The following is my day by day account of traveling through Ireland during the summer of 2009.
Day 4: Galway & Limerick
After getting the eff out of the booming metropolis that is Donegal town and heading back on the highway (aka a two lane country road with more curves than Kim Kardashian), we set out for Galway. Galway is renowned for its local beauty, and something else, which I’m not really sure of.
On the road to Galway there is a cool castle off on a cliff somewhere. I have no idea where it is, or what its called, just that it looked friggin sweet as we whizzed past at 100km/h which on a country road feels like 75mph (though i suspect its closer to 55mph). If you can find the castle, and its name, i’d suggest getting off the road and seeing it, as it looks like a fantastic photo opp, though I could be incredibly wrong and it could suck. (Note I think it might be Mullaghmore)
Once arriving in Galway, it struck me as the most “continental” city I’d seen so far in Ireland. Galway has this beautiful pedestrian street (Quay St up through Kennedy Park) lined with everything every other major city on the european continent has: overpriced shops, random little cafes, street performers, beggars, and creepy statue people. This part of Galway though looks like Walt Disney had a wet dream here, but then thanks to budget cuts due to the economy had to scale back the powerwashing/cleaning just a bit.
While on Quay St we stopped and ate some amazing fish and chips at McDonagh’s thanks to @erinlancione’s recommendation. Must say, some of the best chips I’d had so far in Ireland. Chips for the uninformed are what we’d call french fries, usually though they are closer to what we label as steak fries, served with vinegar and salt. Hmmm chips.
Near the end of Quay st, is the Spanish Arch & the city museum. You can see both in a combined 20 minutes.
After the grub, we headed off to Limerick which used to be known as “Stab City” according to @carlosmiller. Unfortunately we were about an hour too late, otherwise we could have caught the IRLvsAUS friendly that was being played in Limerick; I ended up watching it on TV (they have like 12 channels in Ireland, but I get the impression they don’t need/want more). Sadly since we arrived in Limerick a bit late, everything was closed, so we headed to what turned out to be a delicious Indian restaurant: The Mogul Palace. If they had Yelp in Ireland, I definitely woulda left some kick-ass feedback.
We’d been told Limerick had some rough patches, so we basically used it as a place to park the car
