Day 4: It Actually Did Burn Down — Matt Goes Exploring

We turned the corner and the ruins were on the opposite side of the river.

Today was both a sad and exciting day in Ireland. We left Dublin, but arrived in Galway. This may be premature since I've only been here for half a day, but Galway is a great place. Compared to Dublin it seems young, exciting, and laid back. I'll give myself tomorrow to decide, but I actually might enjoy Galway more than Dublin.

Which is awkward, since it was only a day or two ago that I started off one of these posts with "I love Dublin."

When we arrived we took a moment to rest and gather our thoughts on how to spend our day and a half here in Galway. For this part of the trip, we are sharing a hostel room with three other travelers. We spoke to two of them who were from the Netherlands who had been traveling around Ireland as well. They told me I wasn't missing much by missing Amsterdam, which made me feel better about missing it, but won't stop me from going there if I get the chance.

Our goal for the day became to see some ruins. So after a brief internet search, the closest ruins were a forty five minute walk upriver. Seemed doable since the sun sets at 10pm here. I still can't get over how crazy that is.

The ruins are of Menlo Castle, once owned by the Blake family, but burned down in 1910. Now it is nothing but the half shell of a castle, covered in ivy as nature slowly but surely returns it to nothing.

According to what I read about this castle (on the internet), the Blake's daughter Eleanor was killed in the 1910 fire, but her body was never found. This leads me to believe that Eleanor didn't actually die, but started the fire herself as a symbolic destruction of the life she was born into but didn't want to take part in. Eleanor most likely ran off into freedom to marry for love rather than riches, and lived happily ever after.

Either that, or she haunts the ruins.

After walking for over an hour we finally came upon the ruins. But we were on the wrong side of the river. Some adventures don't always end up the way you expect them to. Fortunately the ruins were still fascinating to view from a distance, and we were able to get some great pictures of them. Not as great as if we had been up close, but Eleanor probably would have put a curse on us anyway.

Mostly out of a longing for home, and an addiction to burritos, we ate dinner at the (probably) only Mexican restaurant in Galway.

We learned more about Galway from a local at one of the many souvenir shops. She told us that Galway was in the running for Cultural Capital of Europe 2020 and that some judges were coming by soon to decide if Galway fit the bill. She said only a few days ago thousands of people had gathered in the streets to sing "Galway Girl" together, breaking the Guinness World Record. And besides that there have been several music, film, and theatre festivals in Galway in the last few weeks. I will be keeping an eye on Galway to see if it can pull off a victory in 2020.

To finish the night, Sean taught me the rules to rugby as we watched it at a live music bar that had been recommended to us.

Tomorrow we booked ourselves a tour of the Cliffs of Moher & the Aran Islands. I've been to the cliffs before, but they are amazing enough to see twice. Look forward to that post tomorrow! If you want to know when I post here, scroll to the bottom of the page and put your email in the subscription box. Then you will receive an email each time I post.

Also to see more photos from my journey, check out my Instagram @mattgoesexploring or click the camera icon in the top right of the page (if you're in browser).

Finally, I forgot for the beginning of this trip, but I wanted to put music in each post, not necessarily music that is relevant to where I am or what I'm doing, but just good music.

Finally, thanks for reading, see you tomorrow.