Late get up and leave, as 12pm was latest departure time. Travelled up to Ennistimon, as Marie, who works at Pandy Farm where I volunteered, said her father was from there. It’s pretty town where many of the shop fronts are original or have been renovated to maintain the original look and they have an art trail around all the key shops – bookshop, café, music shop etc. The weather had been hit and miss all morning with some rain, wind and sun, but then had a massive downpour of hail, when I sheltered in a gallery shop, then moved to a café once it let up, and had a hot choc.
I then decided to move on towards Galway. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do here, or if I’d stay, just sort of played it by ear. Had looked up online to see about parking, and it seemed that the cathedral had all day parking for 5 euro, cheapest around. I had seen a post online about a bakery too, which looked very appetising, so I parked up and went on a nose around Galway. I passed through Eyre Square, seemed pleasant enough, lots of comings and goings of city folk and tourists, it seems the train/bus station is at the bottom of the square. I then went in search of the bakery. On my way, very near to it, I spotted another bakery, which looked very clued up on elaborate cakes, and had a fantastic mural on the outside. I thought I won’t buy anything here until I’ve checked out the original one. Anyway, turns out the one I had looked up was either closed or going through renovation. There were people inside but clearly wasn’t open and no stock was on the shelves. So back to the other bakery. Now I’m not very good at making decisions, which can be a bad thing, but when cakes are involved, it just means buying more than one, so I got a choc croissant filled with choc cream, a mango mouse slice, and a poppyseed crunch.
I then went for a further mooch around town. It had a good vibe with lots of people in the pedestrianised streets and bunting in Irish colours dressing the street canopy. I spotted a music shop, which I’d been on the hunt for a while, as my spice rack had fallen in the van as I was driving and landed on my guitar, breaking a string, so I needed a replacement. Popped in the store and had no clue what I was after. The shop attendant was absolutely fabulous. He explained what the different strings were, the tones, tensions, costs, and how to change them. So bought a bronze, medium 12-52 size, wish me look with fitting those later.
On walking through the streets there was a busker doing a great job of ‘I don’t want nothing, if I can’t have you’, quickly followed by another busking act of four young lads, singer, 2 guitars and a drum, which didn’t quite seem to have it together!
I went down one street, thinking I’d wrap up my tour de Galway pretty soon, and heard someone speaking on a mic while twiddling on his guitar, which was being projected into the street, obviously to entice people in, which it did do to me. I thought I’d pop in for a quick coke, asked a couple if I could join their table and listened for a while. It wasn’t the best spot, not far from the door, and people were stood in front of me so couldn’t see the musicians properly. Before I was about to leave, I popped to the loo and found a much better spot to watch. I was standing under an archway in the corridor to the loo, but right next to the stage. So I stood for a while watching and listening, and swooning over the guitarist, who was very attractive, rugged and hairy!
Unfortunately, I had to make a move to get onto my next camp spot. Before I paid for my parking I thought I’d check out the interiors of the cathedral, and I’m glad I did. It was beautiful inside, and as like most churches, it was very serene. It is a vast space inside, with the traditional cross shape layout, but with high ceilings to crick your neck at to admire. The windows are amazing too, with colourful and detailed stained-glass depictions of the stories in the bible, but with the sun coming through, the colours scattered across the stone floor.
I had a shortish drive to my next britstop, a chip shop in Oughterard. I hadn’t rung beforehand as the reviews said to turn up, so when I turned up and asked, the owner was fine with me stopping, but said I’d have to purchase something from the shop. A bit annoying, as it really eats into my budget to keep buying food/drinks just to stay in a car park, or sit in a pub. I totally get the premise of britstops is to help promote these places and provide some custom, but in my situation I am not on holiday with money to spend on eating out every day. I will make sure I ring ahead in future and ask the question.