. They had come over for the dock races. I didn't realize how popular these dock races are. We just hung out. Took a few photos.

We headed out to our last stop, a club called Karma. We got free admission when it was usually 8-10 euro (depending on whether you got a promoter stamp or not). It was a lot of fun at first. We were dancing and having a great time until this scumbag ruined everything. He comes and pulls me to the edge of the dance floor away from my friends and tries to make out with me. Fortunately, I know how to handle myself, said no, and just kept dancing then joined my friends again. He does the same thing to my friends and even holds his arms so that they are almost restraint us. He did this twice to all three of us. He tried to do it again to my friend and I stepped in front of her. Then, one of the guys from the pub crawl that we had made friends with stepped in front and pushed him away slightly. The guy who was trying to force himself on us was pulled away by his friends. The a security guard came out and pulled Ryan (the guy protecting us) off the floor. I thought it might be because he had a drink in his hand. About 5 minutes later these two big guards come in, lift Ryan up and force him outside. Being the loyal friends that we are we follow him out. we try and talk to someone but no one would listen. They just said they couldn't do anything about it. I even told one of the guards at the door that I knew he couldn't do anything but would he at least listen. Disrespectfully, he said no and actually walked away into the club to get away from me. I wasn't even yelling.

We all met one of the other guys from the group outside. He had been thrown out for wearing shorts. They didn't even give him a stamp to get back in if he did change into pants. So stupid. We all went to Supermacs (like McDonalds) that also had a Papa Johns. We were there until close to 2:30 when we parted ways. We rang the bell for the hostel and crashed. Most of the night had been amazing, but that one last thing had been terrible.