Walking Around Galway City

One of the first activities one partakes in upon entering a new city is to find the closest grocery store to your dwelling and stock up.  What, not everyone is thinking about food 90% of the time? Hmm.  Well, regardless, when you move to a new city, it takes a couple of days to get your bearings.  My first night in town, Mr. Activism invited me out to have drinks with some of his friends.  We walked all over Western Galway City and hopped into several bars including the famous Róisín Dubh, the Salt House and a couple other places I fail to remember.  After spending the night walking around the (very) small part of town we frequent, I honestly thought I had my orientation down pretty well.

Ya, not so much.

I asked Mr. G for the closest major grocery store which is the Tesco up in the Galway Shopping Center which is about  2.5 mile walk from my house.  In addition the boys thought that they would throw in free delivery on groceries over a certain amount so I could walk there, shop and have the stuff meet me back at home.  Excellent!

Quay Street - Galway CitySo I set off walking with the directions to walk straight up a certain road and the store on my right. I started walking.  I walked through city centre, down past the Galway Cathedral (where I’ve been going to church every week) past a really cool old cemetery and down some long suburban streets.  After about 2 hours, I started to think I’d walked WAY to far, but I kept seeing small glimpses of civilization just beyond the hill, so I pressed on.  And then town ended.  I had effectively walked from the most Western point of Galway (Salthill, where I live) to the most Eastern point, almost to the airport.  So I turned left hoping to turn back around and walk back on a different street, sure that I missed the store by a couple blocks, only the street I turned onto gradually looped all the way around Northern Galway.  As soon as I realized my mistake, I turned back towards town ONE street before the Tesco (awesome) and walked back to city centre before finding some wifi and refreshing the Google map on my iPhone.

I finally arrived at the Tesco only to find that they do deliver, but only on online orders (you mean I could have shopped from my bed and avoided this mess?).  So I tucked my tail between my legs and dragged my sore feet back to the house and the market less than two blocks from my house. 

Lesson learned: don’t be cocky about your bearings in a new place.

Second lesson learned: Grocery shop from your bed.

Third lesson learned: Galway is a TINY city.  I walked from one end to the other.  WALKED.

So if you ever come to Galway.  Do not worry about public transportation, money for taxis or renting a bike.  You will be just fine walking around town.  

View All of my photos from Galway on Flickr