We had planned to spend one night in Galway because our guidebook raved about the music scene. Essentially, there were pubs upon pubs of “trad” or traditional Irish music that was supposedly some of the best in the country. By the time we arrived in Galway, both Sam and I were worn out from our trip to the Cliffs of Moher and The Burren (not to mention a little short on funds!), and we ended up staying in for the night.
The next morning, we had a very fine breakfast by our B&B hosts, Frank and Joan, and also had some good conversation with Frank about our upcoming trip to Scotland. He gave us some excellent advice, lamented about the lack of “Holy people” there were in both Scotland and Ireland, and when it came time to settle up our bill, he even gave us some of our money back so that we would have a little extra money to buy breakfast before we got on our plane the next morning.
We did take a quick morning stroll through Galway, but there is not much to that town other than its nightlife, and it seems like all of the town daytime activities revolves around preparing for that night’s revelry. In the streets that would normally be filled with tourists and musicians, we saw hordes of empty beer kegs being loaded on to trucks while the full ones were being wheeled into the pubs. This scene is not unique to Galway, but it certainly did not leave us with a great impression of the town. While we’re not anti-drinking, necessarily, anything taken to this kind of extreme is not good. Sam and I now believe that God led us to Galway so that we could meet Frank–an Irish diamond in the rough who doesn’t drink or smoke (a real rarity in Ireland) and who believes the world needs more Godly people.
