#10 Canterbury Road

If you Seamus, do we not blush?

So, one of my best friends from California came to visit last week (Nicole and her flatmate kept us out late a few times). He came with Jen and me to Ireland, the first visit for all of us. We arrived on St. Patrick's Day, which was actually quite subdued in the little village of Knock, where we stayed. The big site there is a shrine where an apparition of the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, and St. John the Baptist was seen in the 1880's. I managed to resist the tacky tourist shops, although the glow in the dark Virgin was almost too cool to resist at €7. Thankfully we rented a car, so we were able to get out of the village and see quite a lot of beautiful country. And I finally got to drive on the left. I think I did pretty well since I'm so used to riding buses on that side, although shifting with the left hand took some adjustment. Thankfully the shift and petals are in the same position as in the States. Driving the 100kph speed limit on windy country roads 'worried' my companions, but I figure the people who posted the signs knew what they were doing. We all made it in one piece, although we got stuck in the mud on a cow path, and our little Toyota Yaris (which we named Finnegan) misplaced one of its hubcaps. It was well fun, and we got our money's worth out of that car.

We stopped off in Galway at one point and visited an inviting pub. I sat at the bar next to a wild-gray-haired gentleman in a tweed jacket, who looked rather academic drinking his pint of Smithwick's (logically enough, pronounced 'Smethux', with -th as is 'lather'). He was writing some gibberish on his napkin about frogs farting out of their blunt heads or something. We started talking about Beowulf, of all things, and I commented on how wretchedly uninteresting it was, and what a collossal waste of time it is for people to continue translating it and forcing undergraduates to write essays on it. The Michael Crichton knock-off was sooo much better. The chap looked rather crossly at me, downed his pint and left, muttering some nonesense like 'the Nobel committee didn't think so'. What a weirdo.

Highlights of the trip were absolutely perfect weather (exceedingly rare for northwest Ireland, I am told), green as far as the eye could see, having to wait in the car at a sheep crossing, eating wine and cheese on the coast (not very Irish, I know, but lovely), and breathing fresh air that smelled like something other than bus fumes. I highly recommend it, and I intend to go back before too long. Definately one of the two or three most beautiful places I've ever been. Cheers!

posted by Zack @ 3/23/2005 02:26:00 PM