Galway is the fourth largest city in Ireland with 80,000 people approximately, but it felt like a bigger city than that. It is on the west coast about an hour north of the cliffs. It had a large shopping mall and several streets full of pedestrians at all times of the day. Parking is probably the only negative – free parking was not available, and even places to pay were hard to come by.
While in Galway, we did a food tour – the first one that I have ever been on. It was pretty cool but had a lot more alcohol on it than I would expect from a food tour. It was still a fun experience, and gave us some of the history of the businesses in the town.
After 2 nights in Galway we headed to Athlone where a friend of our traveling buddies was getting married. The Irish take their wedding seriously. The wedding started promptly at 1 pm, followed by a pre-reception cocktails at 3pm, followed by dinner at 6pm (with several courses and lots of speeches). Then the band started at 10:00pm until midnight when the DJ took over. Music was played until about 2:30 am. After which most of the wedding party and friends hung out until 5 am to get in a few more pints. We called it quits at about 3. The next day they also had a barbeque which started at 7:30 pm and went until who knows when, but the night ended for us around midnight. If you ever have the pleasure of going to an Irish wedding please get plenty of sleep the day before.
-Jason
P.S. – Sorry for the lack of pictures, I took some more on the Polaroid Cube but the computer is still acting fried so I don’t have a way to access them.
Life as a Local in Syros, Greece 
Thank you for chronicling your adventures with such eloquence, Jason. Reading your blog is almost like being there
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I laughed out loud at the picture of Jason with the black haired wig. You all look like you are having fun. Give Jeanette a hug from me (and Jeanette ,give Jason a hug from me also). Love,mom
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