Galway Folks--Part II

The most important part of travel is, of course, the people that you meet. The whole point of travel is to stretch your mind and test your ideas and learn new ways of seeing the world, and to be happy that the ugly American has not ruined it for us all.  You can see all the stone edifices, drink and eat at all the pubs, and take all the tours, but the real richness is in meeting the people, the ones you can actually have one on one time with.  While I have photos of lots of interesting buskers, tour guides, shop owners, etc, the time we spent at two B&Bs on our adventure is one the best ways to talk to real citizens of the area you are visiting.  B&B owners are some of the most interesting characters because they usually love being a host or hostess, and therefore, you get a genuine feel for the area.  They love to answer questions, to tell tales of their country, and tell tales of other visitors.  Unfortunately, while Ireland has many B&Bs, as the older owners retire, new B&Bs are not being opened and the numbers of B&Bs are shrinking.

One B&B where we stayed was just outside of Galway.  The owners were the ones that told us that the first day of the International Galway Oyster Festival was the very next night ...which also happened to have free admission!   So, we headed out that Friday evening and Hubby was looking forward to tasting a few of the famous Irish oysters.   He was impressed...although the prices were not cheap.  The festival band was truly energetic and fun!  I had a camera backpack and camera and had no where to leave them (that is my excuse), but hubby was hands-free and joined in the merriment.  By the third Irish dance the young girls were down to their tank tops and other young men joined the circle.  I was a little surprised that more people were not dancing.  The band also played for professional Irish dancers in between times.  What a pleasurable experience!  You cannot listen to Irish music and not at the very least tap your foot.

Since my readers seem to want to learn more about this trip I will next post photos of our two hours watching people hurl in a bar in Dublin...;-)