As for Friday...
We woke up later today, as our bodies finally realized that you know, rest would be nice for once and we decided to head to Kilarney.
So, we got out, made a right turn onto the main road and hit a wall of traffic. Then, because I was bored (which happens far more often than it should), I did some math in my head. The current time was 11AM, we had to be back at the apartment by 5PM or so, it takes 2 hours to get there and 2 hours to return. Not being a math genius, even I was able to figure out we had all of 2 hours to spend there.
A U-Turn was quickly made and I decided to head north towards a town called Ennis, which was A) Easy to get to and B) 20 minutes away.
Ennis was cool. Yeah, I know that's deep, but it was. It was a town with centre (unlike every single town in NJ) and plenty of little stores to wander in and out of. Which is basically what we did. Hey, it's been a busy week, we're tired, so we decided to slack off a bit. We hit a pub for lunch there and yet another bookstore.
When I travel to different countries, there are 2 things I like to buy:
- Music - That you can't find anywhere else
- Books - That you can't find anywhere else
After lunch, and wandering around for a few hours, we headed south to Bunratty Castle, which we found literally on the side of the highway on the way to Ennis and seemed like someplace we should stop on the way back. (Correction, we actually found it heading from the airport into Limerick, then again on Monday when we headed north, but I have really short term memory, so technically, I discovered it today)
Sidebar: In an effort to make this blog all educational, here are wikipedia links to many of the attractions we have seen this week:
- Bunratty Castle
- Blarney Castle
- Cliffs of Moher
- The Book of Kells
- The Burren
- Trinity College
- Dublin
- Cork
- Limerick
- Galway
Bunratty Castle, was, oddly, far better than I expected. When one sees a touristy castle on the side of a highway, one doesn't expect much. However, this castle came with a bonus mini village to check out and explore. Think of it as a mini colonial Williamsburg without the colonial part and containing a castle. It was well worth the trip (ok, sure, the trip was all of 15 minutes, but that's besides the point).
We made it back to the apartment, and Bernd returned from Geneva. As we pondered upon what to do for dinner. I realized it was Friday, which currently, is Chinese food night for me since the college I teach at is right near Chinatown in NY and I usually grab dinner there before class. The urge for Friday night Chinese food entered my mind...
Oddly, the others went for it. So we walked into the heart of Limerick and had Chinese food.
Not only that, but I had some of the best Shrimp Fried Rice ever.
In Ireland.
Let's summarize here, to have some of the best Chinese food I have ever had, I had to travel over 3000 miles to Ireland which, oddly (now), is not known for it's fine Chinese food.
This is how my life works, much like the first paragraph where I'll forget where good friends live.
Dinner was great, and the walk back helped to get me awake enough to write this blog that you currently are reading (and have not fallen asleep on - if you haven't fallen asleep yet, thank you for reading this far...)
Tomorrow? Hypothetically, back to Galway for a meal with an old friend...
