Galway Ireland

Galway is on the west coast of Ireland and meets the Atlantic. It's filled with rich history and culture. Galway was may favorite place in Ireland and I would highly recommend anyone visiting Ireland to pop in for at least a day or two, I was there on a weekend and got to go to the local market where I bought a leather purse from a traveler I had the best conversation with him and to this day is one of my favorite purses.  The place is scattered with cafes, boutiques and art galleries line the winding lanes of the Latin Quarter, which retains portions of the medieval city walls. 

all day and night people would sit up and down the water while they sipped wine and listened to music. this is a view from the other side of the bridge looking in to downtown towards the arc.

Ard Bia at Nimmo's is a place I just had to eat at as soon as I past it I was tired and hurgry after traveling all day so I really treated myself here. I ordered fresh mussels, veggie and goat cheese sandwich and a green juice and warm tea. This was right at the Spanish arch and across from the Galway museum where they where having an expo or "travelers"

Downtown

cute cafe called "Aniar Restaurant" ate at in downtown. 

Just another great band in Galway !

In Galway you will find the Spanish Arch it built in 1584 The arch is the remainder of a 16th century bastion, added to the town's walls to protect merchant ships from looting. 

 I asked the local girl at my hostel where I should go to avoid the tourist and she sent me under the Spanish arch over the city bridge to BierHaus bar. Where I was greatly pleased. Full of local Irish great craft beer and the most amazing music. A place hipsters would die for but this place wasn't made to look hip it was hip. I had the greatest chocolate stout by "Galway bay Brewery" made right in Galway I tried flight and I was very happy with them all but the red ale. I also had the Galway hooker. Honestly at this point in my trip to Ireland I was just glad to drink something but a cider beer.  I knew the Irish loved dark beer but I didn't know they where so in love with cider. I sipped my beer while I got lost in the music I was compleatly relaxed and enjoying the atmosphere of the place. after the band played I spoke to them and asked them there band name, they then told me they wasn't a band that they all had belonged to other bands but they just drop in and play here together for fun. my mind was blown i was ready to throw money at them and become the excited new owner of there cd. it was traditional yet hip and it started my obsession I now have with folk music. I left BierHaus and poped in Monroe’s Tavern where I grabbed a sliced of very tasty pizza siped another beer and watched some more live music. after my pizza I mosed back across the bridge back to my hostel where I sleep great and the next morning I woke up ate with some others that stayed at the hostels. This led to a very interesting experience one that will stick with me forever. I kid you not all this really happened to me. most the people in the hostel was young except this one guy, this guy with deep navy eyes that looked like pool of water that never ended, deep creases in his face and messy thin grey hair his skin was thick and tough and his hands was covered in black tar. This man opened up to me on a whole another level, he had held it in for so long he was busting at the seems to tell his story. It all stared when I told him I one of the reasons I came to Ireland was because I thought I was Irish, I told him my last name was Kirkpatrick then HE told me, my  whole history of my heritage that im Scottish. He told my name translated to "church of patrick" and explained to me that Kentucky is full of rich Irish culture because Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett was Irish they settled in Kentucky because it reminded them of Ireland, its how we have bluegrass music and other Irish traditions including horse racing he spoke as if he was Davy Crockett him self he knew so much as if he had explored Kentucky him self. This is not the crazy part heres where it get real good. After this history lesson this man began to tell me how when he was young he had fell in love with an asian dancer he had met the way he spoke about this women you could tell he was in love with this girl as much as the day he met her, the only place I've ever heard a man talk about a women like this was in corny romance movies. I could feel his heart ache for this women and although this story was becoming highly inappropriate I was intrigued and could not wait to see where it was going. he really drug out the story much like I am now ha but then he finally dropped it on me he then explained how he was stuck in a love triangle with this women and that she was married and she had convinced him to murder her husband and HE DID! he admitted it to me and as he told it he was not proud, he barely could get it out his voice was riddled with pain and each word was as heavy as a stone wall he had to really pushed to get it out. not exactly you regular breakfast topic. the story went on and as you can imagine it did not have a happy ending the women ran off told him that if they was seen together they would be caught and that they had to go there separate ways but would meet up later in life and live happy ever after. what I took from the story was that she never intended to marry him or love him that she was only manipulating him to get rid of her husband take both there money and run off. He honestly believed he would meet up with her one day and they would love each other although they have had no contact at all. He went looking for her at the Beijing olympics but he didn't find her well duh I imagine thats a huge event and Im not sure if she would be performing or what but He thought she would be there because when he told me this part of the story he almost cried.  I later learned from a local that he was what they call "travelers" or what american's call Gypsies' they told me most work in freelance jobs like construction and are always on the move. traveler in Ireland are frowned there seen as uneducated scam artist, lier and thief's.  I couldn't help but feel sorry for this traveler because he had been lied to, he had been scammed and in fact he had his heart had been stolen. I knew this women had manipulated him to get what she wanted and tossed him a side. Im not saying this excuses him from murder and although he never went to prison he had paid from what he had done, his guilt has torn him apart and he had lost the love of his life a free mans true prison. 

photo of the band in BierHaus that wasn't an actual band lol