HandS Travel

In April, Henry and I traveled from London’s Luton Airport directly to Galway, Ireland for the great occasion of running my second half marathon. Since the marathon is held in Connemara National Park near Galway, it is called the Connemarathon. Thanks to Henry’s superb Irish accent that he picked up, we now say Con-e-mair-e-chon at least 3 times each day, with different variations. He is much better at it than I am.

So on Friday, after hopping several trains to get to the airport in London and Henry surviving a stressed bladder from having a few too many Stella beers on the way, we arrived early to check in for our flight. We first walked around the whole airport (about 15 check-in counters long) trying to find where to check-in. But, apparently since it was such a small airline, we had to wait another 1/2 hour to get a desk to check-in at. Later, standing as #1 and #2 in line, we started talking with the gentleman behind us. He looked like a runner and we asked him if he was going to Galway for the marathon. He said yes, but surprisingly not just for 26 miles, but for the ultra-marathon which is 39 miles! Yes, 39 miles! Insane…He also told us a story that he had been trying to get into the lottery for the New York City marathon and had entered himself, his girlfriend, and her father for 2 years now and they have both gotten in but he hasn’t! Some of these people are crazy and way too motivated. Once we arrived in Galway, the airport was even smaller; it looked like a big warehouse but the people were very friendly and smiled more so we felt at home. We waited for quite awhile for a taxi but nonetheless got a good night’s sleep.

The plan for Sat. was to explore the town of Galway (or city to be exact since it is the 5th-largest and fastest-growing in Ireland). We did just that and a little more. We first walked through town center and towards the Spanish Arch and the bay since it is on the western coast of Ireland. The Spanish Arch was built around 1519 during the mayoralty of Wylliam Martin and also during the time of Christopher Columbus, who is known to have visited Galway, possibly stopping off on a voyage to Iceland or the Faroe Islands. We were amazed at the quaint, small winding streets running through the town center. There were pubs with people drinking already at 11 am, jewelers which sold the Claddaugh Ring which is native to Galway, cafes, and a market going on that we later came back to. After walking closer to the bay, we stopped at an extremely fast-flowing stretch of river flowing through Galway to the Atlantic Ocean. I had read about this ahead of time or would have been scared out of my wits at how fast the water was moving! The River Corrib is a small, 4-mile stretch of water from Lake Corrib and is one of the fastest-flowing in Europe. We then walked along the harbour a little to check out expensive fishing boats and 2 large ships, one of which we assumed was an exploration ship and the other an oil tanker. We then walked back up the river to the Galway Cathedral where I would return the next morning to hop a bus to the half Connemarathon start! This cathedral was probably the newest one we’ve ever been in since it was built in 1965 but it was surprisingly beautiful inside. You’ll have to check out Henry’s pictures. (see tomorrows post, Half a Connemarathon!

Next, we trekked back to the city center even though, again, it felt more like a friendly town to us. It was bustling with people on that Sat. We both decided we needed to check out the market, where we saw amazing iron sculptures, sand pictures, bought a gift for a friend’s wedding this summer, and ate delicious crepes! Then we visited St. Nicholas’ Church but not for long because there was a baptism going on when we walked in. The church was finished in 1320 during Medieval Times! The baptismal font is also very old – over 400 years in fact!

We finished off our day by people watching in Eyre Square and having a dinner at the Marriott hotel. I tried to ‘carb load’ for my race the next morning by eating a lot of pasta and bread.