It comes in Pints? Irish blog 2: my Master adventures on the Emerald isle

Yes, the title references Lord of the Rings. But, as you can see in this picture, the Guiness may come in pints...
...but the Irish certaintly don't stop there.

Shall we begin with Limerick? While there everything seemed strangely familiar. Recognizable. And I realized something. Ireland is just like America but with accents. I don't know if it just felt that way because I'm used to being surrounded by a much more different culture (though not too different) so Ireland felt Americanish by comparison? I think it had a lot to do with all the chain places, especially restaurants. Outside of pubs (which don't really serve "Irish food") Ireland kinda lacks a food culture especially in comparison with Italy. I was excited to see a grocery store called Spar, which was the exact same store as Despar here. I didn't really get to see much of Limerick becuase of my limited time in the country. Instead of focusing on the large city we travelled to Adare, a small town nearby, which was more indicative of "traditional" or stereotypical Ireland:a street in adare

a little stream that ran through the town

one of the thatched roof houses

Adare was just about the cutest thing I had ever seen. I think I've decided I'm going to live in Ireland... when I'm not living in Italy of course. When we reached Adare our tummies told us it was time for some lunch especially since the tourist office was closed for the same purpose. We wandered and searched, searched and wandered and decided on Aunty Lena's:

Irish cuisine doesn't provide very well for vegetarians so I ended up ordering spring rolls. (Weird, I know). I did, however order some "mash sans bangers" or otherwise known as mashed potatoes so I could get my potato on. Best part? I got them for free. What! Next stop, a Trinitarian Monastary:

Inside was a rather well done copy of the Pieta (see Rome blogs) as well as this:

which I affectionally nicknamed " the Jesus Stone" because:

Afterwards we kept up our wandering, hoping to access the Adare castle. We couldn't figure out how to get in or even how to get close! On the way out we did hit this little gem:

st nicholas church &

It was built in 1202 as a castle became an augustinian abbey/friaryand is now a church that is open to the public. Something which was very misleading, by the way. The only parts accessible were a little courtyard in the middle, the surrounding hallways and another little room that led to this modern building. Lame. It did have a cool small door though.

outside view

one of the halls/ a piece of the courtyard

another hall

me indside the courtyard where i found:

a super old grave i forget the exact age of

Continuing towards the bridge, we could see the castle sitting there, mocking us. I really wanted to visit a castle while in Ireland. Desperate for one more try we crossed the bridge, a very risky venture as there were no sidewalks and on side was coming from a blind curve. For about a quarter of the way across I walked on top of the bridge wall but was too afraid of falling in the river after the wall became clogged with plantlife.

the adare castle

Fortunately, we found the castle's entrance. Unfortunately... the castle is only open in the summer. I guess getting to a castle was just jam on my egg. No worries! We make our own fun! Next to the river was the "river bank walk" so we crossed back over the bridge and decided to take a dander, explore and get a hefty dose of wild Irish riverside. Despite the cloudy day (it had been sunny earlier) the weather was nice (not as nice as Italy though) and only the slightest bit chilly. We saw a man (of indeterminate age) fishing and another man playing with his dogs in the river, throwing bright balls into the water. We found a sign that indicated the river was called Maigue and had a lovely poem:

"Where guides the Maigue as silver clear

Among the elms so sweetly flowing

There fragrant in the early year

Wild roses on the banks are blowing."

me

me, megan, dan on the sweetly flowing maigue

The path took us back to lovely Adare. Earlier we had seen a sign pointing towards a creamery and we immediately thought ice cream! Or some sort of dairy farm. Either way, we wanted to go. The building was painted a vibrant purple that stood out against the gray sky but it did not sell ice cream. It used to be a dairy something or the other. Now it was an expensive shop that sold very interesting kinick knacks and the like, including this guy

or, rather, the cd he was quoting, some Irish comedian. We stood there and listened to him for several minutes. He was quite funny. The first thing upon entering the Creamery, we were greeted by a deer's head singing Garth Brook's "I've Got Friends in Low Places". How awesome is that?

After we had fully explored the shop and the interested members of our party had procured some fudge, we headed back into Adare. Checking bus times, we decided to head back home since dinner was approaching. And so I experienced my first Irish grocery store experience. Relatively similair to an American grocery store experience actually, with different product names. It was rather expensive. Food there definitely costs more than it does here. We finished out the evening with quesadillas (thanks Amanda!) and ice cream. (good ice cream but gelato outclasses it in its sleep.)

The next day was not nearly as exciting as the previous. It was a chill day and Dan and I went to lunch since we could eat a baby's arse through the bars of a cot. We sat outside and I did my best to absorb as much Irish accent as I could (I rather think I do quite well at it now) and breathe the Irish air. I had a "roasted toasted veg" sandwich that was really, really good, suprisingly. It had feta, an assortment of peppers, tomato and a few other vegetables. Being in Ireland I also got potatos, these amazing crispy chips that I highly enjoyed.

Not having time to do much else, I helped Dan and Meg plan their Italy trip (trying to find a way that they could hit Florence, more on that later) and watched Alladin on Youtube while finishing my ice cream.

All in all, Ireland rocked but I really wish I had had more time to spend there.

It was great to see Dan and Cait again. It felt like donkey's years since we'd last seen each other.

arent we cute

pictures curtesy of danielle hinckley and caitlin curry

i did my best to integrate irish slang. i hope a real irish person doesn't read this and make total fun of me