About that power outage: it’s fine now, but it did last a while. I’ll have to check and see just how long, since we may end up tossing anything in the freezer. Apparently a damaged semi truck was near a power pole and if it had overturned there would have been a bigger issue, so PG&E opted to shut off power until things were resolved. Or so I’ve read.

We had no specific plans for today other than walking to Salt Hill, which I’d read was a nice walk. There were a few other things we might fit in, but nothing like a tour or museum. So it was to be a relaxed day.

I had read a blog by a woman who fell in love with Galway and said she would be happy to move here. So far Dan and I aren’t feeling that, though. The Latin Quarter is fun but clearly a tourist area. Maybe today would be the day we find out what she’s writing about …?

First, though, coffee. Of course. But look … no sweet roll this time! I had no idea my bagel would be so huge, and who knew crisps were served at breakfast?

Once we finished our breakfast we went toward the Latin Quarter: Dan had seen a cap yesterday he wanted to buy, and I had decided I needed a lighter cap for days when it isn’t cold. Rumor has it we will encounter warmer weather quite soon. My hat was found and gosh, for only a bit more € we could get two so Dan opted for a baseball cap as well. Here I am with my new Guinness hat. (I had to show the back as well, since I do love the harp logo.)

We continued on our way to the place where Dan could buy his linen hat as well. The funny thing is that he now has SIX hats with him: his Mucros wool cap, the new linen Mucros cap, a rain cap, a trail hat, beanie, and his new Guinness baseball cap. Me? I “only” have three: my new Guinness baseball cap, my rain cap, and my little hot pink beanie. (Yeah, really — I’m NOT a pink person, but it came as a free bonus from Woolx.)

Here is Dan modeling just three of his six hats!

Then it was on to find the way to Salt Hill. As we neared that path we saw a lot of booths set up so we wandered a bit. There was one cool stand that had faux leather items made from cork and I was tempted by the keychain. Then Dan said, “Do you have any keys?!” Heh. Well, aside from a mail key I don’t even use keys, so never mind.

While we were there we saw a huge dog. I’m not an animal person, really, but this dog was so sweet … and huge! The people were quite friendly as well.

We found our way to the “long walk” (which is what the walk to Salt Hill is called I guess), and headed out. I won’t write a ton, but I will show photos of things we saw on the way.

We arrived at Salt Hill, seeing the place (from a distance) we might have opted to stay, and while it would have been less expensive we did think where we are is more central and better.

Then it was time to turn around and head back.

We opted to go a slightly faster way, and eventually landed at a place to buy a little bite to take back to our room. I had what was sort of like a pasty, but not quite, of mushroom and sauerkraut, and Dan’s was mushroom and cheese. They were small but tasty.

After a brief respite (is there any other kind of respite?) it was time to go back out. Since we missed out on the live music yesterday, we planned on getting somewhere early enough to grab a spot where we just might hear and see the musicians.

We walked back to the Latin Quarter, looking for the place Dan remembered. Or did he? I guess we’ll never know for sure! He thought he saw something that said music began at 3:00, but we sure couldn’t find it. He also had read about a place that had two floors and we weren’t sure about that either. We did get to see some buskers, as well as a bride and party parading down the street which was kind of fun. (We weren’t sure if we were seeing the father of the bride or the groom … heh … funny how one can’t always tell!)

Eventually we went to a spot to have a couple of “zero zeros” to begin our little adventure.

From there we continued to search, and finally went into a spot that already had musicians playing. I’m not sure how “Irish” all the music was, but it was fun to hear them.

That group of musicians left and another was setting up, but we were planning on heading back out. BUT … well … then were heard what I think were uilleann pipes. That kind of caught our attention. I saw the guy who was playing that then pull out a few recorder-like instruments (Irish whistle?) and we had to stay a bit longer to listen. (Sound is probably bad and too loud so maybe turn the sound down!)

It was fun to hear them. Loud, though!

But then they played “Folsom Prison” and moved on to more contemporary music. I heard a guy nearby saying, “That isn’t Irish!” Heh. No kidding. And it was just too loud, so we then left.

Then it was time to search for actual dinner. We walked almost all the way to our hotel when we found a place that looked like it would do. And it did. Except … there was a group of what appeared to be students (two young men and maybe four or five young women) and an older man who we figured was their professor. Oh. My. Goodness. He was loud. He was annoying. And one of the young women was playing up to him and he had his arm around her. He was clearly drinking a lot. It was pretty darn sad and frustrating to see what was going on.

Okay, enough of my whining. For now.

I had a nice seafood chowder and Dan did the turkey roast thing. It was tasty and, for me, just a nice, smaller meal. I need to do more of those! The place was interesting and I wish I’d thought to take photos, but all I got was the ceiling. Ah well!

Back in our room I am finishing up this entry and then it will soon be sleepy time. Tomorrow we have our one and only bus ride to our next destination. We’ll see how that goes!

Goodnight!

Update:
19,484 steps, 7.79 miles, 0 flights climbed