Galway

 We arrived in Dublin at six in the morning. I had been up all night, too excited to sleep.   We took the express bus to Galway on the other side of Ireland.  This took about three hours, and it gave me a chance to look at the countryside. Joy, who can sleep through anything,  dozed most of the time.

My first impression of Ireland was that of having entered a kind of alternate reality.   It really isn't that different from America in most ways--Dublin has Starbucks,  Subways, internet and interstate highways.  People dress like us, and speak English.  Their standard of living is generally comparable to  ours. There are ads for the same television show and products.  The same music was playing on the radio as at home (who knew that Ireland was big into country music and hip-hop?)   But then there are the little differences that tell you immediately that you aren't at home--cars drive on the left, not on the right,  the Irish accent, road signs in English and Gaelic, weird money.  It was a little unnerving for someone who isn't used to it, such as Joy and I. 

But whatever discomfort these changes may have generated, they disappeared once we got to Galway and experienced the cordiality of the people.  Taxi drivers, hotel clerks and shopkeepers went out of their way to help us at every turn.

By the time we got to Galway  I was exhausted. It was still two hours before we could check into our hotel, so we left our bags with the concierge and walked the streets, near the center of town. 

Galway is called the cultural heart of Ireland. It is the center of Galway County and located on Galway Bay, near the lower edge of the Connemara region.  It is the fourth largest city in Ireland and considered the center of Irish culture and language. People speak Gaelic to one another on the streets and on their cell phones. It is, as one news reported described it, the most visited tourist destination in Ireland.  There are pubs on every corner.  The houses are built in rows, with grey and ocher faces, slate roofs and two smokestacks each, like lines of grey and cream colored Lego blocks.  The weather was cool and perfect. 

One memorable sight to me was a church cemetery on a hill between our hotel and town.  The graveyard had two matching chapels on opposite ends, and in between were rows and rows of Celtic crosses.  They were of different ages, sizes and designs.  Some were new, while others were pitted and weathered with age. They were solemn and beautiful, silhouetted against the sky.

Once in our room we both took long naps before venturing out again for dinner.  We walked past the center of town into the ancient part of Galway.  Galway was built as a fortress city in the Fifteenth Century, and had been fought over by tribal cheiftains, Norman conquerors, Henry VII, and Oliver Cromwell.  It became a center of trade, and the fourteen leading merchant families, known as the Tribes, poured their wealth into its architecture and culture.

The whole area had a festival atmosphere. There were shops, pubs, traveling magicians and entertainers--a kind of permanent Renaissance fair. Children were dancing Irish jigs and broom dances for the crowd   Street musicians played everything--acoustic rock, jazz,  traditional Irish music,  harps, violins, and drums.  In one place a juggler on a unicycle performed. In another a drunken leprechaun  sold "magic" matches. All of this played our against a backdrop of genuine historical interest.

I could not possibly tell all we saw that day, but one place I have to mention.  It was a tea shop on a corner near the museum called "Cupan Tae" or "Cup of Tea."  The sign on the door said "Gentlemen, do not be put off by the frills. Our food is worth it." It was!  The inside was straight out of Beatrix Potter or Alice in Wonderland.  The women who ran it were spot-on perfect, with their hair in buns and frilly aprons. It was like stepping out of time into story book.

Come to think of it, the same can be said for the rest of Galway. 

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