GALway, GALLway and GARLway

I awoke to a panicked message from Brendan and Chris talking on the phone. All I overheard mid slumber was, “well yeah just get back here as soon as you can I guess, it’s 12pm now”. I woke up like a lightbulb; checkout had been at 11am. We’d slept through two alarms, numerous texts and calls from Brendan checking we were alive. Brendan arrived home 15 minutes later and demanded a shower. We were all horrendously hungover, last night we’d mixed pints at the bar with shots of whiskey and two Long Island iced teas, half a pint of cider at the afterparty, a bottle of buck fast between us and 1/4 of a bottle of vodka each. It was drinks mixing session that I would have been proud of in my student days – and we hadn’t paid for any of it. 

We headed out into Derry in search of breakfast. We passed all the chain pubs which we’d been eating in thus far on tour in search of a cafe for a cooked breakfast. We were all starving and in a fairly bad way so googled the nearest one and went for it. We found ourselves in Hidden Cafe, which was one of these new all / predominantly veggie / vegan cafes. On arrival we realised that the waitress had been at the gig the night before (must’ve left around 1am) and had bought our CDs. We said hello and were as friendly and warming as we could be considering our combined state. Usually hangover food would consist of a bacon sandwich but given the nature of the cafe we were forced into a healthy breakfast. Me and Chris got a soup of the day (tomato, potato and spinach) and I got a bruschetta as well. The food was amazing and hit the spot. I have never experienced a better hangover cure and we left Derry in high spirits after Brendan revisited the scene of last night’s crime to pick up his coat. We hit the road and I settled in for the long drive down to our next stop; Galway.

At the Derry show there’d been a moment in my set when I’d pronounced Galway wrong and it had caused a big laugh from the crowd. Brendan was still going on about it saying it was the worst thing he’d ever heard – it had apparently sounded like I’d said Gala. I was CONVINCED that I’d not said that and it was misheard. We played a bet of €5 with me saying that I’d said gALLway (the correct pronunciation) and Chris and Brendan saying no chance. We’ve been recording all the sets from the shows on tour so we figured we’d pull up the audio at a later date and for me to collect my winnings.

The drive to Galway was beautiful. We briefly touched on the Wild Atlantic Way, a road that stretches down the west coast of Ireland and the scenery was stunning. We pulled into a beach to stretch our legs and get some photos. We wrote #FollowTheGrandTour in the sand and soaked up the sheer beauty of it all before heading off on our way. We later stopped briefly for some pretty rough cheesy chips from a takeaway in a small town somewhere on the west coast and eventually pulled into Galway once night had fallen.

We met our AirBnb host who was the one on the tour with the strictest instructions; fair enough, this was the first time we were staying in someone’s actual home. The ad said we were staying in a ‘Non judgemental artist house’ which sounded cool. We were on our best behaviour though as we weren’t allowed to have a shower after 10pm, had to take off shoes at the bottom of the stairs and noise had to be kept to a minimum as the walls were paper thin and you were only allowed in the kitchen if you were staying for two or more nights. We unpacked and headed out to grab some late night food. One thing we’ve discovered on our tour thus far is that trying to get food after 9pm is very difficult – which is a pain for touring musicians.

We located a Chinese restaurant that was still serving a half mile walk away and headed over in that direction. On arrival in turns out it was only a takeaway – only realised after Chris walked straight into the office area asking for a table for three. We got our food. Headed back to the AirBnb and ate in the infamous kitchen. Our room consisted of a double bed and two bunk beds, one with no bedding on. I grabbed the double as I’d driven down and Brendan had packed a sleeping bag so took the mattress on the bottom bunk. Chris was laughing as it was a bit insensitive of me to be starfished out on a double bed while Brendan was curled up in a cold wet sleeping bag. The mental image of this made Chris laugh so hard he choked on his food. He suddenly stood up and started pacing saying that he just had to walk some indigestion off. Me and Brendan laughed originally but then Chris started panting. Panic set in for a split second before Chris went to the sink and chundered out the trapped food. Chris was fine, we all laughed and Chris went back to the table for a swig of water. SECONDS later our AirBnb host came in to say hello and wandered to the sink to fill up a glass. We were all sat at the table, unable to believe what was happening. Chris hadn’t cleaned up the sick yet. Our host lived up to her un-judgemental nature however – If the poor woman did see the pile of sick (and I don’t know how she wouldn’t have done) she did a very very good job of not letting on and proceeded to talk to us as normal while we were trying to hold in laughter. She left the room and we burst out laughing like  naughty schoolboys. She probably thought we were a bunch of dicks but it was so funny. It was perhaps a bit insensitive of us to laugh but the playing field was levelled the next morning when we Non judgementally heard her having rampant sex through the thin walls. 

The next day was spent exploring Galway. We hadn’t booked a show but wanted to see the famous music city anyway. Later that evening we went to a bar called Buskers which had been recommended by just about every Tinder match Brendan had acquired in a 15km radius of the city. The bar was super student-y but they had what me and Chris both agreed; The Greatest Covers band we’d every heard in our entire life playing in the corner. The band was called ‘The Superfreaks’ and were a three piece consisting of a Singing Guitarist, the greatest bassist in the world and the tightest drummer who looked like he couldn’t believe his luck in finding such a fantastic band. Maybe it was the Guinness we’d been drinking. But in that moment they were absolutely fabulous. In terms of what we saw of Galway itself; we didn’t see that much. The Main Street was cool as but there didn’t seem to be loads there. It was a fantastic music town and we did our best to see as much as we could, if we’d have had longer there it would have been cool to explore around it more, but hey ho. As is so often the way with touring. Things get in the way and before we knew it it was time to head to our next stop on the tour and next gig; Letterkenny.