The other day I ventured out of Dublin and trekked across the island to find recluse in the lovely town of Galway. It may be embarrassing to say but the whole reason I chose to come on this study abroad trip was because I wanted to see the bar where Ed Sheeran filmed the music video for Galway Girl. I also wanted to learn about the culture, history and media of Ireland… but Ed Sheeran was the deciding factor. Thus, I had to make the journey to O’Connell’s in Galway. Lucky for me, my roommate Maddie came on the trip with a dream to see the Cliffs of Moher. Thus, me, Maddie, and somehow Ryan, all headed off to Galway to see the sights of our dreams.
We took the train across the island and ended up in Galway around 1PM. We began to explore the town as it was a lovely day and we were able to check-in to our accommodations early. There was a lovely market with tons of handcrafted goods and their was plenty of people out exploring the town or living their everyday lives. We stopped in a café for some lunch and some peace before heading back out on the town. That night we went to the infamous bar I had dreamt of and had a lovely night there full of laughs and oddly delicious pizza. We called it a night and ended with gelato and an early bed time as the next morning we were due for our Cliffs of Moher tour at 7AM.
The next morning we arose before the first bird chirped and set off across the street to join our tour bus group. The bus ride was silent, essentially a group taxi to the cliffs, but this was welcome at such an early hour. The trip was a straight shot to the cliffs and we were soon dropped off and given two hours to explore independently. The cliffs were absolutely gorgeous and the paths were empty since we got their before all the other tours did. This meant we had nearly exclusive access to the sights and this made the experience that much more special. Maddie was quite excited to see a special rock that was featured in Harry Potter and I was quite happy to see the Cliffs of Insanity from The Princess Bride. We hung out around the cliffs for around 2 hours before we were sadly due back on the bus and the journey home began. We got home around 1PM and our booked trains weren’t until 8PM so we had a lot of time to kill. We explored Galway a bit more and ended up in a lot of cafes and shops as we sought places to sit and rest. Eventually, at the end of the night, we finally made it to the train station and headed back home to the other side of the island in Dublin.