Ireland, part 4

Saturday, Sept. 27th. My mom and I went to the Waterford crystal factory, but Aunt Lynne and Meghan weren’t interested, so they stayed home. The factory was pretty cool – it’s almost like an art gallery, with all the incredible pieces they have on display. And it was neat seeing how they actually make the crystal.

On the way to Waterford, we stopped for gas, and couldn’t get the gas cap off. We’d only stopped for gas once before (the car was diesel, and fantastic on gas mileage), and the station attendant had done it for us. This time, an elderly gentleman who was pumping his gas next to us came over to help us, and he got the cap off, but Mom had broken it in her struggle. Then, another guy came over and offered to pump our gas for us if we’d let him sit in the car. Apparently, the Jag made quite an impression, lol. My mom was like, “You can sit there as long as you want if you can get that gas cap back on.” I said we should’ve told him he could drive us around in it if he wanted to – we could’ve had our own chauffeur!

After Waterford, we came back and took a drive around the ring, checking out the cliffs and everything. The views are absolutely gorgeous. Also, that’s when we saw the cows crossing the road! We were so excited! A real cow crossing! My mom stopped the car, and she and I were leaning out the window taking pictures of them as they crossed the road. We’re so easily amused.

Anyway, we went to Mass on Saturday night at a church near Mooney’s, and the service turned out to be all in Gaelic, so we didn’t understand a word of it, which was fun. After that, we went to the Seanachai (pronounced shanakey) for dinner, which was another place Mary had recommended. Hilariously, we spotted at least six people from Shane’s birthday, and when we asked the waitress if they had music tonight, she said, “Usually we do, but tonight it’s a DJ because we have a 21st birthday party.” LOL!

Not wanting to be known as the Americans who traveled from pub to pub crashing birthday parties, we went back to the Marine Bar for music, and cute guitar guy was there again. So I dragged Meghan over to talk to him, and I asked if he was playing again tonight, which he was. His name was Owen (and he turned out to be the owner’s son), and he introduced us to his friends, Liam and Grace. We talked to them while the music was going on, and Grace seemed to take quite a liking to us. She bought us a round of shots (which were bright green), and then Owen bought a second round (of something bright yellow) when he was done playing. At the end of the night, Liam’s mother came to pick them up, and Grace offered us a ride home with them. Holy crap! I thought it was scary going down those little roads before, try doing it at 80 mph in the pitch dark! At least Mae Rose knew where she was going and how to drive on the left, which was a step above the rest of us. Definitely the best night of the trip.

Sunday, Sept. 28th. Sadly, we left Mary’s house for the last time, driving up to Kilkenney, where we stayed in another B&B on the way to Dublin. Kilkenney was another cute town (as all of them are) with another castle and more churches. We split up for a bit, since Meg wanted to see the churches and my mom and I wanted to shop, but we ended up running into each other anyway. We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner (Aunt Lynne wanted pizza, lol), and then stopped at a cute café for desserts, but we were too tired to hit the pubs after two late nights in a row and lots of walking.