Failte means welcome in Irish. Boy what a welcoming I received from this lively city! As luck would have it, I arrived right in the middle of the Arts Festival here in Galway. The city is alive with music, theatre, and dance lovers (no wonder it was such a challenge to get an hostel here). My hostel here is quite nice by the way. As friendly as the last but a little more easy going; a lot more people though. And Galway definitely has a flavour of its own, distinct from Dublin. Drinking is permitted outside in Galway, as it is in Dublin I believe, but the streets at night here give me the impression that I'm on the terasse of one giant pub! There are people literally standing around listening to street musicians with their beers sitting atop garbage cans.
After having stepped off the train only hours before, I was delighted to find out that there was a parade that would be winding its way through the streets - passing right in front of our hostel! But nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. Check out these pics!
The parade seemed like it rolled out of some Burton movie - Batman 2 meets Nightmare Before Christmas! Check out this freaky clown Road Warrior! After the parade passed everyone began to excitedly talk about fireworks being set off somewhere nearby. Not knowing our way around, me and these 3 guys I met from Malaysia, followed the hoards. Somewhere at the other end of town we saw the coolest firework show I've seen in a long time, way destroying the lousy Canada Day one we saw (Matt and T-Dot). Here are some shots I took that actually turned out pretty well:
This one might be my favourite picture I've taken so far: people watching the fireworks behind me.
We cheered when we thought we had seen the finale...3 times! That's how huge this show was.
Afterwards, I ended up going out for a drink and a dance at this cozy pub with a girl that I met in the hostel. Marta hails from the lusty land of Spain. Actually, she's from Pamplona, a city famous for the running of the Bulls (Cheers to Scott for trying that craziness out). It makes a lot of sense though; Marta seemed to have no problem with the swaying towers, such is their size and state in the bars here, of Irish men in Galway's bars (I'm a little guy compared to these friggin' rugby players!) But I held my own though, and many seemed impressed when I was dancing with Marta, who's quite a beauty with her tall frame and blond hair. There we met this awesome Egyptian woman who insisted on wearing my hat and us dancing a jig with her. Marta was less impressed with her than I was (as you can all plainly see here).
All's well, hope the same's with you all!
Love Steve
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