Thursday September 24th
Woke up for a day of work thankfully at 9am. Got up and around to find out we had a school group coming at 10am. We worked for a bit before they got there and at 10am 17 schoolgirls came aboard. We split them in two and I was with on deck station with Amber showing them the upper deck as well as raising a staysail. They were all very excited to be on board, so it made the job really fun.
After them we opened up for tours did so the rest of the day until 5pm. During my idle position in the tour rotations I walked around and explored our neighborhood of Galway. I really liked the feel of it.
Today was Arthur Guinness day celebrating 250 years of Guinness Stout. All of Ireland was into the celebration and pubs everywhere were having toast and deals at 1759 (5:59pm). So I went with Frank, Christine, Caroline, and Bill to find a pint and celebrate.
We went to a bar down the street which turned out to be empty, because they were not participating, possibly the only bar in Galway not participating. So we walked to the nearby square, found a very old pub and put in our order.
Well, we stood there and stood there and he kept pouring Guinness after Guinness and handing them off to the locals and regulars that came in the door. So the moment came and went, us poor Americans with empty hands. A couple minutes later we got our order and Frank stood there for another full 10 minutes trying to pay the guy.
We decided he was trying to say the beers were on the house, finished our drinks and left. I went back to the ship a bit later and caught up with Mike and we ran into more of the crew. We went pub crawling and had a great night out on the town.
Friday September 25th
My first day off in Galway was great. I wandered more in the 
After dinner I went wandering and found some great live Irish folk music. Had a couple pints and went to bed early as I had watch the next day.
Saturday September 26th
Woke up at 7am and began my watch duties of boat checks and cleaning up the ship. I woke up people for work and had some breakfast. Today we are hosting the opening ceremony of the Galway Oyster festival. So we tidied up the ship and people began arriving to set up the ceremony.
I came up on deck as it was about to begin and found oysters and champagne by the dozens and dozens, a marching band outside the ship, and a brass band on our deck. A model T and a sweet convertible were parked outside and several of our crew were asked to dress up as pirates and Arthur Guinness. I had an Oyster straight from Galway bay harvested that morning. I can guarantee it was fresh as it was saturated with salt water. I am normally ambivalent towards oysters but that thing was terrible, but at least I can say I tried it.
They had their ceremony with the Mayor and a bunch of other important folks and left in a parade to the festival. The rest of the day we were finding champagne glasses stashed throughout the ship. We cleaned up and got ready for tours. I was asked to sell tickets first and got to our table in front of the ship to find a huge line. I took money for the rest of my rotation straight and was glad to see my math abilities had not faded too badly during my college years.
We worked until 6pm and then had dinner. Of course I end up on watch today of all days as this was the chosen night for the ship funded crew party before we do the big crossing and lose some of our crew. The festival left a bunch of champagne for us, which I could not drink, and the crew fund paid for a bunch of beer and cider which I stashed a couple of for the next night. So After dinner the crew put up the disco ball, started the music and had a great little party.
I participated some, but as I was tired and had other duties I was elsewhere. Besides that the bar next to the ship let us use their wireless internet so I was able to chat with Amelia some more after she got off work for the day. I stayed up past 1am and still the party was going. So, I herded them in the galley and set up my bunk.
I woke up at about 4am to a bunch of shouting and laughing. I hopped out of bed and found a group of 12 or so young Irish folk had of course crossed our lines and were trying to get in the ship. I shoed them off and went back to sleep. We are all less kind about tresspassers since a bunch of kids stole from the ship in Scotland while I was gone, trying to steal several safety items which does not make the crew happy.
I went back to sleep until the next morning when I was allowed to move my bunk from the tween deck to my cabin.
Sunday September 27th
I slept in until about 11am and then went to get some sushi for lunch. It was good, but nowhere near the caliber of sushi I am used to. The miso soup was good, but apparently it was Irish miso soup for it contained broccoli and cabbage. I was very satisfied with my last shore meal.
After that I went and saw a movie; and wandered more around the city. On my way back to the ship I ran into Bill, Frank, and Christine who bought me a pint at yet another neat old bar. I went back to the ship and got some great shepherd's pie. I hung around the ship for a bit and then went off with Adam and Sarah to find some Irish music and spend the last of our Euros.
We heard Kelly’s pub was having a Guinness special all weekend so we began the hunt for it. We wandered for quite a while, got many different directions including a “Galway man born and bred” who swore that the place did not exist. Eventually we did find the pub that doesn’t exist and had a pint, but just missed the music.
So we wandered back toward Quay Street, the main drag, and kept our ears open. We stumbled across some bar I still don’t know the 
name of and found a 5 piece Gaelic band that was playing up a storm. They were absolutely wonderful so we stayed there into the night and had a grand time. As it got late we went back to the ship and went to sleep knowing we would be up early to leave Europe.
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