I spent a little time browsing through the journal I kept during the month I had an apartment in Galway. The first week, I was solo; the second week, my friend Janne and I toured about; the last two weeks, our husbands joined us.
Flipping through I found plenty of bulleted lists of what I did. A couple of my favorite things were when I:
- Volunteered at the Galway Film Fleadh and tore tickets for the showing of a documentary film about Travellers. (Janne volunteered for this too, but I think she helped out at the HQ, passing out shirts and programs.)
- Saw the Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s production of “Traffic: A Tribute to the Beats” at the Galway Arts Festival (July 19, 2000) staring John Mahoney.
One fun find in the journal was a list of places I ate or had a refreshment. I took a spin through the Internet to find that many places are still there, some are long gone (or I couldn’t find them online), or they’re merely a listing on an old travel website.
Some of the places listed below were a day-trip away from Galway. Some were a hackney ride a way. Most were just a stroll from Niland House Apartments where we stayed.
I made a note in the journal of places that we visited more than once. It’s pretty easy to see what my favorite places were. Looking at the websites, they’re swankier than I recall. But then again it was over 18 years ago, and the food was most likely more traditional fare.
Here’s the list:
The Cellar (2x)
Café de Paris
McSwiggans (6x)*
Supermac’s (2x)
Cinema
Cactus Jack’s (for “Tex Mex”; it’s still there)
Abekebabra (2x)
The King’s Head (2x)
McDonald’s (2x)
Mocha Beans (5x)
Snak Box (2x)
The Stage Door
The Kitchen Fayre
Eddie Rockets (3x)
The Skeff (2x)
Siamsa (2x)
La Graal
Maud’s (2x)
The Spanish Arch Hotel Bar (2x)
Cobblestone
Shannon Airport Café (2x)
Spuds Murphy
The Dolmen Restaurant
Jameson’s Restaurant
Spanish Bar (2x)
Chez Nini’s
Paul & Bridgett’s (Someone’s party…)
Padriac’s
Sean’s Bar (Oldest Bar in Ireland)
Conlon’s (2x)
Trigger Martin’s (Martins Bar na d’Taoisigh)
The Left Bank Café
*McSwiggan’s has a tree in it, a very nice place to sit and write during the day.
As I glance through the journal, I see some places I missed, amazingly, because the list as it is seems like quite a lot.
I’ll have to take a closer look at my Galway journal to see which of the above was where a priest asked me to get him and the family he was with a table. He thought I worked there. It made me very happy.
#whywejournal
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C. Dawn McCallum 
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