June 25th: Scavenger Hunt in Galway

By Robin Markeloff, Becca Rochford, Jack Phillips 

The hottest and brightest day of our trip so far happened to coincide with a scavenger hunt. In the shade of a tree on the side of Eyre Square, Sara split us into groups, handed out pieces of paper with questions on them, and asked us to head down the shopping street towards the museum to search for the answers. Becca found it very interesting and fun to learn about Galway in this way. 

The proud, colorful flags at the “top” of Eyre Square represent the fourteen merchant tribes that ruled Galway back in the Middle Ages. An abstract copper-colored statue not far from the pendants bears the name “Galway Hooker.” 

The triangular shapes of this “Galway Hooker” statue make a lot more sense when one understands it was inspired by a fishing boat unique to Galway called the “Galway Hooker”.

Heading due southwest from Eyre Square, the view was of a street that didn’t look dissimilar from any other city street in Ireland: shopfronts lined sidewalks along a black asphalt road. The 404 bus chugs along this at regular intervals on its way out of the city center and towards the University of Galway. 

However, when one took a meandering left onto a gray-bricked “walking street” (a pedestrian only street), the pedestrian traffic increased tenfold. People chattered together and strolled along under pendants strung across the road, some proudly alternating in the colors of the Irish flag, and others displaying flags from different countries. A busker jauntily sawed away at the strings of a fiddle. A seagull cawed overhead, punctuating the din.

Lining the road were narrow buildings, a mishmash of brick, stone and color, with neatly gridded windows and bright shopfronts. Their bases, some aligned at diagonals, followed the curve of the road. 

We were asked to find a picture of a Claddagh Ring, and once Robin’s group figured out what that was, Robin found it easy to spot pictures of the Claddagh ring *everywhere*: on smart red and gold banners, painted in bold orange-gold above a sign for a jeweler’s, and depicted as silver “flowers” hanging from the stems of a beanstalk.

The street wound its way down to Latin Quarter and to one of the major vehicle thoroughfares in the city, past which is the blue ribbon of the River Corrib as it flows under Wolfe Tone Bridge. 

The Galway City Museum was a gray brick of a building sitting not far from the River Corrib. Inside the foyer, the air conditioning was cooling after the baking heat of the day. Meg was sitting on a slab of a black bench, and Sara presided over each group, quizzing them on their answers. 

After this, students went their separate ways back to campus. 

Becca walked forty minutes back to the campus from downtown Galway. She found it very interesting to see all the architectural styles and different buildings along the route.

Jack toured the museum. He saw a Lego replicas of important aspects of Ireland's history and culture. There was a huge ship hanging from the ceiling, and on the third floor there was a model of a submarine that you could enter, studded with displays to learn from. He also learned about a giant squid, “so that was fun.” After that, he explored the city a bit, got some gelato, and managed to find a store that ended up being an entrance into a mall housing the original walls of the medieval city of Galway. 

Robin, finding the heat intolerable, ducked into a gift shop and then a pharmacy, and then sat at the base of a pillar in the shade of the Franciscan Abbey Bus stop and waited for the 404 back to campus, deciding to work on writing and leave the touring of the city for another day.