Ireland: Dingle

It's been a bit of a blur.  It's Sunday morning and for the first time since we arrived, we've got some downtime.  We've been in Dingle now for two and a half days.  Three nights, even if none of them seem to line up nicely.  There's been no jet lag, which I supposed is mostly due to us not letting it catch us.

But, it's been good.  We've seen friends we haven't seen in years.  We've met new people.  We've spent a lot of time tipping back a pint or three in pubs.  Last night, I even learned what this thing called Irish Football is.

We came for the wedding, and it was quite an event.  Maybe not necessarily in terms of it being some momentous occasion, instead it being a marathon.  Arriving around 3:15, we didn't leave for a full twelve hours later.  The ceremony was highly personal and succinct.  While the wedding party fought the wind outside, we passed the time with a bottle of champagne.  Dinner was punctuated with speeches that ran the gammut from a father's tale to the emotional story of a mother no longer with us to a unprepared train wreck from a sister and finishing with a nervous brother rushing to be done.  A live band followed, who while focused on 50's rock, seemed more interested in talk.  We were pleasantly surprised by a local five some of grade school girls performing traditional irish dance.  And mind you, this was happening at 11pm, well past their bed time.  Oh, because the band wasn't enough, the DJ then came and we all pogo'd to our favorite 80's anthems.  But that was not to be it as we finally enjoyed our fellow Irish friends singing some of their favorite folk songs as we had a last pint in the lounge.



I shouldn't forget that before heading off to the wedding, we made a quick journey down to the Dingle Brewing Co.  The makers of a fine lager called Tom Crean's, it was a small but charming spot that opted for the self guided tour rather than something formal.  I got my kicks chatting up the brewer as he was brewing, learning about the size of the system (8 barrel), their fermentation time and use of conditioning tanks.  We also got a kick out of the lady working the bar being from Kansas City.  It was also here that Alex freaked us all out by storming out of the bathroom asking, quite seriously, where the hospital was.  Stunned, none of us could blurt out a response quick enough to interrupt his flow.  Thankfully, he quickly explained that the car rental agency was there ready to switch out the rental he blew his clutch out on.

Saturday, after finally rolling out of bed around 10am, was a lazy afair.  I grappled with the tight, twisty roads in and outside of Dingle while trying to get in a nice four mile run.  I managed to almost get run over, freak drivers out by basically running in the road and hoof it up several hills.  So much for a liesurely run.  As we'll discuss later, I don't think the Irish believe in shoulders, with the roads butting right up to whatever happened to be in place before the road came along, whether that be brush, trees, rocks or whatever.  Want to run?  Go at your own risk.

So, we wondered about Dingle with the rest of the tourists before meeting everyone back at O'Flaherty's pub.  Euge wanted a place for everyone to mingle again and a place where he could watch his beloved Gaelic Football.  A strange cross between soccer, rugby and american football, it was surprisingly entertaining and after some basic explanation, fairly easy to follow.  We finished the night with large wrapped kebabs in our hands from Lily's, a restaurant purporting to serve fine local food, but really seemed to be a nice kebab shop.




And that brings us back to morning of departure.  Alex drove back to Shannon last night to catch an early flight, Dean left early this morning to do the same.  Kevin drove out shortly there after back to Dublin for a long return to LA.  We'll grab a bite to eat with Greg and Jess before they drive down to Cork where Jess returns to the states and Greg back to London for a bit.  And with that, it's just Ann and I just starting our journey through Ireland and Scotland.  It's been a few years since the two of us have had a journey through a foreign land.  We're going a little more spontaneous this time with only a handful of things to do and see and even leaving one night without a hotel booked!  Oh my, the chances we take!

And so we bid farewell to this fine house we've rented.  It's really a nice spot, with a lovely view of the harbor out of our bedroom window.  It was perfect as a home base with comfortable spots for the whole crew.  I wonder when the next time we'll all be back together.  Only Kevin is single, and another marriage doesn't seem to be on the horizon.  I guess it'll have to be someone taking the initiative and pulling everyone together.  It'll take an awfully strong magnet to pull everyone from so many far away spots, but I think we can pull it together.