The pubs in Galway are great. They've got a roof. Roof very good. Roof very important. All I needed in these 3 days was a roof. When we arrived (went there with a hairy old school friend of mine and his friend) it was raining, when we left it was raining and in between it was raining too. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, but it was raining - if you know what I mean.

We stayed at the Sleepzone hostel which is about 5 minutes walk from the main square (Eyre Sq) in the centre. On Friday evening we went to Fibber Magees and Paddy's (Pscino) While Fibber's resembled a normal pub, Paddy's was hamalississimu (I don't know the word in English for this one).

On Saturday we went by bus to Clifden a small city on the coast of Connemara. The bus was cosy and outside it was … guess what … raining, but that didn't take anything from beauty of the autumn tinge in the undulating hills and farmland. The only pity was that we couldn't stop and take some pictures, so now we the hairy one gets his Saab we can go again and snap a couple. In Clifden we tempted fate and went for a walk to the beach, and promptly enough as soon as we were turned our backs to return to the village, it started pouring again. We sought refuge at Mitchell's Restaurant and I felt I deserved a treat for braving the weather. I had Connemara oysters and a white Chardonnay. It was a pity seeing that aphrodisiac boost wasted but the oysters were great.

In the evening we went to Ming's Chinese restaurant and had hot and sour soup and roast duck. The food was delicious and filling. From the way the people where dressed the restaurant seemed quite above to our scrawny looks, but then again we were 'tourists'. We hit the pubs at about 9 and the streets were already beaming with life. The nightlife starts very early here – in fact on Friday the roads were void of sober people at 1am. The night passed rather uneventfully.

The hostel had a stupid policy of closing the kitchen between 10am and noon for cleaning. This complete inconsideration towards people prefer to exist on a Saturday night was a royal pain in the ass on Sunday morning. We checked out from the hostel and the weather had not yet changed. We walked to Eyre Square looking for something to do but nothing seemed viable so we ended up on a comfortable sofa in the living room of the Great Southern Hotel (4 star luxury hotel). We spent the rest of the morning reading the Sunday Independent, having coffee and home baked (or hotel baked) biscuits. For lunch we went to McSwiggans Bar and Restaurant. I had a succulent roast chicken with mushrooms and bacon sauce, complemented with tap water. In the afternoon we went to Fibber Magees again and watched Ireland win over Australia in the rugby match.

Recapitulating: Galway was very wet but the food was great. Try the seafood in Connemara if you go there – which you should.