Sunday was an insaaane day for us. We started the day off by offically adjusting to the time zone difference, and waking up at 6am and starting off for a cross country road trip...which only took 3 hours, hah! We started off by buying a Irish breakfast which is basically meats and potatoes (what 
could be better!?) and grabbing snacks for the road including; Cadbury chocolates, Carpe Diem water, and cheese & onion chips (the only variety they really sell out there). Along the N7, which is the route from Dublin to Limerick, we saw random castles, beautiful old villages, and cows; alot of cows. It was here that I first drove on the left side of the road--strange, but not by any means difficult...even the rotaries.
Our first destination was the scenic drive through the karst landscape in Northwest County Clare 
called The Burren. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, especially the sea cliffs. We saw the ancient portal tomb called Poulnabrone Dolmen and the Cliffs of Moher, which many of you probably know as the "Cliffs of Insanity" from the 1987 film The Princess Bride! We frolicked around random, beautiful scenic places, especially by the ocean, and even an old abandoned church and cemetary in the middle of nowhere. The craziest 
thing I think I saw (call me an architecture nerd, I don't care) was the thatching! Old and new houses alike both examplified the craft of covering a roof with vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge, rushes and heather. It's probably the oldest roofing material and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates throughout the world, yet it's something I've never authentically found before in the US. I got excited, sorry!
So our next adventure was meeting up for dinner at Bunratty Castle with Sean's 
old friend from Limerick, Richie. They met through Scouts, years back and have kept in touch. We caught a beer real quick before the dinner, and I proved then that my drinking skills were up to par with my Irish genes. Richie was awesome, and he actually works in the castle, which made it easier and fun for us to explore and enjoy the dinner & show. They served traditional Irish stew, jugs of wine, and 
mead. The servers taught us Irish songs, traditions, stories, played music, and even taught some of the audience members (aka: Sean) how do step dance on stage. I even got a slap on the ass from a 90+ year old Irish woman in the bathroom for no reason, just for fun. What the hell? I love it!
Richie gave us a personal tour of the castle, which was AWESOME, I think my jaw was dropped the 
whole entire time. From here, we drove to Richie's friend's apartment in Limerick, where we pre-gamed with a group of fabulous students from the University of Limerick, mostly Irish, and a couple international students from Poland. These people, plus a lot of booze, created for a very interesting series of 
events and conversation. We all eventually walked to a club, where the dancing was very light-hearted and poppy--definately different than a typical dance club in the States. We had a blast here, shared a lot of laughs and shots, even though Sean started to drift into an upright slumber. We decided that was a sign to head back to the Hayes' home and get him to bed.
However, by the time we got back to Richie's house, his mom had been waiting up for us, and she made us tea and cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches...what a doll! We stayed up, despite Seans drunken claims that he was "in bad shape", captivated in a cross cultural conversation for awhile, then finally went to sleep at an insane hour.
I think I'll have to declare this to be one of the best days of my life.
Posted by: Sean | October 05, 2006 at 08:26 PM