Saturday, Sep 9, 2023 at 10:05 a.m.

Woke up at 7am with very few hours of sleep. I'd met an american last night who was driving up to Galway with his dad and offered to give me a ride. Messaged him on Instagram but it got stuck as a message request which means he probably wouldn't see it in time. Packed my things again and headed down to breakfast (included with this hostel). Chatted with a Slovenian dude who was happy they'd just beaten the Canadian team in basketball.

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The setup leaving the hostel

Checked out and walked downtown to find a bus to Galway. The lady at the tourism office was able to help me find a route. Slept for most of the way. Arrived around 3pm and checked in. Met an American at the hostel - from DC I think. Went for a walk around town. Galway has a packed main street and rivers running all through it. There are buskers and live musicians everywhere and the highest density of pubs I've ever seen. Most of the musicians are quite talented. I stopped for food at one of the best rated restaurants in Dublin (ironically an Asian place) after a wander.

Heading back, I had agreed to meet a few people at the Browne doorway. I texted the american from the hostel to meet us there too. Once a few people had arrived, I talked us into going to the skeff because the Italian I'd met yesterday was already there with a friend. Met him upstairs and offered for him to join us downstairs. He was already having fun tho so didn't see him after that. As for our group, at its peak, I think it was 9 people. 3 Americans, 3 Canadians, 1 German, 2 kiwis. Moved onto another bar that had live music. They played Steve Earl's galway girl. Next we tried to get into "the front door" which is apparently one if the best bars in galway. They wouldn't let me in because of my "sport shorts".

We stopped at a grocery store before heading down to the river for a mini picnic. Another bar and we decided to go down to the beach for a bit. It was about a 20min walk through the Galway suburbs to get there. We got extremely lost several times.

Made it there and had a dip. Unfortunately, while most of us had left our things on the field above the beach, one of our mates had left all his things on the beach. He was convinced they must have been somewhere down the beach. I was convinced they were underwater. By the time I found them, the water was thigh deep and his boots had floated floated far away from the original spot. While he found everything, his phone was likely toast.

One of the girls realised she'd lost a necklace as well. It had sentimental and religious significance to it. Although we didn't find it, she did find a church to go to the following morning instead.