Our three-day weekend has flown by. I'm hoping we've allowed sufficient time and space for rest considering next week's ambitious agenda. Unlike at home where I'm content to do an hour or two of a thing here and there, when I'm on the road I feel like I have to take advantage of all the things I could be doing here that I absolutely cannot do at home. The unfortunate consequence to this line of thought is that I often miss those moments of quiet that would probably make the travel and adventure even more enjoyable.
Day 5
Friday started off slowly with a lovely breakfast made by Tim. We're fortunate to have such a bounty of gorgeous food and ingredients available just down the street. Lotts & Co. is a particular temptation. Just this morning I brought home two sausage rolls, a pain au chocolate, and a pistachio croissant not because I was particularly hungry, but because they were available and I desired them. Once we finished up breakfast, we ventured out to the city center to find where our Rural Pub Tour was picking up and to grab a little lunch before our afternoon/evening of drinking. Unsurprisingly, the tour was comprised entirely of Americans, which could have been terrible, but wasn't. Everyone was in good spirits and we had a jovial tour guide who kept us entertained between watering holes. The prospect of being drunk on a 16 person bus doesn't hold much allure for me, so I only had one drink at each stop (including a couple cups of tea), but quickly several passengers were well into their cups. By the end of the tour some people had to be helped off the van. I'm guessing their Saturday mornings were rough.
 |
| Third stop: Tochar House. We were taunted by a 10-year old boy here who commented, "It's a bit early, isn't it?" I replied, "You're just jealous you're not old enough to buy a drink yet." |
 |
| Fourth stop: The Glenmalure Lodge. We had a delicious dinner here and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. |
Sixth stop (no photos): The real highlight of the evening, however, was at our last spot, The Harbour, in Bray. This was the largest and most crowed stop of the night. The pub is wide and ranging with lots of rooms with various kinds of decor--from your granny's living room to a traditional pub to a night club with live performers. In Tim's words, it was "butts to nuts" busy--not a place to sit or even stand really. We ended up upstairs in sort of a bohemian space that was dimly lit. Standing near a rail at the top of a flight of stairs, we looked around and commented that spaces like this don't really exist in the U.S. We had no idea how anyone would get out if the place caught on fire--no sprinklers and few exits. Then, a woman walks in the room and almost as if on cue shouts, "Your coat is on fire!" And it was. Squeezed as I was up against this railing the back of my coat was, unbeknownst to me, hovering over a very low table with a candle on it. Tim and Peyton sprang into action and beat out the flame (burning themselves in the process). We were all in shock. When a server wandered over to observe the commotion, she told me that I was standing above a table that typically has stools around it and that I should expect candles to be there. I will tell you that in all honesty this table was no more than two feet off the floor. There was not another lit candle to be seen. Rotten luck. Later, I imagine the unsympathetic server must have informed the manager that an American tourist nearly went up in flames. Chatting with the manager I was told that they were sorry, but I should have anticipated a candle. They offered to pay for a new coat. Meanwhile, Tim and Peyton's burn blisters were bubbling away and I got a story in the process. All of us realized how quickly this could have gotten out of hand if not for that woman shouting at me about the flames. We've been joking about how my coat might be the best souvenir of the trip.
Day 6
Saturday started out with lots of anticipation for our agenda--gin school at Pearse Lyons and Irish Drag Fest. Also, we were going to treat ourselves to the carvery at O'Neill's. After a quick breakfast of pastries from Lott's & Co. we headed out towards the City Centre. During previous trips, O'Neill's has always been a highlight--in fact their carvery ranks with one of the things Peyton loves most in the world. Sadly, it looks like they didn't do well during the pandemic. The carvery is gone, as is breakfast. What remains is sort of a touristy sandwich shop, and not a very good one. While eating our sad lunches, I got a phone call from Pearse Lyons that our class was canceled because of a burst water pipe. So, Tim decided to arrange for a different gin glass from Stillgarden Gin and Peyton and figured we'd just see more of Drag Fest--we had planned on missing some of it for the gin class, but now we'd just spend more time there. Doors opened to general ticket holders at 4:00, but we had VIP tickets and could enter early (at 3:00) and our tickets also included meet and greets with the queens. There was no schedule to be found, but we imagined that such an early entry meant that maybe we would meet/greet with queens before the show started. But that's not what happened. Instead, we sat for roughly an hour and a half when the MC came on stage and said the first meet/greet would start soon. We now know that soon means an hour. In the meantime, a queen (Gothy Kendoll) came on stage to DJ and a few dancers entertained us for a while. Finally, around 5:30 the first meet/greet started and we got in line to meet Cheddar Gorgeous and Jasmine Kennedie. We had a great short chat with them, got a few photos, and headed back into the theater. A few local queens performed at then shortly before 7:00 the MC said that was the end of the first session of queens and that he next session would be starting soon. Which meant an hour. At this point we'd already been there about 4 hours and the dry ice smoke was bothering Peyton's eyes, so we decided to pack it in and head back to our apartment. We were sad not to see the bigger named queens, but it was still great to go.
 |
| We watched this slide on stage for a long time! |
Back at our apartment we ordered in Thai food and Peyton figured out how to stream the season finale of Yellowjackets. Tim rolled in around 10:30 with stories of gin distillation and for the first time in a few nights, we were in bed by 11:00.
Day 7
I suppose we shouldn't at all be surprised that we all have colds now--not only have we been burning the candle at both ends, but we've been packed into buses, pubs, and everything in between for a week solid. This did not stop us from going to a hurling and Gaelic football match, however. Peyton managed to buy us tickets and we made our way to
Croke Park with no trouble. While both games were exciting, we agreed that hurling was the most fun to watch.
 |
| Walking to Croke Park. |
 |
The game, between Dublin and Galway, ended in a tie (with much grumbling from the crowd).
After watching the games, we made our way home, collapsed on the couch, ordered Indian, and watched TV. We have another busy week in front of us and my cousin Clara arrives tomorrow!
 | | Home, for now. |
 | Gorgeous kitten we saw on the way.
|
|
Comments
Post a Comment